Invasions and Ice Cream

by Thrashing-Light

Loki had an invasion to prevent and two worlds to convince. Which is why he enlisted the help of an old friend of his, a certain stoic Demon Lord. Thanos and his Armada will come, and Loki and Sesshomaru will fight them. They just will also partake in ice cream, and two Avengers along the way. Just maybe they will all survive. AU Set after 1st Avengers movie: Sess/Tony, Loki/Clint.

42. Tony and the Second Chance

Tony and the Second Chance

*(*

Tony's chest collapsed in on itself like a supernova ripe to explode. His insides had cramped up and now edged to make a mess across the destroyed scepter room.

Blood. God there was so much of it. It was all around her. It stuck like jam on her skin, clumped in her hair, slicked like gel the metal floor around her.

Under his touch, Pepper's skin still felt vaguely warm, but clammy. But her glassy eyes just stared blankly unfocused into space. She didn't see him. She didn't even have a pulse.

Pepper was dead.

His mind ran through all the calculations, every permutation of what he could have done differently to prevent this: moved the scepter, moved Pepper, told Happy to take a day off. He could have stayed behind in his tower and let Steve play SuperPatriot in DC. Upgrade his suit's defenses. Tony could have avoided getting hit out of the sky by that Chitauri blast and rendered his left leg half operational.

He could've should've, prevented all of this.

It was all on him. The battle and the entire defense of the planet was his responsibility. He was the one who had the most to lose, and he…

He damn near lost it all.

Murphy 's Law: everything that could go wrong, did.

He gripped her shoulder like overboard sailor gripped an anchor line. Everything but Pepper had greyed out around him. His world constricted him as a cramping, dark, sticky, moist, and cold vice grip.

"Pepper…Pepper…" He murmured, but it came out more as a dry rasp, really. It was if his body just couldn't cry when it really counted. Inside though, inside he was a sodden dark swamp, weeping open at every capillary. Tony Stark was breaking wide open.

Rhodey. Happy.

He had thought that Clint had pulled a massive prick move, an unforgivable betrayal of leaving Rhodey behind when he needed help.

But, it had been the right call. Clint had made all the right calls that day, and now he lay dead in his scepter room.

And he had a feeling this would all come crashing down on his head too. This was his fault.

---

**Approximately one hour and forty minutes ago **

'Rhodey, Rhodey, Rhodey. RHODEY!' Tony's adrenaline had long ago rinsed itself from his system.

He couldn't clock his thoughts. Everything had splintered and burst apart like the shrapnel buried deep in his chest.

The battle had been doomed from the start when that breathtaking Fire Angel came out of the Aethon and torched the entire northern half of the National Mall into something out of Apocalypse Now.

Loki's fiery ex-girlfriend challenged Loki to a death duel where she stacked the deck in her favor. Tony knew from the fight Loki struggled with Hakudoshi earlier in Shanghai. He knew that he didn't stand a chance to beat her.

But he choked up on the bat and swung even though he knew he'd strike out.

And yet, Loki won. He somehow killed her.

But it cost him everything.

Suzuka the Phoenix Demoness incinerated Sesshomaru's sworn older brother, and no one lifted a finger to help him, save Clint.

Loki had warned them it would be bad. He warned them that there would be funerals. He asked if they were ready. They said yes.

They lied to Loki, not the other way around.

Tony made it a point not to listen to Bambi. Horns lied daily and loved it. On top of that, he was theatrically overly dramatic which always seemed to drag Sesshomaru into some sort of mood. Tony had believed Loki was a full-tilt liability for all his scheming.

Loki said he brought Sesshomaru into this shitstorm to lead their strategy in case he couldn't. It didn't really track in Tony's mind that Sesshomaru would actually have to take point. Though, Loki had grit his teeth and swore that Thanos didn't play for a mere win, but for a complete and total massacre.

DC was a complete massacre.

Loki didn't deserve that, he didn't deserve to die the excruciating death he did: crumpling to the ground like a charred log in a campfire. Thor deadened like a zombie, and Clint flew rage like something out of a superhero movie and killed a Leviathan with one arrow. Tony had even seen Steve's crestfallen reaction to Loki dying.

Loki mattered to the other Avengers too. He was one of them, and somehow along the way that just began to mean more than his underhanded ploys. Maybe it meant he mattered more to them because despite his ploys, he still could be counted on to give it all when no one else could.

But Loki wasn't the only Avenger to die brutally.

But standing over the smoldering headless remains of his best friend, Tony realized that many around him were dying in similar ways, ones he didn't know the names of and likely never would.

DC was ablaze, the Capitol lay in ruin and he had no idea how many had died in the inferno that incinerated the National Mall. Tony had watched helplessly as countless F-22s flat spun out of the sky to explode on ground thanks to the Chitauri.

War, what was it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Tony's nerves crackled and fizzled like their coms had during the fight. He couldn't figure out why they had coms blackout when he had put that honey pot in place to trace and reverse the hack back onto any hackers who tried to meddle with the satellites.

Tony threw up straight stomach acid.

Jaken had been killed as well, and that lodged an ice ball deep in Tony's gut. Jaken had grown on Tony

They promised Sesshomaru he'd be well protected, but they failed. Tony swallowed down the bitter sour spit that lingered in his mouth.

Jaken and Loki had both given their all on the first big battle. Even after falling, Loki gave his life to dissolve the Aethon with a giant magic tree so it wouldn't crash over all of D.C. Jaken got tied up and cut down saving Reagan International Airport, and who knows how many suburbs that weren't fully evacuated from the Aethon's primary pulse cannon.

Rhodey. RHODEY. RHODEY!

Tony had thought Clint was 170% full of shit when he called in the KIA and that he couldn't help. He was a former SHIELD agent; they had received all the necessary field medical training that Rhodey could have needed. War Machine was one of his most durable, robust models he had ever produced. Tony believed full-heartedly that Clint ditched Rhodey cold in order to save Loki.

But no. There was no resuscitating anyone who didn't have a head.

He wasn't ready for Rhodey's funeral.

Tony knew his thoughts were skipping like a bad vinyl record, but he had to keep thinking of everything besides what was really making him panic.

Tony had a mission to accomplish, and he couldn't do it with his damaged left leg. Every bone iced over freezing cold. Each tendon in his body clenched taut at the mere NOTION of taking War Machine's propulsion unit off Rhodey. The word 'sacrilege' clattered in his mind. Not that he was all that religious…but Rhodey would forgive him. Tony held his breath as he grappled with the idea of dismantling the left leg of War Machine's suit from his best friend's still cooling body.

This is what war was really like.

He had manufactured weapons for every kind of battle-space. Tony was no stranger to a firefight. The cave, the car battery rigged to his chest. Was this was Loki had Thor had fought through for millennia? Sesshomaru had fought them since before he was seventeen. They didn't have modern tech back then, but it had to be similar. Natasha and Clint had fought in battle-spaces together. They wouldn't shut up about Budapest, Kinshasa, and Tashkent. Even Bruce had been a war doctor in the Kashmir region. Was he, Tony 'Genius' Stark, the only one who had never endured real warfare?

Jaken had called him a blacksmith, someone who knew and made weapons for war, but Jaken didn't call him a soldier, or a general.

Like Rhodes was. No. Rhodes would do what had to be done.

He was the one who wasn't ready. He was the soft one, the weak link.

Tony steeled himself, bent down, and began to dismantle the propulsion unit of the left leg off War Machine. He had to fix his suit so he could back to his tower and defend who was left.

He would lead the defense even if he did it alone. He just had to fight minute by minute, and not think about Rhodey, and definitely not think about what had happened in Norfolk.

Tony hadn't allowed himself to think about Natasha's frantic, broken up communications.

Icy fingers gripped his throat closed when Nat described how Sesshomaru had flung himself down at two friendly fire SeaSparrow missiles with just his whip and his youki. When Tony had heard the news, his stomach sunk and his mouth dried out! Tony himself wouldn't have an easy job taking those out without taking any damage, and he had a suit of armor crafted to withstand a payload similar to that.

Tony knew how easily Sesshoamaru's skin could blister and burn.

Tony's heart rocked down to his gut when she told him that he just freefell, slapping the deck of a cruiser, unmoving.

He had thought that could have been it. His youki had been too low for him to strongly sense his in arc reactor. Maybe the residual pull wasn't his life force at all. Maybe that thin thread of youki that pulled him in the direction of Norfolk had been a mistake.

Then Nat had told him how he sacrificed himself when the SAM defenses in the Quinjet malfunctioned. Sesshomaru again had flung himself in between the Quinjet and the SeaSparrow Surface to Air Missile with nothing but his depleted youki in between him and the explosive power to destroy a Boeing 787 jetliner.

That was when he asked the obvious question, how missiles used by the US Navy's Arleigh Burke Destroyers had targeted missile lock on her Quinjet in the first place.

Nat told him that she wasn't completely certain, but she had seen one of the Destroyers get struck by one of the magic projectiles from from the Nycteus. It was then that Destroyer began to glow purple, and launched its torpedoes and missiles on friendlies. The Nycteus' magic could turn their own ships against them.

Tony had then keenly realized how Sesshomaru and Loki would stop at nothing to achieve victory, and protect the other Avengers. They both held nothing back, the left nothing in the tank.

That's one more reason they had become such strong friends over the years. They laid it all on the line each time, and didn't care about what it would cost them. Maybe it's what attracted them together; he did the same with the nuclear warhead three years ago.

He knew that Sesshomaru wouldn't die here leaving him alone to fix everything. Sesshomaru vowed to kill Thanos in a duel, and Tony knew that's exactly what would happen.

But the fact still remained: He couldn't feel Sesshomaru's youki after he freefell into the ocean. He still hadn't surfaced for thirty six minutes, seven seconds and counting.

The left leg of War Machine finally meshing and fitting together to his suit perfectly, yet the steel grey and dark cobalt clashed with his gold and red suit.

It was time for Tony Stark to kill it, and get back to his Tower.

---

**present time**

Everything and everyone in the scepter room registered unhealthily as static in Tony's mind. Yeah, he knew there were other dead people in the room. Some nameless, Rogue SHIELD-Hydra agents, Evil Smurfette, a random middle aged woman dressed like she was attending the Met Gala, Coulson, Clint…yeah ok it was a goddamn horror scene.

He was vaguely aware that Fury had made it back to New York as well, but he didn't give a rat's ass what Fury was up to as long as he didn't try to storm his tower. Jarvis' systems were on their last circuit from defending Thor's onslaught and wouldn't be able to fend off Fury.

Tony hadn't watched the security camera footage due to that it had been corrupted. If Tony were to glean anything from it, it would take hours to rake anything usable from it. Good thing he didn't have to because it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce what happened here.

The Hydra SHIELD agents along with Evil Smurfette had tried to steal the scepter, while Thor and Clint tried to stop them. The youki defenses wore down, maybe due to Hydra, Thor's lightning, or now that he thought about it, Clint's new magic. Then a fight ensued, and arguably the strongest Avenger, Thor, must have gotten the scepter.

Thor then, under the influence of the scepter, killed Clint and most of the others in here, except Pepper and Happy, who looked like they were shot close range. Tony spotted a few hand guns strewn about, and the charred remains of a large weapon, but it had been reduced to mostly scraps due to lightning.

Coulson also hadn't been killed by Thor; he had a brilliant violet arrow stuck through his chest like something out of a Lord of the Rings film.

It shouldn't have made Tony feel any better that it wasn't Thor who killed Pepper and Happy, but it did. If it was Thor who killed Pepper, and they managed to get Thor back on their side, he wasn't sure if he could forgive Thor. Tony wasn't perfect, he held grudges, even when they shouldn't be held.

He had a feeling Sesshomaru did too.

In Tony's wildest night terrors, he never predicted this happening…but Sesshomaru had scryed something very similar.

"Stark…?" A hesitant voice murmured around a pile of wreckage. He knew that voice.

Rin.

Oh god, he was such a shit-heel. He had completely forgotten Rin was here. He really was such a selfish prick. She wasn't supposed to be on this level, to his credit. But, he had completely forgotten he was even in the tower.

How was he supposed to head Earth's defense if he couldn't even remember his stepdaughter was here?!

Jaken. Oh god. He had to tell her. Polly. The ice cream girl. FUCK. Was she alive?!

"Rin, are you hurt? Come here." Tony's chest began to rattle like an aerosol can. He couldn't take this. He leaned perilously over the brink. He didn't know what to do. He was such a fuckup.

He whipped around to see Rin standing there dirty, bloody and bruised, but Ok. Tony closed his eyes thanking any deity that she was alright.

"Rin, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I should have checked for you." Tony nearly jumped out of his skin when Rin touched him on the cheek. Actually, he may have jumped for real because Rin calmly took a step back.

Tony swallowed. He had to become the bigger person, the adult, and comfort the eight year old.

"Stark, it's ok. Rin is very good at hiding and fighting, and others like Pepper, Barton, and Pollydoshi made sure Rin was safe." Rin circled her little arms around him and his piece-meal suit. Her tangled hair tickled his nose as he sniffed. Ok maybe he was finally crying….wait.

She was the one comforting him? No this was…all backwards. He couldn't accept this. He leaned back to stand up. Tony Stark had to be the calm one here. He had to be the strong one. He could be.

"Sesshomaru's alive, I feel him coming back. But Jaken…Jaken he didn't make it." Tony blurted out, still completely disoriented. He even had trouble focusing on her, assessing her to see if she was really ok.

"Of course Lord Sesshomaru is ok, he always comes back. Master Jaken…he helped right? He saved people, right?" Rin sniffled and Tony nodded.

"Yeah, he saved everyone in DC. He was a real hero. I'm sorry Rin. We vowed to protect him and we didn't." Tony confessed limply, and Rin leaned back, eyes wet.

"Stark, it is not a human's job to protect a Demon, but you all tried anyway. Jaken would be proud to have died in battle protecting you. Jaken protected you all not just because it is what Lord Sesshomaru asked of him, but also because he liked you. He told me before the battle that his mind changed about 'the blacksmith' and some of our other friends. Jaken liked you all. Lord Sesshomaru understands death." Rin managed a weak smile.

This was the sort of stuff that kids said to make them all sage-like.

Tony thought about it, did he have it wrong? Would Sesshomaru blame him for failing Jaken, or did Sesshomaru not really expect them to prevent what may have been inevitable? He was about to respond when he saw exactly what, or rather who Rin was pointing at.

Out from the rubble staggered a positively battered Polly.

"Pollydoshi, you're up!" Rin scrambled towards Polly who looked more dead than alive.

"Oh damn, you need a hospital. No, you a med-evac." Tony lit up the com to call a medic immediately for the battered girl standing in front of him. He had no idea how Polly was still standing when most of her skin was a huge bruise. She was bleeding from the side of her head, her left arm was certainly broken…oh god the bone was protruding from the skin. Her right leg was covered in bubbling blisters and welts from some sort of burn. She was leaning on some debris, chest heaving for air.

"Stay your witch doctors and human healers, you pitiful, weeping wretch. My Hanyou healing abilities will heal this feeble human body soon enough." Polly sneered in disgust, wrinkling her broken nose, which had to hurt.

Her dark eyes speared into Tony with a predatory intent and a chill went down his spine. This reminded him of the first time he first met Sesshomaru.

But, just what the fuck did she say to him?

"These humans were his FRIENDS Pollydoshi! Polly's friends and my friends too! I know you must know what that feels like, like with Kanna." Rin snapped back at Polly. Since when did Rin ever snap at people?

…wait a New York Second. Tony's mind finally caught up from the day. Logic began to weave its way back into his sanity.

Hakudoshi was a Demon spirit. Polly was just a teenager.

"You son of a bitch. You possessed our Inked out Ice Cream girl. You first tried to kill Loki and now you tricked a totally innocent girl." Tony stammered, trying to stand up. When he joked around with séances and possessions with Sesshomaru before, he had just been joking. Well, ok, not just joking, but he didn't think a Demonic Possession would really happen.

Polly…Haku….Pollydoshi cackled which reminded him of Loki which sank his stomach.

"One must do what one must to survive. Although I'm not above such underhanded means, I didn't trick this girl. We made a bargain." Pollydoshi smirked haughtily, also reminding him of Loki. He wondered if that is why he almost killed him. Maybe they were too much alike.

"A bargain? Yeah, she sure looks like she won that bargain. I watched you carve up Loki when he couldn't even hit you back, you're not one to talk about a fair fight." Tony looked back down at Pepper and felt dizzy, like one did when they looked down from a tall height.

"It was fair, we have a symbiotic relationship. And refute this, human you've certainly used your privileged position to your advantage. Just look at this fortress in the middle of this putrid city. You positively gleam above the rest of these awful weak humans and I am guessing that you didn't get power by lowering yourself to their level." Pollydoshi glared at Tony. Tony squared up to her, and pointed his finger at her threateningly.

"I've helped this city, hell I've even saved it. I don't need shit from a coward who hides in the body of a helpless teenager." Tony growled back, trying to figure out how to proceed from here.

"You call it cowardice; I call it resourcefulness, for the both of us. If you play fair, you'll never win. And as I said before, she was willing to accept my help. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement." Pollydoshi taunted wetly then vomited up a bottle's worth bile and blood. Next her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell to the ground unconscious again. Tony would have approved, if it wasn't Polly's body that had gotten beaten half to hell. Wait.

She was probably beaten like this because he used her body to fight one of their friends. What would be the best method here?

He spotted a rogue SHIELD agent on the ground, and standard issue galvanized restraints attached to his uniform.

Tony grabbed the restraints and fastened them on Polly's bruised wrists in front of her. He wasn't taking any chances if she woke up again.

"I didn't expect to be arresting anyone today, but that's what you get for using Polly to fight us, you bastard." Tony watched Polly's shallow, but steady breathing. The only reason she was probably alive is because of Hakudoshi's youki.

Dark sluggish guilt crept into his gut, but really this was for Polly's own good.

"Stark, Pollydoshi saved me." Rin said and Tony turned back towards her as be began to take off his suit.

"You mean Polly tried to save you." Tony corrected, clearly Rin must have been a little confused.

He took off his suit piece by piece manually because the auto-construction mechanism had been thoroughly thrashed. Well, it was only half his suit. Half of his suit was Rhodey's, well it really was his, he made it, but Rhodey made it HIS.

"No. Pollydoshi protected me when Storm God became possessed by the scepter and attacked me. It was Polly's body, but Hakudoshi's mind. Pollydoshi thought I was their sister Kanna from my time and fought off Storm God. I'd be dead if it wasn't for Pollydoshi." Rin corrected, and began to help him sort the different colored pieces. She was such a good kid. It nearly reduced Tony to tears again.

She shared pizza with Thor, and now she was casually talking about him trying to kill her as if she was discussing a book report on The Secret Garden. Tony knew she had it rough in the Fuedal Era, but he hadn't really taken the time to appreciate how tough she was. She was only a kid, eight, and she was dutifully helping him sort his suit from Rhodey's suit in the middle of a bloodbath.

It didn't pass Tony by that she spoke of Hakudoshi as if she knew him, which would make sense if he had lived during their time. He also noticed her use of pronouns. It was probably best to refer to Pollydoshi as 'their'.

"Well, considering how Hakudoshi is such a prize, I'd hate to know what his sister is like. Kanna isn't going to come after us, is she?" Tony asked tiredly.

"Mmm Kanna and Hakudoshi don't act alike. I don't think she really liked fighting. She along with her Mirror Doll even helped Lord Sesshomaru copy Tessaiga's powers to give to Tenseiga before he killed her." Rin finished sorting through his armor and Tony sighed through his nose. He again had no idea what to do with half the information Rin gave him, but Sesshomaru killing the psychopath's sister probably wasn't a good omen.

"Thanks for the explanation, Rin. Hopefully you're right and we don't have yet another Demon Spirit coming after us." Tony said simply without a hint of sarcasm, trying to not think of Pepper lying broken and spiritless across the room.

He hoped that human spirits didn't float around like the Demon ones apparently did.

"Of course, Stark. You know, I usually don't tell secrets, but since you're Lord Sesshomaru's intended mate, I can tell you a small one. When Lord Sesshomaru feels sad, he likes to take his armor off too." A smirk made its way onto Tony's lips before he thought about Pepper and how when she got down in the dumps, she'd take off her heels and wear those awful puppy slippers. A few rebellious tears made their way into Tony's goatee. Damnit Tony Stark, you're a professional you have to hold it together for your stepdaughter.

It was then the strong, urgent pull of Sesshomaru's youki snapped Tony's attention to the massive hole through the ceiling and two floors of Stark tower.

Oh shit. Tony stiffened, Sesshomaru was practically here.

Tony panicked for a second because he wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to act. He was phenomenally relieved that Sesshomaru was ok. He should be ecstatic. Sesshomaru surviving a missile attack and taking down the Nycteus wasn't the only thing holding him together, but it was a damn solid lifeline.

He just…wasn't sure how Sesshomaru would feel about him.

How would he feel about him failing to save Loki and Jaken?

Pepper, Rhodey, Clint…they were all killed in his tower.

Thor had the scepter.

Rin was only saved because that psychopath Hakudoshi thought she was his sister.

Everything was awful. The sheer amount of loss and death chilled his bones and rattled him. He didn't know what to do with his trembling hands. His throat swelled and he couldn't turn around to face Pepper or he would really lose it.

The cliff in front of him plunged deep and dark like a chasm to hell. Maybe he should just throw himself down into it. Why was he alive and not Rhodey? If only he hadn't been so careless and gotten his suit damaged. Then he could have come to the tower himself and secured the scepter.

But he was careless. He had stayed up far too late for days checking and rechecking every contingency plan, all for nothing. He should have made Jarvis more responsive, should have placed more defensive perimeter measures in place. He needed a Xanax or five, or a drink and Pepper wouldn't mind because she couldn't talk anymore or tap her heel to say she was pissed at him. It's not like he would expect Rhodey to drop by unannounced anymore.

Even Jaken helping him in his lab watching that terrible surfing video with Savage Garden playing in the background wouldn't happen again.

Tony could hear a small voice call his name, but he didn't snap to until a brilliant light filled the room, softly whiting everything out. His presence, his uniquely tranquil yet commanding youki hummed into Tony's nerves, quieting them some.

He scratched the back of his neck, finding a spot on the floor to study.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin hopped in glee the way only a kid brought up in the feudal era of Japan surrounded in gore could, and bounded over to his fiancé.

To think that just a few days ago his biggest anxiety was about being a father. He should have been more focused on the war.

"And Natasha!" Oh, so his fiancé had company. She was probably going to rail into him. Something about preparedness and war, and some diatribe about red in her ledger and how he just made it worse or redder.

Rin's babbling turned to white noise in his mind as his vision dimmed towards the edges. He clenched his fists, just stay upright. Don't break down.

"Clint no…Please…" He heard Nat whisper and rush past him like a shadow. Tony was going to have to carry this weight. Tony himself ordered, no pled, to Clint to return to the tower with Thor.

And now look what happened.

If Tony had gone back with Thor, it would have been different. He would have known how to get Jarvis online faster. Yet, he sent Clint back because D.E.M.O.N.S. alerted him to a Demon Spirit and Clint was the only one who could kill or purify them. He should have found a way around that so he could fend off the Demon Spirits himself.

Everyone here died because Tony Stark was the weak link in the Avengers Initiative. He never should have agreed to join Fury's hyped up boyband. The entire premise that he could have contributed to a net positive effect, and that the Avengers would be a net positive on him, was laughable.

Tony took a deep, lung filling breath. While trying to holding himself together, a mostly white figure stepped in front of him. His signature black leather boots and tips of silver hair swarmed his field of vision.

He finally got the courage to look up past the blood spattered floor to where Rin and his fiancé stood.

His gaze slowly peeled up his tattered mc hammer pants. Dried blood and bruises mottled his shins. He didn't have on his armor or his dumb pelt, so he could see just how the blood stained fabric lay against his chest and how his ridiculous purple and yellow sash hung tattered. He sped up the rest of his torso when a hand reached out and cupped his left shoulder.

Tony stopped rising his gaze at his chest. he couldn't bring himself to look at his face.

Youki flooded through his sweaty, gritty thermal undershirt. His muscles loosened a bit, but his spine still locked itself in place like a steel beam. Tony let out a shaky breath.

OK, Tony, time to act like a functioning adult….Now!

Moonie wasn't saying anything.

Was this a normal 'Sesshomaru silence' or not? Shouldn't he now by now? They're engaged, and he can't even look him in the face because he's probably pissed about Jaken and Loki.

How much did Sesshomaru blame him for today's catastrophic disaster? Fourteen percent? No that was Pepper's favorite percentage. What if he saw him as a fraud when it came to warfare? That he didn't have the grit to get through a war.

His failure in keeping communications up the whole time was the distraction that probably led to Jaken's death. Tony swore he'd have Jaken's back, but he had gotten swarmed and taken down by the Chitauri while simultaneously dealing with the communications blackout.

He had no excuse for Loki.

What if Sesshomaru pieced together that he was this weak? Would he grab him by the throat again? Would he leave and never come back? Would Tony blame Sesshoumaru if he did?

Tony's stomach flipped and he almost vomited again.

What if it had been Sesshomaru who had failed Rhodey? What would he have done to Sesshomaru?

Tony would forgive Sesshomaru. But, that was different.

Sesshomaru was brilliant and experienced at war, on top of being an almost all-powerful Demon Lord.

If had been Sesshomaru who failed Rhodey, then the odds would have had to have been insurmountable to begin with. In a way the odds had been against them when Sesshomaru freefell into the sea.

Yet, Sesshomaru defied the odds. Natasha had told him the Nycteus had begun to dominate the battle and they had lost hope that Sesshomaru had survived. That was when Tony knew that Sesshomaru would bounce back. And of course, that was when she reported the sky had just turned a dark and stormy and a neon green dragon of crackling energy manifested in the storm clouds.

Pride burst through his arteries. An intelligent, gorgeous Demon Lord who could summon a energy dragon to destroy their enemies, was his fiancé.

The green dragon roared, surged, then struck down from the clouds. The onslaught of the venom green dragon dissolved the Nycteus in minutes like it was an origami crane.

Natasha had been shocked, but Tony hadn't been. He had felt the link between him and Sesshomaru switch back on through D.E.M.O.N.S. and knew that he wasn't in Davey Jones' Locker.

The burn on his leg he had received from Loki's crazy ex's inferno had begun to sting. Not even Tony had been that stupid to get sexually involved with someone who could literally burn half of a city by playing a musical instrument. Fucking Loki, goddamn he wished he had lived just to give him shit for his picks in sexual partners.

Tony didn't actually hate him when was alive. Tony had to admit he feared what would happen now that he was dead.

Loki and Sesshomaru were brothers. He couldn't imagine what Sesshomaru was going through.

"I, I…" Tony stammered, staring at Sesshomaru's unarmored chest. Tony couldn't meet his eyes, despite his fiance's youki attempting to calm his system. "I fucked it up." Tony didn't intend to say anything like that. It just spilled out. He didn't even know where to start. "I failed them, you. Pepper and Rhodey. I fucked it all up, and now she's gone and Clint and Loki…Jaken…Thor's somewhere. He's got the scepter and—" Sesshomaru's hand grazed up his shoulder and side of his neck to his head. Tony shuttered despite himself.

"Stark, you failed no one. Your defenses provided enough time for Rin to survive and for that I am grateful. I, along with Tenseiga, will attempt to show the depth of my gratitude." Tony rocked back in shock.

He wasn't upset; he was…grateful?!

This somehow sparked a flame of frustration and defeat within Tony.

"If you're grateful about this, then maybe you just had far too low expectations of me. Rin could have been killed, and Polly is POSSESSED by Hakudoshi! You don't have to coddle me." Tony replied, flustered, he rubbed the back of his neck, but stopped when his fingers brushed up against Sesshomaru's long thin fingers.

He still couldn't make himself look up to his fiance's face, however.

"I don't coddle anyone, especially my intended mate. Don't confuse my expectations of you achieving your maximum potential, which you did achieve, with inevitable setbacks in battle. Your fortress stands when it could have easily fallen. This is not to mention your impact in the victory over Aethon. Romanoff informed me that you excelled at coordinating and controlling the aerial components to mitigate severe losses. And while Hakudoshi's possession is indeed peculiar, it is far from an urgent matter. You do not shoulder every burden and responsibility. If you allow yourself to believe this fallacy, then you will fall into inaction and despair. Wasn't it you who told me that we act as a unit, or a team?" Tony looked up at Sesshomaru in shock.

Sesshomaru sure had a lot more to say than he thought.

It was then he noticed the sharp jaw he had come to much to love, was bruised and even swollen on one side. The left side of his head was an explosion of mottled bruises and dried blood. His left ear was completely red and pinned against the side of his head. His left eye had a burst blood vessel in it that caused the sclera to web out red and pink.

His bangs hung tangled and limp, along with the rest of his hair, mottled with dried blood, salt, and soot.

Yet, his slit eyes still burned like the surface of the sun.

He looked like hell, and something inside Tony just shattered. He wasn't alone on the cliff, he was ignoring the person standing beside him who looked like he was about to keel over himself.

Tony reached up and stroked down the side of Sesshomaru's face without really thinking about what he was going to do.

"We still lost too many people. I don't know how to fix this. More ships and enemies are going to come, and more are going to try to kill you, and the rest of us. I don't know how to defend against them if my defenses were torn apart so easily on the first wave. I gotta say, this isn't looking good, Moonie." Tony's body shook now. Tony locked eyes with Sesshomaru. His fingers trailed down his pale skin to rest on the pulse he could find in Sesshomaru's neck, just to make sure his heart continued to beat. His mouth began to dry out. He couldn't just deal.

Four more starships still closed in on Earth.

Pepper had counted on him. Now she couldn't say anything at all.

"This war would always incur heavy losses, Stark, yet, not all is lost." Sesshomaru reassured smoothly, much more smoothly than Tony could understand. Sesshomaru had every right to be angry at him, or the enemy, or saddened over Loki or Jaken. Why wasn't he?

Or maybe he was, and because he had war hammered into him at the young age of seventeen, he was able to hide it better.

Speakign of hiding, he wasn't hiding any massive wounds, was he?

"You're ok, right? Nat told me you took a beating from at least two surface to air missiles." Tony wanted to kiss him and curl into a ball at the same time. He settled for looking him over.

"I'm fine." Sesshomaru answered simply.

"That's putting it mildly, he lost an arm." Natasha sharply answered.

"What?!" Tony's jaw dropped as he poked at the empty sleeve, silent in shock. He lost an ARM?! And he FLEW back?

"And his blue sword flew away." Natasha finished and sure enough he only had one.

"We have to work on your definition of 'Fine.'" Tony's heart skipped two beats as his hand glided over Sesshomaru's left shoulder only to abruptly end just a third of the way down his upper arm. Right about where he saw that faint scar before. The same arm his brother cut off all those years ago.

"I rid myself of a hindrance. This Sesshomaru successfully removed the curse." Suddenly Sesshomaru's ears shot up and his pupils thinned to razor slits. "And Tenseiga would never flee battle, to imply so would call him cowardly which is in grave error." Tony let Sesshomaru defend his sword's honor as he processed what he said. The Other's signature was carved onto that arm. Was removing it as simple as removing the arm?

"Lord Sesshomaru, did you cut off your own arm?! Will it grow back like last time or will you get another arm? Where did you tell Tenseiga to go? Are you going to help everyone here too? They don't know about Tenseiga like Pepper did, do they Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin asked like seven thousand questions and Tony could barely follow.

Sesshomaru's eyes didn't shift, but his left ear pricked up a little indicating that Little Miss Sunshine was right on the money. His right ear hadn't so much moved which made Tony wonder if he had lost all feeling in it. Tony's gaze remained locked like a laser sight onto the empty sleeve.

Before, Tony couldn't really imagine that Sesshomaru would go '147 Hours' on his own arm to save his life, but it totally now seemed like something he'd do in a heartbeat. Tony wanted to laugh because of course Sesshomaru would casually cut off his own arm as if he was getting a haircut.

Actually, scratch that, Sesshomaru might actually care more about his hair than his limbs.

"Rin be patient, all will be explained soon." Sesshomaru consoled Rin without really answering any of her questions, which was of course just so him.

A wan smile broke out across Tony's face; he couldn't help but find it all a little bit endearing. Sesshomaru reassured Rin like an A-class father.

Tony flung his arms around the taller Demon's neck before he even registered what he had done. Tony allowed himself a small spot of weakness. He slumped his body so his forehead rested on his chest. He took solace in the rising and falling of it as he hissed out a shaky breath.

"I'm glad you're ok; I'm glad you came back and that I didn't have to go get you. That's what I should have said, at first. But Rhodey and Pepper…." Tony stopped when a strange sensation tugged at his mind. D.E.M.O.N.S. tugged at his arc reactor like a string tugging his chest towards Sesshomaru.

He picked up a trace feeling…like Youki far off. It didn't feel like Jaken did when he was close, or a Demon Spirit. It felt strong, vibrant, and alive. Tony rocked back to attention and looked up to Sesshomaru.

"Did you feel that? It feels like Youki. I need to get Jarvis back up to analyze it. It could be another one of the Demon Spirits. Oh no, you said that Loki's ex-girlfriend was a Phoenix Demoness. What if the legends are true and she came back and she's incinerating DC all over again? Can you exorcise her without Tenseiga?!" Tony fought the sour, tightening panic in his gut.

Something strange was going on and with their extra-terrestrial enemies, strange definitely spelled trouble. Did he have time to go up to his lab, get replacement parts for his suit, then fly back to DC? He;'d have to stall Fury first otherwise he'd definitely break in and see the fallout of their efforts of concealing the scepter. He'd have to try his best to make it to DC in time to help.

Oh God. Steve had remained in DC. Stars and Stripes was tough alright, but her fire melted marble. If Steve died then who would lead what was left of the Avengers?

Jesus, just him, Bruce, Steve, and Natasha remained. Four. In one battle they went from six Avengers to four. Even the consultants for the Avengers had dropped from three to one.

Tony didn't even know where Bruce was.

Bakusaiga, the lone sword on Sesshomaru's hip pulsed green once. Was that a good sign?

"Stark, there is no need to worry. The Youki you feel is Kagura; she will not imperil our allies. In fact she is assisting Loki and Rogers now. Suzuka cannot be resurrected; our enemies have been successfully thwarted." Sesshomaru's placid reassurance rumbled through Tony's mind.

Tony found his breath again and sighed deeply. OK, good to know his ex-girlfriend is sane and helping Loki and Steve, not making barbeque with them.

"Tony, I thought you reported in that Loki was KIA. Did I mishear that communication? Is Loki alive?" Natasha clipped out her words quick like a nail gun and suddenly Tony's spine iced straight up.

Loki was dead.

Did Sesshomaru not understand that?

Thor, weirdly unlike the time where Loki and Sesshomaru faked their own deaths, was wooden and robotic about it. Clint however, lost his damn mind again and he didn't, couldn't, wouldn't blame him for it. One, because out of his anger he brought down a Leviathan BY HIMSELF with ONE arrow, and two, well…

If Sesshomaru hadn't survived Tony would have destroyed half of Norfolk trying to avenge him too.

Sesshomaru obviously didn't understand that Loki had died, and Tony wasn't sure how to handle the fallout when it sunk in.

"Babe, Loki's dead…Kagura can't help him." Tony stammered slipping up and calling him 'babe' which didn't sound awkward saying it, but not it sort of did. Though, Sesshomaru obviously didn't think so because his eyes sharply flashed a luminous gold. His ears were slightly up, his cheeks had more color in them than they had when he first arrived. He wouldn't look like this if his best friend was dead.

Loki lived.

"Oh….Lord Sesshomaru I understand! Kagura has Tenseiga!" Rin exclaimed excitedly. As if on cue, a poof of black and green smoke filled the other end of the demolished scepter room. If that wasn't Loki's teleportation magic he'd lop off his own arm next.

Did Loki trick all of them? Did he seriously fake his own death?

"Clint?! Where are you? Rogers said you were…" Loki frantically bolted out of the smoke, eyes darting like a cocaine addict who just saw a fresh score.

No, Loki wouldn't have faked his own death, something with his crazy Asgard magic must have happened.

Natasha rebounded faster than he could, his own jaw was still on the floor.

"Loki, look at me." Natasha's voice almost sounded like a plea to Loki. Loki tried to buzz right by her, but she planted her feet in front of him. "Clint didn't make it. Neither did your mother. Thor still has the scepter. You need to…Loki. You need to keep your magic contained." Natasha gripped Loki by his upper arms, and Loki's jaw immediately dropped. As did Tony's because what did she say about Loki's mother?

"Ok, he was dead. I saw you die!" Tony's exclaimation was completely ignored by Horns.

His wide green eyes stared in disbelief at the horrific scene behind him.

Oh. Clint. Right.

"No…no no no no….Clint….no….Mother!…How?!" Loki's magic began to spark erratically and that was when Tony realized that Loki only had one hand. His left hand looked perfectly fine, but his right arm ended in a gnarled, waxy swirly blue nub. The blue skin swirled up wards his lower arm like branches of a tree.

"What about Loki's mother? Is that the woman who is dead over there next to Coulson?!" Tony exclaimed. This didn't make any sense, how Loki and Thor's mother ended up dead in his tower?

"Indeed. Queen Frigga scryed me when I was submerged in the sea. She attempted to barter with me. She wished for me to spare Storm God's life for the cure to my curse. This Sesshomaru declined. She must have taken matters into her own hands and attempted to cull her eldest son into submission and failed." Sesshomaru explained and Tony caught and edge of something in his voice. Sorrow? Pity? Apprehension? Tony didn't have the chance to study it long as Sesshomaru turned back towards the dissipating magic smoke.

Oh shwarma, this meant Thor killed his own mother.

"Yo Sesshomaru I got the job done. That attractive human in the blue nightclothes said he's a friend of yours, so I brought him along for fun. Since you don't have human friends, he's either lying or delusional like some of Inuyasha's party used to be." A drop dead gorgeous woman stepped out of the smoke. Her blood-red eyes darted and sliced every bit as predatory as Sesshomaru's over a white and red paper fan she held in front of her face. She had markings on her face, but they were dots on either side of her eyes instead of stripes under her eyes. She was dressed in a colorful old kimono type outfit. No shoes though, maybe she took the whole no shoes in the house rule seriously.

Though she looked like one of those porcelain geisha dolls you buy at a souvenir store, Tony long learned to not judge a book by its cover with Demons.

If he could sense her youki from DC, she probably kill a man a thousand different ways with the feathers in her hair alone.

"For the last time, Miss Kagura, this is a UNIFORM. And I am not delusional, Sesshomaru is a friend he's an important member of the Avengers." Steve protested, and he looked for the most part alright. Steve had a wet banged up duffel back slung around his shoulder and his shield in the other hand.

"'Miss Kagura', I like the sound of that. I'm not used to humans being so polite. Sesshomaru, is this why you didn't kill them all?" Kagura asked curiously and lowered her fan to reveal red lips tugged up in a smirk.

They had a full house, well aside from Bruce. Tony could only imagine where Big Green was right now.

"His name is Rogers, and he tends to be overly familiar. Good work, Kagura. Tenseiga, to me." Sesshomaru raised his right, well his only hand now and the blue sword wobbled and streamed through the air to his hand.

Good work? Oh Kagura and Sesshomaru were definitely friendly. He could count on one hand the compliments he heard his fiancé dole out.

"Overly familiar? You're saying that at a time like this?" Poor Steve almost looked offended. Sesshomaru ignored him.

"I don't need your praise, Sesshomaru. Ugh, this room positively reeks of stale blood, piss, shit, and death. Who are these...oh, pity, Nebula died. I had just begun to like her. Wait…I'm sensing something…is THAT unconscious human woman Hakudoshi!?" Kagura's red eyes sparked to life and her jaw dropped. Instinctually, Tony looked at unconscious, bound Pollydoshi.

"It is Kagura! He possessed my friend Polly. Their name is now Pollydoshi. Are you going to help us kill The Mad Titan too?" Rin hopped up and down and ran to the Demoness who snapped shut her fan.

Of course Rin liked the Demoness who referred to all of their dead friends as 'reeking'.

Kagura smiled and damn she could put any supermodel to shame with her high cheekbones, swirly markings, and pouty red lips. Were all Demons this attractive? She wasn't still competition, was she?

"The Mad Titan? Yeeesh, no, Rin. I'll leave that to you lunatics since I rather like being among the living again. Now that Mephisto, I'll relish the pleasure of snuffing his flame out." Kagura answered, hiding behind her fan again. Her eyes fiercely snapped to Tony, and Tony waved with a flick of the wrist.

"Who is this human, Rin?" Kagura asked coldly, stare hardening into a dark glare. Tony reared back almost offended.

"That's Stark! He's Lord Sesshomaru's intended and we're in his fortress! He shows me moving pictures of a wizard named Bill Nye Science Guy and buys Rin poptarts and pizza!" Rin exclaimed and really, that's what she got from him? Not his genius inventions or….nevermind. He would probably never understand kids. He already sounded like the divorced dad who got the kids on every other weekend.

Kagura's blood red eyes darted shrewdly between Sesshomaru and Tony as if calculating Fermats' Last Theorem. She stepped forward gracefully towards him and snapped her fan shut again. Tony refused to let himself feel self-conscious since he knew he looked like a trash fire after almost losing a pivotal battle and dry heaving over his friend's corpses.

"I can sense Sesshomaru's youki radiating from your magic crystal throughout your entire body. What sort of magic user are you? How did you trap Sesshomaru's youki inside your crystal?" Kagura's eyes hardened like stone and Tony noticed her grip on her fan tighten. She darted a quick glace to Sesshomaru before hardening her eyes into yet another glare. Tony knew when a woman wanted to hit him; he had been hit by plenty in the past.

Kagura, on the other hand, looked like she wanted to rip the skull from his spinal cord.

"Ok, one I do science. Look to Loki for the magic. Two, it must be a Demon thing to think this is a jewel, its actually it's an arc reactor. Three, It's Sesshomaru's fault the youki is in there. I didn't trap it in there and wear it like some creepy relationship jewelry. I'm not Angelina Jolie. Can you please stop the weirdly protective ex-girlfriend murder glare?" Tony had just about enough being glared at for something he for once didn't do. He could be blamed for about everything else, but not the youki ending up in his arc reactor. Not that he regretted it, no. He wasn't sure how he'd ever feel without it.

Kagura paused.

"Hmph, it seems unlikely Sesshomaru's youki would end up in the possession of a human unwillingly. You should be wary of wizards, Stark. They usually cause more trouble than they're worth. That foolish Phoenix Suzuka should have never coupled with one." Kagura's eyes narrowed onto Loki to his left and Tony wanted to cry with laughter. He knew she was talking about both Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Loki.

He could get to like Kagura.

"Noted, dually. And it's Tony Stark." Tony felt like correcting Rin and he could see Sesshomaru's mouth lift into the barest of grins. He liked that he and Kagura got along. Well, he supposed he could grant a small victory today.

"Kagura of the Wind." She said as a small breeze blew through the room that obviously she generated.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND! Yggdrasil yanked my wretched soul from purgatory, why can't it save Clint or Frigga?! None of this makes any SENSE. WORK YOU MISERABLE MYTHICAL TREE! I BEG YOU!" Loki cursed with his left hand outstretched over Clint. His magic sparked and sputtered everywhere in whorls of green smoke, and sharp barbs of black obsidian.

Tony deeply related to that level of desperation. If some weird tree magic had brought Tony back to life, he would have tried anything to replicate the same process to bring back Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and Clint.

"Loki said that Yggdrasil brought him back from the dead. I didn't see Loki come back to life; I was down by the Anacostia river, making sure Chitauri couldn't swim and recovering…Jaken. Before I knew it a giant feather drifted down from the sky and Loki and Kagura were sitting on it. You could have knocked me over with a regular sized feather when I saw that. Maybe miracles do happen, maybe God blessed us, but I don't think Loki can recreate his miracle now." Steve said Jaken's name so quietly to Natasha that Tony almost didn't hear it. The duffel bag, oh shit. Jaken's body must be in it.

Next to him Sesshomaru shifted, he had already successfully tied Tenseiga's scabbard to his sash and now had unsheathed it. Tenseiga's blade glowed a muted, cerulean blue. Tony had never seen it glow this way before, not even when Sesshomaru had purified Ryokotsusei's spirit with it.

Tony even heard Tenseiga hum. It wasn't a mechanical hum or buzzing, but something Tony could only describe as spiritual. It was the sort of hum you would hear after people just finished singing hymns in churches he would walk by hungover.

"You've lost an arm, but you've grown a heart for these humans, Sesshomaru. Who would have thought." Kagura smirked and Tony didn't really get what she was talking about, but it made Sesshomaru cut her an icy glare.

"Kagura, we bartered and this Sesshomaru provided you a physical form, don't make me rescind it from you." Sesshomaru paused and glanced at Tony warmly. He parted his lips slightly as if to say something, but then shut them. Tony had never seen him intent on speaking, but then decide not to.

"What is it, Moonie?" Tony blurted out as he turned to look at what Sesshomaru was looking at, the carnage behind him. Pepper. Happy. Clint. Loki's mom. Coulson. Blue alien woman. About five SHIELD agents.

"I don't know how you will react to what Tenseiga and I are about to attempt." Sesshomaru murmured. Tony got it. Sesshomaru was nervous. Wait, Tony's eyebrows hit his hairline. Sesshomaru didn't do nervous.

"What are you trying to do?" Tony asked, half curious and half nervous as Sesshomaru stepped past him. He faced the bodies strewn across the secpter room with Tenseiga drawn, tip almost grazing the floor.

"Just watch Stark! Lord Sesshomaru and Tenseiga are going to do SCIENCE!" Rin beamed. Tony instantly knew whatever Sesshomaru was about to do had nothing to do with science.

"Loki, move aside." Sesshomaru's voice sounded softer than usual and his blue youki rippled out to pool around Loki's erratic black and green magic.

Loki immediately clinched his one fist; damn everyone was really falling to pieces. Loki's eyes flashed a dangerous black which Tony had recognized from the incident in the hallway after Sesshomaru came back from his expedition south.

Tony's spine went straight. Tony understood Loki having a break down over Clint dying, but if he took his emotions out on Sesshomaru again he would put him down.

The youki in his arc reactor swirled hot.

"Sho, I suggest you leave me be. I am trying to concentrate to bring forth Yggdrasil. As you can see, I have been resurrected through his benevolence and I am TRYING to replicate this phenomenon to bring back my dear Clint and Frigga. The NINES why would it bring me back and not them?!" Loki babbled and he waved the blue stump of his right arm at Sesshomaru as if to shoo him away before he got even more angry.

"It wasn't Yggdrasil who fished your soul from the River Styx." Sesshomaru said simply, and Tenseiga on cue hummed loudly and flashed blue. Tony absently wondered if anyone else could hear Tenseiga's tenor pitched singing like he could. Well, he certainly figured Sesshomaru could.

"Oh and you just happen to know everything, don't you? Who brought me back to life, then? It certainly wasn't you! YOU WEREN'T THERE. You arrogant dog, can't solve everything with a cut of your sword! I don't know what Tenseiga is trying to guide you to…" Loki shouted passionately, but as quickly as his outburst started, it paused. His green magic fizzled and swept itself away as he turned back to Sesshomaru, as if remembering something.

Loki's jaw hung loose in his mouth, and his green eyes bulged out of their sockets in shock.

"Sho…surely you don't mean…you don't mean those old wives tales were true." The blood drained from Loki's face. But it wasn't like the night where they all found out he had been tortured and forced to fake the invasion during the 'War Assembly'. He almost looked amazed, and hopeful.

"Loki, step back." Sesshomaru's voice sounded soft as he gracefully stepped towards all the bodies. Tony almost wanted to reach out to him, but hesitated when he lifted Tenseiga to hip height. Loki choked back a sob and nodded, slowly peeling himself from his hunched over stance from Clint and walked back to the far wall. His hand was fidgited against the blue stump of his right hand.

Tony was out of the loop again.

"Steve, I think you may be right about miracles." Natasha whispered behind Tony, her blue eyes fixated on Sesshomaru like she was in a trance. She had even grabbed Steve's wrist in a white knuckled grasp.

Ok, he had never seen Natasha act like this, ever. Not even from Sesshomaru's killing intent.

Tony almost missed Sesshomaru elegantly whip Tenseiga out in an intricate flourish. An arc a blue youki washed across the room as wave. The swell of youki spanned the room and struck the opposite wall only to disappear through it. Right after, Tenseiga dulled into an ashen grey color and the strange singing sound ceased completely.

No one scarcely breathed.

Silence.

A shifting sound.

A faint magenta glow.

"Ack cagh ugh, what happened? Thor!" Clint fucking spoke, and Tony jumped out of his skin.

"I gotcha!" He knew that doofus voice anywhere. Happy.

"BY THE INFERNAL I WILL HAVE MY FREEDOM." Ok Tony unfortunately knew that voice, Evil Smurfette.

"Mmmmmmm Rin?" Pepper. That was Pepper. Pepper. Tony had rushed to her side before he even knew what had happened. His fingers rushed through her fingers, lacing them together tightly. Her other hand grabbed his arm, and fuck it he knew he was crying again. Pepper's eyes focused on him. She blinked and moved and breathed and she was ok. And yeah she was bloody, but her face wasn't pinched in pain like it would when she'd stub her toe, or that one time she slammed her hand in the Bugatti's door.

"You were gone. I was here, but you were gone." Tony had to be hyperventilating now. He couldn't hear anything other than his own thoughts.

"Tony, Tony. Breathe Tony Breathe. I'm here. I'm it's ok; I'm sorry I was reckless." Pepper flung her arms around him, but Tony knew she probably meant to stabilize him more than she was seeking comfort for herself. He grappled her to him as if they were free falling from his Gulfstream Six.

"Don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry. I'm sorry. I'm the weak link." He selfishly wanted more than anything for Pepper to forgive him. He didn't deserve it. He failed at the one thing he vowed to do for her, keep Pepper safe in the tower. Holy hell, he was such a fucking failure.

"Tony, look at me." Pepper leaned back and locked eyes with him. Her bloodshot eyes told him she really needed a nap, but also told him they were steely serious.

"Snap out of your shame spiral. You're not weak. You're not a failure. Something awful happened, and we get a second chance. If we let ourselves spiral, we are gonna waste our second chance." Pepper spoke slowly and pointedly. It didn't occur to him that maybe others were spiraling too. Well, he knew Loki was, but when was he ever NOT spiraling?

Tony nodded mutely at Pepper, but that seemed to be a sufficient enough reply because together they stood up. Tony felt lightheaded with relief and disbelief. It felt like he had just been snapped out of a night terror.

Did Pepper feel the same way? Did Natasha?

Sesshomaru definitely didn't. He stood there at the periphery next to Kagura who was whispering something in his ear. At his feet was Evil Smurfette, scrambling away from him.

Wait.

He just raised the dead.

Sesshomaru just brought four people back to life. Five people if you counted Loki.

The youki in Tony's arc reactor spun up like a revved supercharged Lamborghini Aventador. This wasn't a second chance due to luck. After all, luck was really just lazy math, but this wasn't science either.

His fiancé was a miracle.

Tony had absolutely no idea what he should be doing right now. He felt an intense mix of elation, confusion, and absolute shock break out in his chest and his tense muscles finally relaxed. He wanted to go over to say something to Sesshomaru, but he was a bit busy at the moment about to decapitate Evil Smurfette.

"You fell due to Storm God, arose due to Tenseiga, and now will be cut down again due to me." Sesshomaru bit out blandly and his talons glowed his signature sinister green that would definitely melt the floor. Moving so fast Tony didn't see, he grabbed Smurfette by the throat, lifted her off the ground and smashed her into the wall.

She let out a strangled plea as his talons bit into her skin. Tony knew her struggle was pretty much in vain if Sesshomaru wanted her dead. Her cybernetic arm was still dismantled, hanging listlessly by her side. They were oddly matching, having each only one usable arm.

"Sesshomaru, do you really have to go kill the amusing and admittedly more cunning sister? Her zest for vengeance against the Mad Titan really brings me back to the good ol' days of hunting for those damned jewel shards." Kagura motioned her fan over towards the blue alien chick and he really should have remembered her name was Nebula. Space and all.

Sesshomaru sliced a lethal look to Kagura, and darted it quickly back to Nebula who still struggled.

"Don't make me spell out why I want you to spare her." Kagura said a bit more softly than usual. She snapped her fan shut, and Sesshomaru slowly blinked in understanding.

Tony wasn't that dense to pick up what Kagura was laying down. Sesshomaru had said before that Kagura was a puppet to Naraku once before. The parallels between Smurfette and Kagura ran deep.

"Kagura has just now saved your pitiful life. You owe her a life debt, which you will repay as she sees fit. If you deviate, you will be slowly tortured until Kagura and I grow bored, do you understand this?" Sesshomaru's voice trickled out like ice water, and the temperature in the room dropped by a few degrees.

"Understood…Anything is better than being Thanos' slave." Nebula punctuated each word and Sesshomaru let her neck go. Now that Tony got an up-close look at her, she looked like she was half organic tissue, have cybernetic accoutrements.

No one better bring up that she could be Iron Woman. He already got enough jokes about Margaret Thatcher.

"Kagura, she is now your responsibility." Sesshomaru said placidly. To her credit, Smurfette barely moved a muscle, but her obsidian eyes read that she wanted to bolt faster than an Olympic sprinter.

Nebula swallowed thickly, but stood resolute like a soldier awaiting punishment.

"Ugh, don't look at me like that, Nebula. I have no need to become like Naraku, nor the Mad Titan. Instead, your life debt will be paid to me as my friend." Kagura smirked brightly and white youki spun out across the floor in a hurricane pattern.

"…Friend?" Nebula looked as if her jaw was going to unhinge from her mouth.

"Yes. Sesshomaru has friends in this time, so now I want one. However, I don't want Sesshomaru's sloppy seconds. You make a good choice, since I can see that everyone here clearly dislikes you." Kagura stated plainly, her jade earrings jingling as she bobbed her head back and forth.

"I…don't have experience in friendship. I will do my best to comply." Nebula still looked like she wanted to pass out from confusion.

"Good. Any of you humans, or you, Loki, who try to harm or kill Nebula will answer to me." Kagura chirped, apparently really pleased with herself.

"As long as she doesn't try to kill me again, I can agree to those terms." Steve spoke up and Tony had to say he was surprised he wasn't trying to reason Kagura into treating her like some sort of enemy combatant.

Tony realized that this was probably not what should be happening, but Pepper was alive and honestly if Nebula being on their team was the price they paid for that, he'd do it over and over again until time ran out.

"Yay, I'm glad to see that Nebula won't be a bandit anymore, and instead will be our friend! Maybe her death changed her for the better." Little Miss Sunshine sing-songed and Tony realized that Rin's outlook on life may be more skewed than he could deal with.

"Remind me to schedule a therapy appointment for Rin when this is all over." Pepper whispered to Tony so softly he doubted Sesshomaru heard her. He agreed.

"Uh…Mr. Stark, I think I'm gonna be sick…I'm gonna find a bathroom." Happy absolutely bolted from the room holding his mouth and Tony didn't fault him at all.

"Yeah, why did you bring Nebula back to life if you only wanted to kill her afterwards?" Tony asked a bit incredulously. He wanted to go over and kiss him silly for bringing Pepper back. He wanted to jump for joy and have a drink in celebration that not all was lost, but he wasn't.

He wasn't because Tony also couldn't shake the feeling that there was angle he was missing. His puzzle solving nature had to be satiated first.

"Obviously he brought her back because her knowledge of Thanos' operations. She is his daughter, well, not his favored one, but his daughter nonetheless. Tremendous thought in strategy, though I am curious why you did not raise Frigga as well." Loki responded, standing now with a shaky Clint. Clint tried to vain to wipe off the blood and gore from his gaudy gold bow.

"Tenseiga doesn't think like that." Rin said simply. She was now starting to braid the still unconscious Pollydoshi's hair. "Tenseiga sometimes can't bring people back, he doesn't know why. I think Tenseiga tries to bring everyone back who he thinks deserves it." Rin was being sage-like again…

Wait.

Rin knew.

Rin knew Tenseiga could bring people back to life this whole time.

Oh…the doctor's appointments with Rin. The wolf attack when she was little.

Did Sesshomaru bring her back to life as well?

"I endeavored to bring Queen Frigga back, however her soul was already claimed by your realm's afterworld. I, however, did not anticipate Tenseiga would raise this battered creature." Sesshomaru's mouth turned into a small line.

"Her name is Nebula, and she's my friend so use her name. I'm trying to use your friend's names…uh… Loki, Stove Rogers, Something Stark…Taijia woman." Kagura flicked her wrist flippantly as if she didn't pay that close of attention. Or maybe she was just being a bit of asshole because did she just seriously call Steve, 'Stove'?.

Natasha just snorted in laughter.

"It's STEVE, and Sesshomaru, why didn't you tell us you could bring people back from the dead?" Steve asked the question he hadn't thought to ask yet, but was burning in his subconscious. Tony watched as Sesshomaru tensed and his ears dipped low and back to his scalp.

That was the missing angle. Sesshomaru could bring people back to life this whole time, and he hadn't told him.

Yet another secret.

"I wouldn't have said a word." Natasha announced gravely. Tony whipped around to her because honestly, he felt betrayed. He would have thought that he had earned Sesshomaru's trust by now. That he would trust him with knowing everything about him.

He had his damn youki living in his arc reactor!

"You wouldn't have told your sworn allies, your friends, the people who you trust to have your back in a fight that you could bring them back from the dead?!" Steve fired back at Natasha. Tony pursed his lips and took a few steps towards Sesshomaru.

"How could you not tell me?" He asked simply.

"…" Sesshomaru said nothing and just looked away evasively, shoulders down.

"You saw the video, Tony. Didn't you listen to Loki? He said that if he could bring people back from the dead that humans would clamor for it. Your tower was practically bugged by the enemy to spy on us. What do you think would have happened if the enemy had heard that Pretty Boy can literally cheat the reaper? What about SHIELD?" Natasha launched into full rant mode and Tony got it, However, couldn't he have told people in secret?

"We should have been told that Sesshomaru was capable of something like this. This is yet another sign that we clearly haven't been able to work together as a team effectively. This is a repeat of when the team was divided with the poisoned bullets during the assassination attempts. Except this shows that clearly Sesshomaru doesn't trust any of us. He didn't even trust Loki or Tony with his secret. If he can't trust us, how are we supposed to trust him? If we can't trust each other, we won't win this war." Steve ranted back, eyes blazing. Tony reared back a bit, did Steve take it too far or was he just following this through to its logical conclusion? Would Sesshomaru never truly trust him?

"I knew." Pepper said quietly and even Tony turned to her.

"It was when Rin and Jaken were sent out of the tower. I went to go bring them back and we got cornered by this boy, couldn't be older than fifteen, and he tried to mug us. Rin was upset, you know her past trauma with bandits. Sesshomaru found us right when I was attempting to get him to back down." Pepper trailed off and Tony could only see where this was going. Someone tried to hurt Pepper and Rin. Rin already had her issues with hating bandits, so that probably only left Sesshomaru with the 'maim the bandit' option.

"You were just hoping you wouldn't have to bring anyone else back to life, weren't you?" Pepper asked Sesshomaru and his mouth tightened.

"When I slew the bandit, I was unsure if Tenseiga could or would resurrect him to pay the clothing debt to Lady Potts. In the past, his abilities have been varied and his behavior, erratic. Tenseiga only brought the bandit back to the realm of the living to prove a point that he thought I unfairly slew a child. He wished for me to show more mercy towards the humans of this realm. Even though he was successful in raising bandit who now owes Lady Potts a life debt, I was unsure if he had the capacity or provocation to revive others who had fallen due to other means and motives. I meant to train with him; however that is when the Interceptor intervened." Sesshomaru explained carefully, eyes locking on Tony in particular.

Was he afraid that when the chips were down, he wouldn't be able to bring someone back to life who actually mattered to him?

"I am not enslaving a child, and I am not about to argue with you again on how a suit is not an equivalent price to a human life." Pepper sounded exasperated and Tony absently scanned the scepter room, looking at the broken bits of weapons and tech.

Was one of the weapons here a Destoyer gun?

"I've traded Terrans for less." Nebula from the peanut gallery decided to voice her opinion. Kagura rolled her eyes.

"Yes, but they're all human, Nebula. It's different when it's their own kind." Kagura drawled.

"I've traded my own kind for less too." Nebula shrugged and Tony swore Kagura hid a chuckle behind her fan. Tony was going to get a headache if they kept quipping back and forth like this. That was his thing.

"Okay….you two need to stop human trafficking. To address your earlier point, Steve, he does trust us. He knew what it meant by bringing that boy back to life. Sesshomaru could have just, I don't know, leapt off and not brought him back at all! It's not like police or I could have stopped him. He chose to reveal his ability to me, and trusted me to not tell anyone until he was ready. Can't you see how hard it must be to trust someone with the knowledge of such an incredible gift?!" Pepper pled to Steve, but her eyes cut to Tony.

Tony was reminded of his first press conference where he revealed himself as Iron Man. At the time it seemed ballsy, and it was and paid off, but it could have easily cut the other way.

"We all have to do hard things in times of war, and you, Sesshomaru, had plenty of opportunities to tell us in private. I would have thought a general would understand how you sometimes have to make the difficult call." Steve stayed true to his word and before Tony could interject Loki beside him did.

"You dare accuse Sho of choosing the easy path?" Loki bristled with green magic. "He's sacrificed plenty for our war! The NINES he's missing his left arm and you carry the body of his retainer in your rucksack!" Loki hissed acidly. For the second time that day, he was proud of Loki. Maybe his earlier lecture had hit home.

"Loki watch your phrasing. Rin is right here, in fact, Rin, why don't we go get cleaned up and go find Happy?" Pepper glared and Rin's eyes cut to the duffel bag that wasn't moving. Why didn't Sesshomaru bring back Jaken with the others? Is it because Rin said he couldn't always do it?

"Ok Miss Pepper." Rin agreed and Pepper led Rin out of the room, and Tony probably should have told her to do that a while ago.

"My apologies, but Sho did you tell anyone else? You didn't tell Thor you could raise the dead, correct?" Tony fought the urge to roll his eyes at Loki's jealous accusation, but again he felt like he had something in common with Loki after all.

Loki and Sesshomaru had been friends for centuries and he didn't tell Loki about his ability either.

"No, and it was not I who brought you all back from the underworld. It is Tenseiga's gift that he allows me to employ when he deems altruistic." Sesshomaru explained, and Tony saw something in him that looked something like apprehension.

"Yeah, but it still feels like you're keeping secrets, what else can you do and haven't told me?" Tony still felt betrayed. He had thought their loyalty ran deeper than him speaking in riddles and making excuses.

"No." Clint's voice slapped the air like a wet towel against a wall. "You all aren't listening to him or Rin. Fancy Pants didn't bring any of us back, Tenseiga did. Tenseiga is real. Fancy Pants probably wanted to train with him so he could get stronger and show us his real form." Clint's eyes furiously locked on everyone in the room. He looked like he wanted to put an arrow in someone.

"Isn't that just semantics?" Steve asked confusedly, and Kagura snapped her fan open.

"At least one human has a brain around here. It's a shame you're just a pretty face, Stove. If Sesshomaru were the one to raise the dead, how is it that Loki lives?" Kagura answered for Sesshomaru with an almost disappointed tone. Tony was about to defend his pride when he ran through what she had said through his mind. Sesshomaru definitely wasn't in Washington DC, Kagura was. She brought Loki back to life with Tenseiga. Yet, Sesshomaru brought everyone back to life here…

Oh.

Oh now he got it.

Fuck he was dense. Tony remembered the conversation he and Sesshomaru had. He told him that his swords weren't merely swords, that they were people with like feelings and such.

"Tenseiga's sentient, as in he has a conscience, and power of his own actions." Tony finally spoke up and everyone turned to him. Clint looked relieved and a bit confused because yeah, when did he ever agree with Clint on anything? "Sesshomaru said that his swords aren't inanimate objects, that they're real people, well Demons. He said that the form they're in now their True form, like Sesshomaru's Canine form. But my guess is that they can eventually get a more human form. It's just like Big Green but in reverse. Bruce is still MIA by the way." Tony finished and a spark of green exploded from Bakusaiga's hilt.

Tony studied Sesshomaru's face as he narrowed his eyes in a peculiar way that Tony had never seen before. It was if he knew what was coming, but had no idea how handle it.

The sword morphed in the air to a green, sparking comet, hovering a couple feet above the ground until it elongated and changed shape to look humanoid. Then the shimmering green flashed once and revealed something Tony should have expected, but caught him by surprise nonetheless.

A little girl, about Rin's age, with long white hair tied up in fancy pig tails appeared next to Sesshomaru. She had violet eyelids with a matching violet moon on her forehead, curtained by white bangs, even one purple stripe on each cheek. She even had the same elf like pointy ears on the side of her head. She even wore a similar outfit to Sesshomaru, only no fur and instead a long strand of white beads spiraled up her arm.

It was her gleaming gold eyes and the smirk on her small elven face that sealed it. She was the spitting image of Sesshomaru; she had to be his daughter.

This time Tony's jaw was on the floor.

Holy shit. SHE was Sailor Moon.

"Greetings! I am the resplendent Bakusaiga, the strongest weapon in all of the cosmos! I have finally accumulated the necessary strength to achieve my humanoid form on this plane of existence, well at least temporarily. Stark and Barton are indeed correct! Although, Tenseiga is a Hanyou, not a full-fledged demon, just like Pollydoshi over here." She announced excitedly held up her hands like a gymnast who just stuck the landing then pointed to a still Pollydoshi. Rin was still braiding their hair.

"Congratulations Tony, you're now a father of two girls. I have to say I didn't see this one coming." Pepper pat Tony on the back.

Tony sighed. Thor was right on the money with his whole 'give birth to a daughter' comment in that steak restaurant because she was almost a carbon copy of his fiancé.

"Bakusaiga, I did not beckon you forth." Sesshomaru commented lightly, but it didn't hold any sting or vinegar. Instead he looked almost…curious? Or amused.

"Father, I had to defend you against these humans and explain Tenseiga to them! I know you wanted him to explain himself, but only is he is unconscious from over-exertion, he also isn't strong enough to get into this form yet. I'm disappointed not even his last remaining forger, that Magician who he saved, understands that Tenseiga is truly sentient." Bakusaiga explained passionately and her fists glowed green. Tony had to admit that even though she looked cute, she probably could kill most of them in the room. When Sesshomaru wielded Bakusaiga, she could vaporize spaceships.

"That's number three, three miracles. God does work in threes." Steve would have sounded more defeated if he hadn't just witnessed the modern day miracle on par with his much anticipated second coming of Jesus. Oh shit, he better not make some sort of Virgin Mary and baby Jesus thing. Would that make him Joseph?

Tony refused to go down that road.

"Tenseiga has the ability to fish the souls from the river Styx, however, are you implying that just any Demon, or rather perhaps any mortal or even Aesir can work with him? I simply don't see how that's possible. I constructed the hilt for Sesshomaru alone, and I can't imagine his father completing the blade just for any imbecile mortal on this planet to be able wield it." Loki asked, brow creasing in what Tony assumed was glaring concern.

It was one thing for his fiancé to be able to raise the dead with Tenseiga's help; it was another for Tenseiga to have the ability and for anyone to be able to use him. Tony's head spun with the implications.

"What exactly are you implying, magic user? Should I relieve you of your other hand that Suzuka didn't take?" Kagura snarled, her youki sparked up white and fast, swirling around her like a typhoon.

"Please, Kagura, you're not mortal and you're certainly not an imbecile if you somehow bartered with Sesshomaru procured for you a physical form. What I mean is exactly what I said before, if Tenseiga's gift were made known to the mortal realm, it would cause absolute calamity upon Midgard." Loki talked his way out of yet another Demoness trying to kill him, but that didn't matter to Tony that much.

What if someone outside of the Avengers found out about Tenseiga? People had written countless stories about the fountain of youth and other tall tales of immortality. Not just doctors and scientists, but everyone wanted to have the ability to bring the dead back to life. The ability to cheat an untimely death, kids dying of cancer, drunk driving incidents, suicides, the list went on and on.

"This is bad. This is really, really bad." Clint mumbled to himself. If anyone found out about Tenseiga and Sesshomaru it would turn the war on its head.

CIA Blacksite.

SHIELD Blacksite.

No, the whole world would pool their military might into corralling him into some bunker that Tony's tech probably at one point had helped construct. And that was only if their allies got a hold of him. No. he wouldn't allow that. He would use every resource at his disposal to make sure neither Sesshomaru nor Tenseiga, or even Bakusaiga got captured. They were people, not a resource for humans to use for their own gain.

"Humans have no hope of caging us. You all worry about the wrong things." Bakusaiga warned sagely, her chin tilted defiantly up. Tony had to admit, she was just as sage-like as Rin and completely correct.

They couldn't afford to be worried about their allies.

Tony wheeled around to Kagura who was standing next to the bound and possessed Pollydoshi on the floor.

"You and Hakudoshi knew Sesshomaru from five hundred years ago, right? The enemy brought you both back to life, so does the enemy know about Tenseiga? Does the enemy know he can bring people back to life?" Tony asked Kagura which caught her off guard.

"I honestly don't know. All Mephisto ever spoke about was becoming the ruler of all the Demons, whatever that means." Kagura answered flatly.

"My mother would not have told her Eternal Demon retainer, Mephisto, about Tenseiga's true abilities since he was forged by my father. It wasn't knowledge he would know amongst their kind of Demons." Sesshomaru finally spoke up, but he didn't sound that confident.

"That is all well and good, Sesshomaru, but you forgot you fought The Mad Titan in your timeline five hundred years ago. It is possible he knows about Tenseiga from that war." Loki's fingers twitched and Tony then realized that Loki had a major point.

"Thanos has no knowledge of Demons who can turn into swords and bring back the dead. If he were to find out, he would have instructed us to prioritize its capture over the scepter. It goes directly against what he is trying to accomplish." Nebula explained reluctantly, and with a bit of bite.

Tony wasn't that convinced. If only they could send her back and be their spy.

"You guys have nothing to worry about. Tenseiga would never listen to anyone except my father, his Lord. He would especially not allow anyone to wield him without his Lord's expressed permission. He'd rather shatter, and the same goes for me!" Bakusaiga crossed her little arms over her chest and while she and Sesshomaru looked alike, they certainly didn't act the same.

"I agree, we have much more dire things to worry about—" Loki trailed off abruptly when Sesshomaru suddenly summoned his whip and Kagura's eyes darted to the door.

Loki teleported, reappeared, grabbed Sesshomaru, then they both disappeared along with Loki's mother's body and the duffel bag.

Tony didn't even have the chance to say anything. He immediately missed Sesshomaru's calming presence, and was about to curse, but then he noticed Kagura's eyes hadn't leave the doorway. Someone was coming.

"Damn. I can't hold this form away from father for long." Bakusaiga was left in the middle of the room, her green youki flashing, faltering and then immediately transforming back into her sword form in midair which began to fall.

Tony lunged to catch her. This was the first time he held her like this and he made sure he didn't hold her too tightly, even though that was sort of ridiculous since she was obviously powerful.

But, really she was just a little girl like Rin, too.

"It was a smart call for Loki to take Sesshomaru out of here. I know he must still loathe Fury for what he did in your tower. Not to mention Loki not wanting to be seen." Natasha murmured into Tony's ear. Fury, of course it had to be him. Tony noticed Kagura lowered her fan and unfurled it to her side. Tony guessed that was an attack stance.

It was right then Nick Fury and strode into the room. To his credit he had his hands up and the only other agent who followed him in was Maria hill.

Tony fought a flash of panic. Was this a ruse? Was SHIELD about to warm his tower? The youki in his arc reactor swarmed through his body and Bakusaiga reacted, pulsing back.

'Don't worry, I'm here.' He heard her voice clear as day in his ears.

Then the pull of Sesshomaru's youki pin pointed him in a familiar location, South Carolina. Did Loki take him back to Bee Cove Falls? Why?

"Now, before we start another Avengers and SHIELD cold war I want to state I come in peace. I am just here to offer my support. We got word that your tower had been breached, and we have video of Thor flying away with the scepter." Fury announced evenly. He said it like a benign statement, but Tony knew he wanted answers.

"Support, uh, not needed. You weren't invited to our redecorating party. I suggest you get out before I have Jarvis enable defense protocols." Tony mustered up some anger from his exhaustion, feeling emboldened by holding Bakusaiga. He hoped Fury wouldn't call his bluff that Jarvis' defenses were fully down and not merely faulty.

"Something tells me if you were able to force me out, you would have already. I'm just here to share intel, Stark. We need to get back to working together if we want to defeat the enemy. Since you're so fond of pirate metaphors, I'd like to parley." Fury said in that relaxed, confident way of his that grated on Tony.

"Director Fury, we have all been through a rather traumatic day. I suggest we all recoup, gain our faculties and debrief in a couple hours?" Steve stepped forward, trying to keep the peace and Tony decided to help Steve out and play ball.

Even Agent Hill gasped when she saw Coulson slumped against the wall with a mystical arrow in his chest.

"We can talk later, in private, Fury. Now isn't the time or the place, as you can see." Tony tersely bit out. His suit was in pieces, Steve was exhausted and beat to hell. He didn't know what Clint was going to do, but his bow was at his side. Clearly he didn't want to engage with SHIELD either.

"I'd like that debrief now, especially since it concerns six dead SHIELD agents, and an extra-terrestrial demi-god taking off with the mind control scepter that has the ability to turn our best people against us." Fury insisted and for once Tony wished he could take a hint, but he had no leverage here.

"Tony, I think this requires some urgency. Maybe it would be a good idea to all meet up in the main room to discuss how we should get Thor back and strategize for the other four incoming spacecraft." Natasha murmured from behind him and Tony grimaced. Tony didn't really need SHIELD to find Point Break if he was running around with a giant hammer and the glow stick of destiny.

But getting suit repaired, repairing structural damage to his tower secure, getting Jarvis back up online, and re-securing communications took priority over finding Thor. If SHIELD shared their intelligence with Tony, then that did help them get ahead of the game.

It also meant making sure that SHIELD didn't do anything hasty like try to shoot Point Break out of the sky.

"Stop stalling Tony, we could have you court martialed for treason for harboring a known terrorist without alerting SHIELD or the United States Government. She is also suspect number one for killing Agent Coulson." Agent Hill's steely voice cut like a knife through the room, her eyes zeroed in on Nebula. Tony wanted to roll his eyes, yeah the nation's capital was still on fire and they'd be worried about one fugitive he had under control.

"I've killed many, but not that Terran. He was my ally in the recovery attempt on the scepter. And mark my words, if you find me terrifying, you don't know what real terror is." Nebula growled out, trying to reconnect some of her cybernetic arm and to Tony's surprise it looked like she was actually making headway.

"It's true Maria. Coulson was leading Hydra. He admitted to everything, and I killed him, that's my arrow." Clint spoke up, shaking his golden bow a bit for effect.

"I refuse to believe this. Coulson has been with Fury for decades. He'd never work to dismantle everything we built." Maria Hill's face hardened and she itched for her sidearm.

"The scepter's magic warped that human's mind to nothing but retribution and self-righteousness, as magical objects tend to do. He'd babble non-stop about killing that Magic God, Loki. He was motivated solely by revenge for stabbing him with the scepter, and endangering your realm. The human was obsessed, however the purification arrow assured he's at peace now." Kagura jutted her delicate chin over towards where Coulson's body still lay.

"Who the hell are you?" Maria Hill demanded and furrowed her dark eyebrows at her.

Tony's body tensed up again. The last thing he wanted was another Demoness fight.

"Yo, shame not all humans have good manners like Stove." Kagura's eyes flashed bright red for a moment and a gust of wind picked up debris in the middle of the room.

"It's been a trying day for us. Allow me to introduce ourselves. I'm Nick Fury Director of SHIELD and the Avengers here, and this is my top agent Maria Hill. Since you addressed us as 'human' and you don't look like Thor or Loki, I'm going to guess you're a Demon as well." Fury greeted Kagura casually like he would if he was trying to recruit them into the Avengers…oh no.

"That's better, my name is Kagura of the Wind." Kagura offered simply and the wind died down.

"Nice to meet you, now how did it come to be that you arrived here on the same day that two alien spacecraft descent on the Earth and launched the most devastating attack the world has ever seen?" Fury pressed and Tony grit his teeth. Fury's tone was casual so Tony wished he could defend Kagura from what were probably going to be invasive questions.

Kagura rolled her eyes. Sassy, Tony liked sassy.

"Mephisto pulled my from the Demonic Underworld through the Meido Stone. He thought I would kill Sesshomaru much in the way that Suzuka killed the magic user Loki, so I was assigned to the Nycteus." Kagura explained exasperatingly. Tony wondered why Kagura was even humoring Fury.

It then occurred to Tony that she probably thought Fury was one of Sesshomaru's 'friends'. Oh only if she knew.

"But you didn't attack him or kill him. Am to assume that you're friends him, and with the rest of the Avengers here? Or at least allies?" Fury probed, definitely trying to ascertain her threat level.

Tony couldn't really blame him; he had seen what one Demoness did to all of DC.

Kagura's crimson eyes locked on everyone in the room, studying us all like she was trying to determine our worth.

"Of course I didn't attack Sesshomaru! Are you touched, along with half-blind, Nick Fury? You dirty humans are all Sesshomaru's friends, and thus fall under his protection. I'm not foolish enough to provoke Sesshomaru's territoriality. Only Nebula is my friend. Hakudoshi is just my pest of a brother." Kagura unfurled her fan again for effect, gesturing to everyone in the room.

A gust of wind whirled through the stale air.

"I see. Thank you for all of that information…." Fury paused, his face calculating. Tony guessed it had to do with Nebula. Everyone had seen her attack Shanghai. Fury was probably reading in between the lines. If Kagura thought of Nebula as her friend, Kagura would protect her. If Fury tried to attack Kagura or capture her by force, he'd risk her wrath and possibly Sesshomaru's, which would not be this wholesome lovey-dovey 'why can't we be friends?' attitude he was sporting now.

But, Sesshomaru wasn't here. Tony clocked his youki still in South Carolina. Tony couldn't count on Fury and Agent Hill to be rational. This was his tower and he was going to draw the line.

"…I'm not going to welcome you to the Avengers Initiative yet, but I don't think I need to keep my eye on you." Fury put out a hand, but Kagura just looked at it confused.

"You can't watch the wind, Nick Fury." Kagura's scarlet eyes narrowed at his extended hand and simply glared at Fury until he put it away. She didn't know about shaking hands.

Tony sighed heavily. They may as well get this whole thing over with. He'd give Fury a small win because now he didn't have the luxury to hold his ground. He also wasn't sure he had it in him to keep fighting people who he really should rationally be treating as his allies.

"OK, Fury, let's just all get out of here and upstairs, have our talk show, so your clean up team can take the bodies out of my tower so I can get started on repairs." Tony ranted and a curious gaze lit up in Kagura's eyes.

"If you wanted the bodies moved, you could have just said so Tony Stark. Dance of the Dead." Kagura whipped her fan and blue white wind whipped through the air.

It was then the five bodies of the SHIELD agents, including Coulson, stood up and began to zombie shuffle to a standing position, then in a torrent of white youki energy, levitated up and out of the massive hole in the ceiling that Thor had made.

"Cool." Nebula said; her black eyes wide as saucers.

"This is one of those: 'be careful what I wish for moments.'" Tony muttered into his hands. She could literally create zombies.

"Miss Kagura was that really necessary?" Steve looked like he needed a drink, which of course he never did, and Kagura simply shrugged.

"If I do a favor for Tony Stark, then I can use it as leverage for bartering with Sesshomaru later." Kagura grinned and turned to Tony. "Also, as amusing as watching you humans bicker is, I wish to enjoy my new found freedom. Nebula, let's go. I'm hungry and want shellfish." Kagura didn't so much command as suggest, but it held an edge that no one was going to convince her to stay. She plucked a feather from her hair as Nebula leapt on without a single look back.

"Just what is up with Demons and bartering and shellfish?" Tony mused out loud.

"You're just going to let them go?" Fury asked, and while Tony wasn't looking at Fury, he knew he was talking to him.

Tony knew that the 'rational tony' a few months ago wouldn't have let two people who fought to destroy the earth to literally float out of his tower, but a lot had changed.

One, he was tired. He should really care that Nebula, the blue space alien woman who almost beat the shit out of Steve and Natasha was escaping, but he had a dark feeling it would be a bad hill to die on.

Two, Tony had no idea what Kagura was capable of other than making zombies, but he figured that's not all she could do if Sesshomaru respected her enough to let her wield Tenseiga. Tony was not in the mood to tangle with a Demoness of unknown power and abilities who he didn't explicitly have to.

Three, he sincerely doubted it would be the last they saw of Kagura and her new friend-slave combo. Sesshomaru and Kagura were friendly, and the last of their kind on Earth, she wouldn't stay away long.

Four, he trusted Kagura to not fuck them over whether out of altruism or her own self-preservation.

"She's Sesshomaru's ex from half a century ago. She's not going to incinerate the tower like Loki's ex did DC because he has better tastes in partners." Tony quipped and he swore he saw Clint scowl, but as the feather floated upwards he ran towards it a few paces.

"Wait, what the enemy is planning!?" Clint called out, held out his hand to a twister of wind had already formed a peculiarly strong spiraling updraft. It reminded him of what little Green did with the whiskey in his lab.

Nebula turned to Clint, smirking as if she knew a secret, which she probably did.

"Alright you dull Terrans, I'll give you a clue. Do you think the scepter is the only thing that Thunder God stole?" Nebula called out as Kagura's feather boat launched out of the same gaping hole that she spirited the zombies out of.

Tony couldn't really read her youki the way he could tell that Loki had taken Sesshomaru to Central Park to calm down, but he could tell she was also headed South.

"What would Thor steal from you, Tony?" Natasha brought Tony back and he couldn't think of anything that automatically came to mind…Thor didn't understand Jarvis or his tech. He didn't get to any of his suits, that was one thing he checked. Thor also didn't really seem like the guy to go for his whiskey….

Wait.

Tony blanched and his heart clinched like a vice-grip clamped down upon it.

"Here, be a good Uncle and babysit." Tony pushed Bakusaiga into Clint's other hand and rushed towards the blown out wall to a containment safe that was supposed to be not only impenetrable due to the swirling youki, but also due to his own mastermind crafting it.

It had been blown open as if thunder had struck it. Thunder probably did.

"Stark, what is it? What was in that safe?" Fury's voice sounded in the back of his mind like white noise. The hairs on the back of his neck pricked up as everyone crowded around the rubble and dismantled safe.

Tony couldn't find the words.

"The toxins….Fucking hell. The toxins that Tony made from Fancy Pants' toxin and Loki's poison were all in that safe. The enemy has the poisons that you used against Loki and Sesshomaru during that charade in front of Tony's tower were stored in here." Clint cursed. Tony almost didn't recognize Clint's panic-laced voice.

"As Sesshomaru said earlier…not a total loss. Thunder Brain only took one. Blitzen." Tony eyed the place where the blue vial once was locked in place. Its locking mechanism completely pulled out.

"Why would he only take one?" Fury asked and then it struck Tony that Fury and Thor both had no idea that Loki was alive.

That was the main reason Loki took off. Loki didn't care so much about Sesshomaru eviscerating Fury, he also didn't want to be seen. Not that Loki couldn't have conjured a different image of himself or something, but he killed three birds with one stone.

"Loki's dead. Thor knew this, and so he only needed to take the toxin that would take down his rival. Also, Thor most likely had no idea what the third toxin was capable of. We never spoke about it or conducted an open field test." Nat answered sharply, maybe even a hair too quick.

Steve didn't play poker for a reason, but even he held it together enough so Fury didn't catch on to that Natasha had lied through her teeth. Tony thanked Nat for the hundredth time in his life for her quick thinking. Fury had no idea that Loki was alive. D.E.M.O.N.S still blocked his magic signature, and Fury had been stationed on one of the helicarriers during the fight, North of D.C. His Helicarrier had departed for New York as soon as the Aethon was destroyed so he wouldn't have seen Loki come back to life.

Loki's existence, as well as Clint's, Pepper's, and Nebula's resurrection, were a complete secret.

Tony eyed the green toxin, Cerberus, and the yellow toxin, Sirius. Time to change the subject away from Loki.

"I disposed of the ammunition for the M4 assault rifle and the M24 sniper rifle made with Sirius, Cerberus, and Blitzen, but I kept a vial of each one made that I stored here." Tony chattered more to himself. He stopped making more after the whole charade in front of his tower and he was grateful for it because their enemy didn't have much to work with.

He didn't know why he hesitated on destroying the last vials. Maybe it was his sense of pride he was able to create them? Though, he refused to kick himself over the fact that he had endangered his fiancé yet again with his toxin. Sesshomaru had Loki with him, and if Thor decided to attack Sesshomaru now, which he doubted because Thor didn't know Sesshomaru lost an arm, Loki would be there to help him.

Tony remembered that Loki and Sesshomaru both discussed what they would do if Thor became possessed by the scepter when he scryed that fake future in Shanghai. Tony trusted that Loki would side with Sesshomaru, not Thor, if he attacked him.

Tony had long since fully trusted Loki's loyalty to Sesshomaru.

"Stark, you're going to have to be very specific with us here. I only knew of two toxins, what does the third do?" Fury sounded closer to him, and that was when Tony realized that everyone had crowded around his space and the dim, damp cloak of claustrophobia sunk in.

"Cerberus is the venom that I synthesized from Sesshomaru's toxin that works on organisms. You shot Loki with cartridges filled with it. Aside from causing him a great deal of pain and paralysis, it blocked him from reaching his magical abilities. He temporarily couldn't do any of his Houdini antics, well now he can't do them permanently. Blitzen is a blue poison which works on Moonie. Almost the same physical process, except it drains his youki, and he can't regenerate it in any capacity.'" Tony explained, sneering a bit at the end because he still held that grudge. Then he palmed the last vial he had, Sirius.

"And now Thor has the one that can kill Sesshomaru, what about the third one?" Fury impatiently continued his interrogation, and it was beginning to tire Tony out.

"This one, Sirius, would have caused the rest of us some trouble, Pirate King. Sirius is also from Sesshomaru's toxin, it's like a specialized polymer as it works best on inorganic material. It's Hammet Acidity function is –40. To put that into perspective, Fluoroantimonic acid, HSbF6, the strongest acid man has ever discovered or created is -23. It can dissolve anything: titanium, steel, glass, concrete, maybe even Vibranium. However, it's curious in that it doesn't eat through plastic, flora, or animal and human tissue. It's perfect for taking out spaceships without worrying about any ecological fallout." Tony explained and instead of decaying into earlier panic, he couldn't help but think he could turn this around.

Tony could pull himself out of his shame spiral by getting smarter.

Jaken's words ran through Tony's mind…Blacksmiths shouldn't be afraid of building a weapon that could destroy them. Maybe he shouldn't be afraid of producing one more weapon…just one more to help them against the incoming fleet.

Especially if they turned Thor against them and made him kill his own mother.

"Speaking of Mr. Nirvana, where is he now?" Fury asked the million dollar question and immediately Tony's shoulders tensed.

The answer came from an unlikely person. One he had forgotten about.

"If Sesshomaru had any sense for self-preservation, he'd abandon all you moronic humans. Maybe that's what he's doing now, leaving you all to your dismal fate. I were him, I'd retrieve Sounga, leave this miserable planet, and rule over the Demons locked in the Frozen Realm. I'd let the Mad Titan lumber on in his endless obsession with Death while I strengthened my numbers and trained. Then eventually I'd behead him and shatter his precious jewels to stardust." Tony knew that grating, pain-in-the-ass voice. Dammit, TIMING.

Pollydoshi had regained consciousness and now sat on the floor, propped up against a crate, still plenty bruised and still handcuffed, but Tony had to say their wounds already looked partially healed.

"So she was invited to your redecorating party and I wasn't? Who is this now?" Fury reeled back in legitimate surprise, and Tony had forgotten that not everyone knew Polly had been possessed.

"Polly is a civilian and Sesshomaru and Rin's friend. She got possessed by Hakudoshi, the Demon Spirit that attacked Loki in Shanghai. Now they're Pollydoshi." Clint explained and to his credit, Fury just crossed his arms.

"The Demon spirits can just possess humans when they want to?" Maria Hill asked Clint.

"It was a last ditch resort, but a mutual one. Ask the Priest." Pollydoshi snarled while fiddling with the manacles.

Clint sighed.

"Hakudoshi was already about to steal the scepter with Nebula when Thor and I arrived on the scene. The rogue SHIELD agents, including Colson, fired upon us and when I shot back my purification magic canceled out the already weakened youki." Clint paused briefly as if it physically pained him to say what happened next.

"Hakudoshi tried to get Nebula to steal the scepter, but Thor overpowered them and got it himself. Though in the end the scepter ended up possessing Thor. He turned on his allies, Pepper, Polly, Rin, and I. He hit Polly with the scepter and she fell to the ground unconscious. Hakudoshi then possessed Polly and saved Rin's and my own life by stepping in to duel Thor when I ran out of magic." Clint stepped in and explained the battle. Tony wondered how much of what Clint said was true, since Clint was actually killed by Thor instead of being saved by Pollyudoshi.

But why would he lie and say Pollydoshi saved him if they actually didn't? Did Pollydoshi try to save him? Did they save him, then Thor eventually killed Clint anyway?

Tony guessed it didnt matter now, but they still had to figure out what to do with Pollydoshi. Kagura referred to him as her brother, but didn't take them with her. Tony had no clue how loyal were they to each other. Sesshomaru didn't try to kill Pollydoshi and revive them with Tenseiga, so that clued Tony into the fact that handing Pollydoshi over to SHIELD, or straight up purifying him would be a dick move.

"Director Fury, one of our enemies has possessed a civilian. How would you like me to proceed with this?" Agent Hill asked, clearly uncertain of what they should do. This wasn't in the SHIELD 'be a good agent' handbook.

"I don't think there is much we can do, Agent Hill. I'm not going to take her, I mean them in, like the other alien woman, Gamora, who Bruce Banner found at the wreckage in Norfolk." Fury admitted and Tony let loose a sigh he hadn't known he was holding. He could only imagine the fallout that would occur if Fury had said he wanted to apprehend Pollydoshi.

"But, the enemy possessed her. He could easily attack us." Agent Hill continued, eyeing Pollydoshi who scowled.

"Clint, can you purify Pollydoshi? if you do, we will get her mind back." Natasha suggested neutrally and Clint hesitated. So, Pollydoshi really did save his ass.

Pollydoshi's head snapped up immediately. In a deft act of acrobatics, they flipped back to the other side of the scepter room, landing hard in a pained crouch.

"If you purify me, this human's mind will be lost! The scepter corrupted her mind much like that Thunder God or that other bald human. The human woman and I came to this arrangement mutually. I would possess her instead of the scepter, allowing her mind time to heal from the wound, and so she would not harm you pathetic idiots. In exchange, I would be saved, and bide my time until I came into possession of a Demon's body so I can find Kanna. While my mind my reigns ove her body, her soul perceives and understands what is happening." Pollydoshi yelled, eyes wild and teeth bared, his arms struggling against the galvanized restraints Tony had placed onto him.

Pollydoshi posted all piss and vinegar, but Tony knew a panic a mile away.

"You could still attack us. I haven't forgotten you nearly killed Nat and I in Shanghai with your poison gas." Steve insisted grimly.

"Those were different circumstances. I'm no longer leashed to Mephisto like some dog. I'm not going to waste my time with you humans, now. I have no plans in meddling with your affairs, and in addition the human woman would make it cumbersome to harm you." Pollydoshi spat acidly, and locked eyes onto Tony's chest, then Clint's bow. That caught Tony's attention.

So, Polly's soul still influenced some of what Hakudoshi could do or say.

"Relax, unfortunately I owe you one, and unfortantely I care about stuff like that." Clint said reluctantly. Pollydoshi tilted their head in a bit of confusion but said nothing.

Pollydoshi may not be under Mephisto's control, but that didn't mean they were out for the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn't want any trouble, and as much as Tony wished he could deny it, Pollydoshi seemed to be pretty smart. If they wasn't trying to kill them all here, they really were focused on finding his sister, Kanna.

Or possibly just didn't want to piss Sesshomaru off.

"Don't get wrinkles over this, Fury. Pollydoshi is going to behave for the same reason Kagura is, he doesn't want to piss Sesshomaru off. He's scared of what he's capable of." Tony smirked confidently and Hakudoshi literally growled.

"Sesshomaru does not scare me." Hakudoshi double downed, but didn't deny that they would leave them alone.

"Maybe he should, Poltergiest Polly. Sesshomaru managed to disintegrate the Nycteus from under the Norfolk Bay without having it crash into the Cheasapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel or any surrounding infrastructure. He even managed to open up another astral portal, this time it was bigger." Fury said and Tony remembered that Bruce had told him about the astral window that Sesshomaru opened up back when Fury had them all painted up by snipers in his own tower.

Sesshomaru had opened another one, and Fury was telling them about it. It sounded like Fury wanted to play nice by sharing the information. Fine, he could be mature as well.

"Alright, let's all take five…fifteen..whatever, and meet up in the top floor of the tower and debrief. I'm ordering Chinese." Tony didn't have much of an appetite, but food was always a good buffer. Chinese sounded good. He could go for something greasy and probably regrettable right now even if he didn't really want to eat it.

"Order me some Moo Goo Gai Pan, I'm going to shower." Nat announced which really meant to leave her alone. Noted.

They all meandered their way out of the room. Even Clint left with both his bow and Bakusaiga. He looked like he wanted to say something more to Pollydoshi, but thought against it.

He was alone with the toxins and Pollydoshi who glared at him.

"I need to know where Kagura is." Pollydoshi demanded without a hint of emotion.

"I'm not starting a conversation with you, especially one that starts with a demand." Tony replied, contemplating just leaving him in the Scepter room but he'd eventually break out the restraints.

"I'll barter with you." Hakudoshi pressed, stretching his legs and standing on his own power, however just barely.

"I'm so over bartering, you have no idea." Tony groaned.

"I know where the Thunder God went." Hakudoshi stated emotionlessly again and Tony rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure you do. I don't care." Tony actually found himself not saying that to be petty or spiteful, but actually because he didn't care right this moment. Also, he couldn't trust Pollydoshi at all. Thor was under control the scepter, but he knew from the War Assembly that whatever commands he was obeying from the scepter wouldn't make him go kill a bunch of innocent people in a random city.

Thor also couldn't leave Earth, something that he told them when the Bifrost went down. So Thor was most likely going to lie low until the next ship arrived and then they would have a plan.

That or Sesshomaru would duel him or something.

Tony didn't like that at all. Sesshomaru only had one arm and Thor had Mjolnir, Blitzen, and the scepter. Odds woudn't be in Sesshomaru's favor, and even if they were Tony didn't want Sesshomaru to kill Thor, which he'd probably be forced to do. No matter how they interacted, Tony knew Sesshomaru respected Thor. However, if he did kill Thor, maybe he could just bring him back with Tenseiga. Even though that probably wasn't what Tenseiga's skills were supposed to be used for.

He didn't need to listen to this psychopath try to barter with him.

"You believe in Sesshomaru. That's why you're not afraid." Pollydoshi's eyes were wide as saucers in what Tony could only identify as pure astonishment. Could he read minds? He didnt say any of that out loud. Tony waited for Pollydoshi to spit out some snide comment, but none came.

"I don't scare easy, kind of a prerequisite for the job." Tony believed in Sesshomaru plenty, but he also believed in everyone else, including himself.

He believed in his ability to carry his own weight in keeping this world safe which was why he too was doubling-down. Tony was going back up to his lab to figure out how to make Cerberus and Sirius into a weapon he could control. He didn't want to make the same mistake as last time and craft ammunition that any asshole could put into an M4 and shoot into his boyfriend.

Tony cursed as he almost tripped over Hakudoshi's prized spear. He picked it up, which was a lot heavier than he expected it to be. He wondered why it materialized when it was definitely an intangible-spear before. Did it have youki in it? It didn't feel like it.

Tony palmed the two toxins in one hand, and the spear in the other. He had an idea.

What if he could get the magic interrupting toxin, Cerberus, to meld with the spear? If he could infuse the toxin Cerberus into the spear, maybe the magic cancelling properties of the spear would counter-act the scepter's magic.

He could fabricate a counter-scepter.

That only left Sirius. In its current liquid form it left much to be desired as a weapon to use against space ships.

But it could be extremely effective as a gaseous form. Tony on principal never manufactured any chemical warfare weaponry at Stark Industries, but until now those had all been used against humans. Chemical warfare where the only fallout was to inorganic materials without any harm to living organisms was revolutionary. If he could manipulate Sirius into a gaseous state, like a rocket propelled canister it'd be hugely effective. Well, he would have to vaporize Sirius to be lighter than air so it would dissipate up and out of Earth's atmosphere. The last thing he wanted was for Sirius to corrode through their own forces, or condense with water and rain back down onto cities.

Tony felt re-energized like none other and the youki in his reactor sped up to match is enthusiasm. He missed having this spark of genius and competency. He hadn't felt it since D.E.M.O.N.S. was launched and he had that conversation with Rho—.

Rhodey.

'Wow. Tony, wow. Way to just temporarily forget your best friend was just killed on the battlefield. Half his suit is literally across the room.' Tony paused in his enthusiasm to checked himself. What could he do right now to best honor Rhodey?

He would dedicate this next invention to Rhodey. He looked down at the vial of Sirius in his left hand and the name just came to him like a light turning on in the darkness of his mind.

Rapid Hyper-Organic Detonating Erosive Salvo. R.H.O.D.E.S.

He'd do this for Jaken too. Little Green was right; Tony Stark was back in the blacksmithing business.

"Hey! That's my naginata. You can't take it, you probably don't even know how to use it!" Pollydoshi hissed, getting up slowly and limping after him. Their previous acrobatics must have taken every ounce of energy out of them because now they moved at a snail's pace. Tony wished they were better so they could go and bother literally anyone else.

"My tower, my rules. And since when do you care about property ownership?" Tony replied flippantly. As inspired as he was to start his next project, he needed to get Jarvis back up online first, to monitor Pollydoshi. Then he had to deal with the debriefing.

"Ha, funny human. Let's see where that humor gets you." Pollydoshi sneered and Tony just brushed it off. He half expected Pollydoshi to follow him or ask him to take the cuffs off them. Yet to his blissful surprise he heard nothing after he strode down the hallway to the elevator.

Beautiful silence.

Tony probably shouldn't have left a cuffed half-demon in the scepter room formerly known as Substorage Room 3-b. However he also needed a shower, and once Jarvis got back online, he could monitor Pollydoshi. If he really was a Half-Demon, he may be able to feel him through D.E.M.O.N.S. as well.

Tony slumped against the wall of the elevator, suddenly exhausted. He hoped the shower would rejuvenate him to properly play nice in the Avengers Boy Band big boy band reunion tour.

The youki cycling through his chest still pulled towards South Carolina. Sesshomaru and Loki were still there. What were they doing there? Loki was usually all over Clint, and Sesshomaru had to be concerned about Rin and himself. They could come back and just not deal with Fury now that he was in the upper levels. They couldn't be training, hell Loki just died and Sesshomaru looked like he wanted to sleep for a week.

Tony's brain felt like the microwave Thor had detonated.

He'd ask Sesshomaru about it when he got back. Loki better teleport him back, and not let him waste any more youki flying back here. Tony hadn't always been the best read on Sesshomaru, but he had gotten better at reading him and he knew when Sesshomaru overdid it.

Tony had been so lost in thought he had entered his lab on autopilot. He carefully placed the seven foot spear against his lab wall.

The curved spear didn't glow or hum like Tenseiga or Bakusaiga, but that didn't mean it didn't possess any powers that broke the laws of physics. Grime and gore still clung to curved, razor sharp blade which reminded Tony he better reboot Jarvis soon so he could also shower all the blood off himself.

He pulled up to a console and began to run some diagnostics. Jarvis had been hacked to crash from one of the Hydra spies whose corpse danced out of his scepter room, per what he suspected, but then he noticed something odd. Yet, Jarvis had been attempted to be brought back online.

Someone had deftly completed around seventy-five percent of Jarvis' reboot process. That was unexpected. It's one thing to bring a system like Jarvis down, but another tier of difficulty to remedy the hack, and bring it back up. The completion of the work had been coded from the scepter room terminal. Had Clint left out reporting that he tried to bring Jarvis back up online before he died? No, this code was a bit more advanced than he thought Clint was capable of. It looked even more advanced than what Natasha was capable of.

It couldn't have been Thor; he didn't even know how to operate a microwave. The scepter didn't possess people and give them knowledge they didn't previously have.

While the security cameras had been either fried by an unexpected power surge (a la Norse God AC/DC Thunderstruck) or corrupted in the fight, the small webcam on the terminal remained online and functional. Unfortunately, it did not face anywhere useful except the input pad. He brought the footage of the webcam up while Jarvis finished recalibrating.

Tony did a double-take when he saw the face of the person who tried to bring up Jarvis.

Nebula.

He watched all the footage, a SHIELD hacker managed to bring down Jarvis then he was shot by a lightning bolt. After a few waves of assault, Nebula stepped in, damaged and bloody, to bring Jarvis back up.

Turned out Nebula wasn't half bad with tech. He hoped she wouldn't try her ace hacking skills anywhere else. The video continued as got electrocuted by a horrifically powerful lightning bolt that shot her across the room. She landed as a heap of smoking mass of cybernetics and blue skin.

Tony turned the playback off.

Why did she try bring Jarvis back up? Why the sudden change of heart?

Since getting Jarvis' systems back online and programming Pollydoshi into Jarvis took way less time than he had anticipated it left him plenty of time for an indulgent shower. Tony took a whiff of his dirty clothes, and determined that a long shower benefitted everyone else besides just him. He didn't know how many cuts, bruises, and scrapes he had really suffered until the rusty colored water circled his shower drain. His left leg burned something terrible so he mostly left it out of the shower's reach and gently washed it with cooler water.

He didn't want to know how much of the blood that circled the drain was his, Pepper's, Rhodey's or whoever's.

He'd only have to endure more carnage. They'd. They'd only have to endure more of it.

Buck up, Tony Stark, can't get all soft here.

"Sir, the Chinese food has arrived. Happy has requested permission to retrieve the food, should I grant permission?" Jarvis' voice sounded like music to his ears. Even if he was in the middle of a shower, the comfort of Jarvis having his back couldn't be expressed in words.

Normal. It felt like normal.

"Yeah, let him bring the haul in. Jarvis, where are Pepper and Rin?" Tony asked trying and failing to convince himself he wasn't paranoid.

"Miss Potts is currently on the phone in her office with a registered pediatric psychologist with a specialty in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Rin is next to her training with Jaken's staff." Tony held his sigh of relief in when he saw that Rin had that creepy staff with her. Tony hoped Rin knew how to properly use it since it lit Steve's punching bag on fire the last time it was used.

Freshly showered, he noted that the tower was notably way quieter than it usually was when they were going to have one of their team 'Kumbaya' sessions. You could hear a pin drop. This shouldn't really have been much of a surprise, but it made Tony's mood sour.

As much as he liked his solitude in the lab, he wasn't much for silence.

Tony found his way to his secret stash in the back of his closet. Macallan Select Reserve Single Malt. Jackpot. When he picked up the bottle, the liquid swirled around and reminded him of Jaken. The whiskey reminded him of a time where He and Rhodey had knocked way too many back at a high end rooftop hotel bar, maybe a Hyatt? Rhodey had worn his tie loose, like he had in the last D.E.M.O.N.S. interview he had with him.

Decades of good times brought to an unfair end.

At least Pepper was alive and safe in her office. She was in her element surveying the psychologists to see if they could deal with the level of trauma that Rin had absorbed from seeing everyone get murdered by the guy she shares pizza with.

Pepper needed a therapy visit or six, herself. When he saw her next he was going to drill her on when her next appointment was. She was close to Rhodey too. He didn't dare try to monopolize that friendship.

Pepper was out there, sober, doing her best.

If he had a drink for Rhodey now, he'd definitely have another and be borderline useless for the rest of the evening. Useless when he needed to lead the most. But, he deserved a drink. He deserved to feel OK, right? His body ached, the adrenaline had long worn off, and he could feel a bad mood coming on.

He flung open the nightstand drawer and saw a bottle full of Advil.

Well, maybe he could wait. Like wait until Sesshomaru was back safe in the tower from whatever Sesshoki 'two funerals for the price of one' they put together.

Compromise, he dry swallowed three Advil and slathered some ointment on his leg burn.

Tony stepped into the main room to see, again, he was the last to arrive save Pepper. However no one really noticed him as they were all focused on the cluttered array of Chinese take-out boxes in front of them.

They were all eating like they hadn't seen food in a week. Well, everyone was eating save Rin who now had Bakusaiga in her hands and was whispering something to her.

Again, She was probably saying something eerily sage-like.

"Hey, no one better had finished off all my General-Tso's." Tony announced and Nat held up a greasy, unopened take-out carton.

He crossed the room to grab it out of her hands and was thankful she wasn't up for some cheeky game of 'keep away'. He opened it along with some chop sticks, which he was never that great at eating with, but he didn't feel like searching for a fork.

"As I was saying, Coulson was a friend, we are allowed to grieve his loss and angry over his betrayal at the same time." Natasha's words sounded soft, but her tone hit razor sharp. It aimed at Clint.

Clint just made a dark face. Tony didn't blame him, but at least he did get to get his justice for trying to kill him and Sesshomaru in the Quinjet. Not to mention framing him for being the mole in SHIELD.

Tony had respected people holding grudges over way less. Tony himself definitely included.

"We still don't have any reports on Thor from after he was spotted leaving the tower. I warned Doctor Foster and SHIELD has put her into protective custody until we can verify his whereabouts." Fury explained to Steve which seemed to put him at ease a bit.

Tony decided to not comment on how Thor could probably rip any protective detail to shreds if the scepter told him so.

Rin scampered over to him with Bakusaiga in her hands.

"Bakusaiga says you smell better." Rin chirped.

Tony rolled his eyes.

"Tell Bakusaiga thanks, I figured. Ok so where are we on the debrief? Did I miss the part where Fury says we have 'a bigger problem'?" Tony clapped his hands together, feeling refreshed and snarky.

"No. We have a bigger problem, and it has to do with this," Fury took out a tablet showing of fucking course 'Chopper Dave' in his old beat down traffic copter getting shaky footage of Thor pummeling his way out of the base of his tower from the sub-basement, clearly holding the glow stick of destiny in one hand, and Mjolnir raised in the other.

Point Break could pull off a drag-queen Statue of Liberty.

"This goes beyond bad optics. SHIELD managed to keep Chinese, Russian, French, British, and American governments in the dark about what happened to the scepter in Shanghai. We had convinced them that the theft had been thwarted with a replica, but that all stopped when footage from Chopper Dave caught Thor on video. This video then continues to show Thor fly across New York with the scepter, casting lightning down upon the city, causing a massive power outage. The Chinese government now knows the scepter they have is a fake and everyone is demanding to know where the real scepter is. So yes, we have a much bigger problem. We managed to bring everyone together to fight this alien enemy, but now they don't know who they can trust. Can you imagine what the fall out is going to be if the countries go to war with each other because they think Thor may be working for another country? Or if they decide to go to war with SHIELD thinking we are harboring him? Or, imagine the panic that would ensue if they think the enemy has the power to turn our own allies against us?" Fury ranted and Tony wished he could have cared more, but he never was really one for politics.

Like a strummed guitar string, Sesshomaru 's youki pinged into the basement of his tower. That was tremendously more interesting.

It happened so suddenly, Tony knew Loki had to have teleported them both back here. If Loki had made him fly, he would have given him another kick in the ribs. Tony hoped that Loki wouldn't try conjuring an illusion to make him look like someone else to join them in their meeting. Fury had a far keener eye than Tony usually gave him credit for, and he had rightfully seen through his Sesshomaru illusion before.

He also just didn't need any of Loki's blow-up antics on top of whatever other bad news Fury was going to deliver to them about Thor.

"The enemy already can turn our own allies against us. You read my initial report in Norfolk, the Nycteus' projectile weapon that hit the Destroyer USS Sampson turned its weaponry against us. When Sesshomaru destroyed the Nycteus, the Captain and crew of the USS Sampson regained control of their Destroyer. We interviewed them, none of them were Hydra, none of the crew turned against us, it was the magic in the Nycteus that took over the tech and the ship fired on its own. It nearly cost me my life, and the lives on Helicarrier Two, and the surrounding carriers and Destroyers." Natasha explained heatedly.

Tony knew Sesshomaru had approached him from behind before anyone else did.

Well, Ok, save Rin because she immediately bounded over to him. She gave him a heart-shaped card she must have made in Pepper's office.

Tony caught a glimpse of a teal and brown drawing. Jaken?

"Lord Sesshomaru I made this for you." Rin whispered like she was telling him a secret.

Sesshomaru smiled (well his version of 'smile') and tucked the card into his white and red kimono. Tony didn't miss the far-away look in his eyes though.

"You alright?" Tony asked putting another piece of General Tso's into his mouth. He didn't realize how famished he was. Was he supposed to be hungry right after a tremendous loss? Weren't people supposed to not have an appetite after they lost a loved one?

Rhodey wouldn't want him to starve. He ate some more for Rhodey.

"Hmmm." Sesshomaru hummed and turned to Tony, his golden eyes sharply focused on him. It turned Tony on, and got a bit frustrated he couldn't show any affection in front of Fury. Sesshomaru approached and stood at his side. Tony studied him for a moment, and saw he looked far better than he had seen him before.

Vain priss. He wanted to look his best in front of Fury. Probably in front of everyone else as well.

"So, I know you don't like the guy, but let's not kill Fury." Tony stated as a half joke, and Sesshomaru just eyed his precious General Tso's with an arched eyebrow.

"Hey, don't you judge me. Not all of us can afford to go elk hunting every time we're hungry. I'm not going Keto just because you are." Tony quipped, smirking and Sesshomaru barely furrowed his eyebrows. When this whole war was over, he was going to eat only General Tso's and eat it in front of his Food-Policing Fiancé.

"Ah, thank you for joining us, Mr. Nirvana. Don't worry; this visit will be a bit less climatic than our last meeting." Fury addressed from across the room, Maria Hill's spine jacked itself straight you could fly a flag from it.

Fury's sole eye flickered to Sesshomaru's left side, lingered there before going back up to his eyes. So, Fury noticed Sesshomaru's missing arm and didn't say anything to draw attention to it. Ok, Tony could respect that.

Sesshomaru just blandly blinked at him.

That went better than Tony could have hoped for. Tony was fairly sure that Loki had something to do with how relaxed Sesshomaru handled this whole situation.

"Bakusaiga, to me." Sesshomaru lifted his right arm and Bakusaiga sailed from her place on the sofa to his hand.

Maria Hill put her fried rice down, turning a bit green.

Tony secretly hoped she would stay as a sword for this hootenanny because he doubted that Fury discovering that Sesshomaru's swords were people would spur Fury to get his fiancé into a SHIELD lab even faster.

"The first priority is locating Thor, which means we need to figure out where the scepter may be leading him." Steve had washed his face at least, and stood steadfast next to Fury. Tony sort of envied how well put together Steve could look when Tony knew he probably felt like one of his own punching bags.

Tony hid a wince, pushing Rhodey from his mind as he brought up a holo-projection of the world.

"Enough time had passed that Thor could be just about anywhere save Auckland, Zealand." Tony commented.

"They're probably instructing Thor to lie in wait until their next ship arrives, the Worldslayer." Nat suggested. This made sense because he wasn't attacking any of them. Aside from him leaving the tower, no one, not even a twelve year old with an Instagram account had seen him flying around.

"If The Other is really having him go underground until their next ship arrives, that could give us time to prepare a strategy to deal with Thor when he does come out of hiding." Clint's voice held a sense of optimism that Tony shared. They weren't prepared to deal with Thor if he attacked and tried to turn more of them with the scepter.

"That would make sense since he hasn't double backed to use the scepter on more of us to turn our loyalties over the enemy's side." Steve pensively responded to Clint, and Tony couldn't decide if Steve looked relieved or not.

"I think we can assume if Thor didn't swing back to brainwash us, it's for two reasons. The first is, The Other doesn't care if we are on his side or not, or the second is he may want to, but it's too risky to get Thor to come back and try." Natasha succinctly explained, stepping forward to study the globe.

"I don't know if I'm relieved that the enemy doesn't think it needs us to defect or not." Maria Hill sighed deeply, echoing the sentiments of most everyone in the room.

Fury and Hill didn't know about the Soul Gem. They didn't know that Thanos wanted the second-half of the Soul Gem that Sesshomaru hid on the Astral Plane.

Tony shifted. Was it smart to trust Fury with this information?

"Again, we are back at square one. Since we don't know the enemy's motives for coming to our planet, except that they want to annihilate us, we have to operate under the assumption that they are simply going to have Thor give them the scepter when they arrive with their next ship." Fury stated, but Tony senses an undercurrent of skepticism from Fury.

Well, Fury could smell out a lie, so he could most certainly tell when they were lying, or at least omitting the truth.

His statement was to prompt one of them to come forward and dish their dirty little secrets.

But, Tony had remembered something Rhodey had brought up when he launched Demons.

Rhodey mentioned the Soho Accords. And SHIELD battling with the US government over the IFO, 'Identified Fallen Object'.

"OK Fury, since we are all at this slumber party together, let's gossip. I've heard a rumor that SHIELD dredged up the ship that Sesshomaru shot into the Upper New York Bay. So, why don't you tell us why you rush-jobbed that, and kept the spaceship from the Unites States, and we will tell you what the enemy is really after. I'll braid your hair if you braid mine." Tony couldn't help but make a hair joke, but his tone remained sharp.

He knew SHIELD was up to something with that interceptor.

"It shouldn't surprise me you know about the IFO. Fine, Tony, please braid my hair, indulge me as to motivations of our enemy. Why are they targeting us?" Fury turned his full attention to Tony and he was thankful that he hadn't drank anything before this because Fury could spot a lie on him a lot easier when he was sloshed than sober.

"Thanos is an avid geologist as it turns out. He is after gems of power to construct an all-powerful weapon for galactic dominance. One of them, turns out, is the Tesseract." Tony led with the Tesseract, because they all knew about that one.

"Yes, but we don't have the Tesseract any longer. It's on Asgard, and Thor knows that because he took it with him." Maria Hill stated, getting annoyed. Sesshomaru sighed through his nose and clicked his talons.

His fiancé was getting as impatient as he was. Rare.

"The enemy isn't here for the Tesseract." Steve started, and Tony was going to strangle Steve if he put a target on Sesshomaru's back unnecessarily.

"They're on Earth because we have half of one stone, and they have half of another." Steve continued cautiously, and to his credit he didn't do anything stupid like try to catch Sesshomaru's attention.

"We have another stone that's as powerful as the Tesseract here on Earth and I'm just hearing about it?" Fury's eyepatch almost wrinkled up into his scalp.

He didn't see that coming.

"It's not technically on Earth, but the only way for them to get it is here on Earth. It's secure where it is now." Natasha wrangled control of the conversation away from Steve. She obviously wanted to obfuscate the conversation a little bit which Tony appreciated.

Fury's dark eye focused in realization and barked out a chuckle.

"Mr. Nirvana. This is where you come in, right? You either know about it or have it. Tell me I'm wrong and that this has nothing to do with your portals to portions of space that we can't explain. You opened another one over Norfolk when you disintegrated the Nycteus. The space portal was a near perfect circle. Tell me I'm wrong and that you don't have this other half of the gem that they've come here for." Fury's voice took on a victorious tone and to his left Sesshomaru's ears pricked up in surprise.

Tony's protectiveness surged high like a storm swell. Yet, now was not the time to be dramatic. If he did he would have to get the answers from SHIELD the hard way. He owed it to Rhodey and Pepper to put his emotions aside for the greater good.

Sesshomaru just raised his sharp chin, and Tony noticed his skin still looked a little too pale for his liking. Maybe he had healed his wounds, but it was more than apparent that he needed to rest.

Tony would tie them to their bed after this, to sleep that is, nothing more.

"So they want this stone so bad they're willing to cross the galaxy to get it and to come get it before the Tesseract. The Tesseract creates portals, what does this other do?" Fury edged curiously, but he noticed Nat shift so that meant that Fury may be more than curious.

Maybe Fury was worried.

"As far as we know, their half creates the Demon Spirits that you see. It's half of the soul gem." Clint explained, also looking a bit better for the wear, but wearing an awful Kobe Bryant t-shirt. Did Clint ever dress well?

"So it creates spirits, that's it? Nothing else?" Maria Hill placed her hands on her hips skeptically.

"That's all? Did you see DC?! Just one of those spirits nearly decimated our entire nation's capital and would have routed all our forces if Loki hadn't given his life to stop her. She is just ONE of the millions that they can all upon through that stone. And on top of that, only Sesshomaru and I have been truly effective against them." Clint put down his Chinese food and gripped his bow like he was gripping a steering wheel in an car accident. Maria Hill took a gentle step back.

"It would also be smart to err on the side of that the whole Soul Gem is greater than the sum its parts." Tony added, finally contributing to the conversation. That and the fact that the second half of the gem was embedded in a weapon called 'The Sword of Hell' and held a bunch of Demon souls in it indicated that if those two ever became whole, then cataclysm sounded like a real possibility.

"So the goal of our enemy is to get these gems so he can run amok across the galaxy destroying other planets. Well, the buck stops here." Fury stated sternly, and Tony had thought perhaps in another life he meant it to be motivational. But now that Tony really looked at his sour mug, he could tell even Fury looked beaten.

"Well right now the enemy can't get either. The Tesseract is on Asgard and as you put together, Fancy Pants is the only one who can get the other half of the Soul Gem." Clint collapsed on the sofa as if his legs decided to take the day off. Steve joined him. Tony would have to get that sofa cleaned.

"Lord Sesshomaru, I think they care too much about these gems!" Rin whispered and Sesshomaru nodded in agreement then wrinkled his nose.

It was clear from the expression on Sesshomaru's face that he didn't like the smell of the Chinese food. Well, he doubted the General Taos that he was currently chowing down on resembled anything from his time anyway.

"So, Fury, time for you to paint my nails. What's up with this IFO? You ruffled a lot of feathers with 'American Big Brass' not giving the spaceship back to them.

"It was in the world's best interest for one country to not have exclusive access to alien tech. We're trying to prevent a war between countries and focus them on a war against our extra-terrestrial enemy. Some regimes are having a hard time with that." Fury expertly ate a dumpling with his chopsticks and Tony wondered just how much time he had spent in asia.

"We managed to repair the IFO using some of our own tech, and trying our own hand at replicating alien tech." Fury continued slowly, and a hair smugly. Tony dropped a chopstick and Sesshomaru's whip launched from nowhere to grab it out of midair for him.

Show off, but yeah, just a bit heart-warming. Tony would repay the favor later.

"You…you all managed to repair that spaceship?! Can it fly out of our atmosphere?!" Tony sounded a bit breathless. How? How could they have done something like this? How could they have rebuild that downed spaceship and got it space flight ready and not told The Avengers?

"We repaired the essential systems on the ship. Yes, Stark, there are other tech experts out there who assist SHIELD. I don't think you can blame us for building in redundancy. The offensive weaponry was completely unrecoverable, but we were able to patch up and repair the bow of the ship along with the controls. The engines themselves were already mostly intact; we just had to desalinate them." Fury continued and Tony's mind was spinning with the calculations of materials they would need, of who could have helped them?

The wrecked tech in his basement was a Destroyer gun...

"Justin Hammer, he's your 'tech expert'. Let me say that's a really generous title to give him." Tony growled out. He had almost completely forgotten about him, and his stupid awful counterfeit Destroyer guns. Justin Hammer was working for SHIELD and Hydra both, which meant he had no idea that there were rogue elements inside SHIELD.

"Fury, please don't tell me you brought Justin Hammer on board." Nat sharpened her gaze at him like a scalpel. That was when they first met, when she was Natalie the undercover SHIELD agent hired to them.

"It was my idea, and I take full responsibility. So far, it has paid off. With Justin Hammer's help, we repaired the interceptor for space travel and created a security protocol the likes of which no one has ever seen. We didn't want a repeat of the scepter incident, so we created a program that not even Loki, or you Tony, could trick or hack your way into." Maria Hill began and Tony rolled his eyes then noticed Sesshomaru's youki invisibly spiked.

Something had his attention, his ears raised in alarm and Tony could hear him cracking his talons.

"Lord Sesshomaru, what is it?" Rin asked, perceptive as usual.

Sesshomaru didn't respond except to gaze down at Rin softly. He was waiting for something.

"Where is the spaceship?" Stars and Stripes asked the million dollar question, and Sesshomaru tensed up like someone bracing to be hit with a baseball bat.

"It's secure. And don't fret, captain. Even if someone learned the location of the Interceptor, they would need the uniquely generated pass-code to even to start its engines. It's encrypted with a unique Asymmetric RSA algorithm that, yes Justin Hammer helped develop." Fury responded squaring up to Steve. While that seemed to quell Steve's thoughts on the matter, Tony facepalmed again.

"You don't need the pass-code if the enemy knows your developer helped design the security algorithm." Tony quipped back, hot and angry.

Which meant the enemy knew about Justin Hammer because they had his Destroyer gun. If the enemy was using Justin Hammer to build their tech, it meant that the enemy knew about Justin Hammer's work on the interceptor.

Thor.

"Fury, The Destroyer guns. Hydra commissioned Justin Hammer to construct them. The enemy knows what Justin Hammer was working on so they know you have repaired the Interceptor. Where is Justin Hammer?" Nat practically spiked her Lo Mein and got in Fury's space. Tony's blood pressure skyrocketed through the roof.

"SHIELD has him contained at a special facility, Agent Hill, can you please make the call to check in? I understand this is a predicament, we already knew about this and I secured Justin Hammer with agents I personally trust. However, would Thor be interested in the Interceptor? Can Thor even pilot it? No one employed at SHIELD could make heads or tails of the controls." Fury asked and Tony was about to answer with a pithy a comeback 'like you trusted Agent Coulson'. When Sesshomaru stepped forward.

"It'd be unwise to assume The Other is ordering Storm God to merely lay low and await for the arrival of the Worldslayer." Sesshomaru sternly stated, breaking his silence.

The room deadened to absolute silence.

"Since this is the first time you've said a word in my presence, I'm going to guess this has to do with me. Do you think he wants Thor to leave Earth and rendezvous with the Worldslayer, using the Interceptor we repaired?" Fury asked and if Tony were a betting man, he'd say he was hesitant to find out the answer.

Sesshomaru shook his head slightly.

"He's ordering Storm God to return to his Distant Realm to retrieve the Cosmic Cube." Sesshomaru explained, cutting Tony a look. The Other knew the Tesseract was on Asgard because they could now control Thor.

Pause.

"We have to warn Asgard! They have to know that Thor is under the scepter's spell." Steve announced immediately.

"And just…how would you suggest we send a message to another dimension?" Maria Hill zeroed in on Steve incredulously. She could be just as intimidating as Natasha when she needed to be.

"We can't. Even if we could send a message to King Odin, Asgard doesn't believe the scepter can manipulate minds, otherwise Loki wouldn't have been imprisoned and Sesshomaru wouldn't have been brought to this time." Tony announced, and honestly he hadn't really thought of it that way until now. If Odin had believed Loki, Sesshomaru wouldn't have ended up in his life.

Tony was not about to thank Odin for this, Odin could still kiss his red and gold armored ass.

"But if we could find a way, he may listen to you, wouldn't he?" Steve persisted, obviously alluding to the fact that Loki was alive and lurking around somewhere, hopefully not diva-deep in the throes of a manic depressive episode.

Sesshomaru's ears lowered on instinct.

"The last time I encountered Odin, we were engaged in a duel to the death. He will not harken to me, nor to anyone else on this realm, over the word of his eldest son." Sesshomaru's voice took on a dark, acidic tone which promptly caused Steve to drop the subject.

"You tried to kill Odin? I'm going to have to hear this story." Tony knew that Sesshomaru didn't really like the guy. However, trying to kill the King of Asgard who was also his best friend's father was another level of disdain. Tony then swore that he'd sooner have his own arm cut off before he'd let Sesshomaru step into Asgard again.

"You got some moxie, Pretty Boy." Nat rocked back onto her heels, a playful smirk tugged at her lips.

"Even if Thor got to the Interceptor, and could pilot it, he can't simply travel to Asgard by spaceship. Asgard is in a different dimension." Clint countered, finding the loophole in Tony's fears. Tony's mind wheeled through the calculations, it'd take Thor at least a few hours to get Earth's moon, much less to anywhere farther.

"The Magic Gate has been reopened. Yet, due to my youki field surrounding this planet, Storm God is still cloaked from their All-Seeing Sentry's sight. The Magic Gate can only be used to blindly send those from the Distant Realm to this realm, however it can be used both ways anywhere beyond my youki-field." Sesshomaru explained blandly, and again the room locked itself into a tense silence.

Tony's chest constricted. Just what had he and Loki talked about? Did Loki tell him that the Bifrost was activated? Tony locked eyes with Nat and she made a small movement of her finger on her leg, the symbol for female.

Loki's mother.

There was no other way for her to be here on Earth other than the Bifrost being activated. Jarvis didn't detect an energy surge because Jarvis was offline. The Bifrost didn't ping any of SHIELD's Rudolph Radar because D.E.M.O.N.S. blocked Loki's magic signature.

The Bifrost was active, and no one knew about it until now.

"How do you know the Bifrost is back?" Fury turned on Sesshomaru and Tony was pissed because for the love of technology, it didn't matter how he knew; he KNEW.

"Yeah, that's not focusing on the issue at hand. If Point Break pilots the Interceptor out of D.E.M.O.N.S. range, then that guy, …what's his name...Heisman… is going to see him, and beam him back thinking he's the normal Thor." Tony continued where Sesshomaru left off, zooming the holo-projection out to see where his satellites orbited. He cursed in front of Little Miss Sunshine, but he would have to apologize to her another time. She didn't seem to be paying attention to him anyway, she just owled at Sesshomaru who simply pat her on the shoulder and reassuringly nodded.

She then scampered off to do something probably sneaky.

"He would get the Tesseract and be able to decimate Asgard. The other soldiers that guard Asgard are no match against Thor. He'd either kill anyone who stood in his way, or turn them against us with the scepter. He could even make Heimdall beam them back down to fight us." Nat's face paled to a pallid sheen as she too put down her Moo Goo Gai Pan. Tony swore on his parents' grave that Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. That proved to Tony that Sesshomaru wasn't exactly a bleeding heart.

"And with the Tesseract, he could create a portal to the Astral Plane and steal the last half of the Soul Stone." Clint bolted upright, his fist glowing a muted fuchsia hue. That bit of information Tony just remembered as well. That was why they enemy was trying to capture either Sesshomaru or Loki. Now, however, they didn't need to capture Sesshomaru since Thor could just waltz into Asgard and pulverize the entire realm.

"That would give Thanos would have an overwhelming advantage. If he has the Tesseract, the Soul Stone, the scepter, the poison, and if he used Asgard's army against us, we'd be up a creek without a paddle." Steve, ever the optimist, decided not to say the truth that the enemy would be practically invincible.

"Director Fury, our task force at Point Juliet has responded, nothing unusual to report." Agent Hill's voice sounded half relieved, half unsure.

"Well, if he hasn't gone after Justin Hammer, it's only a matter of time. We should go to his location and offer additional protection." Steve suggested and Tony wanted to ralph up his General Tso's over the thought of protecting Justin Hammer.

Sesshomaru sighed through his nose and turned on his heel. Tony fought the urge to follow him only barely. He wanted to get him alone and made sure he rested well. Tony tracked Sesshomaru's youki which led to the elevator which would lead to Substorage Room 3b, where Loki was….oh damn, Pollydoshi.

He better not be scheming something really irritating with his new 'frenemy' Pollydoshi.

Tony hadn't forgotten he left that tangled mess down here, one that not even his whole team of Chicago Blackhawk Roombas could clean up. He should get a sign commissioned that read 'junk-drawer for the Avengers' misfits'. He'd get on that.

Instead Clint dressed in his 'I still dress like I'm thirteen and watch only Motocross reruns', breezed past him, following his fiancé. Truthfully, he was more likely about to go show Loki his heinous Kobe Bryant t-shirt and tell him that his possessed older brother was about to sack Asgard. Tony shelved the whole ridiculous jealous fiancé thing. He was needed here to keep an eye on Fury, and make sure Fury didn't do anything to his tower to piss him off.

So Tony postured up and strode towards Fury.

"Fury, you have one minute to tell us where the Interceptor is hidden before I lose my goddamn mind and put you back on Comcast Cable Customer Service auto-dial." Tony had balled his fists up next to him. No, he wasn't going to deck Fury across the face, but at least he'd be less likely to grab him by the lapels of his cheap suit.

"You know how you said 'Bermuda Triangle' earlier?" Fury responded smoothly, completely unaffected by how Tony fronted in his face. Infuriating, that must be how he got his name. Tony fought the urge to face palm.

"Better than Area 51, but just barely." Tony grumbled. He wasn't looking forward to gearing up and jet-setting to the only country in the Western Hemisphere that considered Cricket a real sport.

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Hello! I live! Thank you so much for sticking with me through this delay. The pandemic and other events in my life have severely delayed me, but I am trying my best to be more regular. I really hope you liked this chapter, please let me know what you think!

Next up is Loki's chapter. And again, thank you all for reading this, you all really help and inspire me. Do me a favor and let me know what you think!