Wooo, just over a week since my last update!

In the last fic, it was established in a throwaway line that Baldr is Odin's illegitimate son.
In the myths, Baldr gets hit with a dart of mistletoe and dies.
In the last fic, when Frigga (and Thor) were ruling during the Odinsleep they decided to distribute apprenticeship funding more fairly between swordsmiths and farmers.

There is an illusion to very unsuccessful attempted rape in the first section of the chapter. It's not in any way explicit, but if it bothers you, skip to the Hydra section after the Asgardian nobles talk about Darcy having armed her handmaidens.

Reminder: summary of the first fic in ch1
What has happened so far in this fic?
- Everyone's living in Malibu together
- Except for Darcy, who's acting as an ambassador and political adviser on Asgard
- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative
- Tony and Loki find Captain America
- Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.
- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|
- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him
- They make up and Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard
- Also, much Sleipnir angst

I apologise in advance, I am very cruel to Bucky aka 'the Asset' in this chapter :(

Thank you all so much for reading you wonderful, beautiful people!

25/05/19

Chapter Seven - The Asset

Frigga sighed as she looked around at the Council. After the last session she had thought that she had made progress, but it appeared that last night money had changed hands, and Tyr had had some quiet words with some of the on-the-fence lords, and the balance was no longer in her favour.

Darcy sat on an ornate chair beside her, typing furiously onto the laptop Tony had made for her. At first, many Asgardians had been insistent that she use a quill and ink as they did, but Darcy had put her foot down. She could think better with all her notes in one place, she was faster at 'typing' and she was a Midgardian and she was going to use Midgardian technology thank you very much. Darcy had managed to be brilliant and, after showing several of the more liberal Councillors what the computer could do, she had impressed them. At least some of them now thought that Midgardians were more intelligent than goats and were interested in trading with them.

Others, well, they still needed to be persuaded.

She wished that she could do just as she pleased, but an overhaul of the political system required less outright hatred from powerful citizens. Besides, it would be ironic if she were to implement democracy by being an absolute monarch. The realm wouldn't know who to trust and it would descend into chaos.

"Why should we give the peasants a say in how this realm is run? It will be in even more ruin before long. Commoners have no idea of the proper manner of governing." Baldr stated, glaring at Frigga.

Frigga sighed. Once, Baldr would have been amenable, would have looked down with kindness of those of a lower status, but it seemed that after suffering a near fatal anaphylactic shock due to his mistletoe allergy (which, Frigga had recently discovered, Odin had erroneously blamed on Loki), his temperament was rigid, callous and uncaring.

It didn't help that Baldr knew that he was Odin's illegitimate son and thought that due to the regicide of Odin, and Thor and Loki's renunciation of the Throne, he was deserving of becoming the next Allfather. Frigga was not going to allow that to happen.

"Well then, it seems that we will just have to educate them on the 'proper manner of governing'," Frigga said calmly. She wouldn't 'lose her shit' (something that Darcy regularly threatened to do), just yet. "There are hundreds of millions of the lower classes living here who should have some say in how the realm is governed."

"Their lack of class represents their lack of suitability. We were born into our power, it was granted to us by the Norns." Frigga was sorely tempted to roll her eyes at this. "How-"

"Since the farmers were granted more aid for apprenticeships at their request six months ago, the quality and quantity of Asgard's food has vastly increased," Darcy said. "Letting the lower classes have a say on what's important could help Asgard's economy. The Norns have-"

"Do not interrupt your betters, mortal." Leiknir, one of Odin's staunch supporters, was clearly incensed. Frigga was eagerly awaiting the time she could prove that at least one of the assassins had been sent by him. She'd had almost 3000 years practice and she would say that she was a largely patient person, but her tolerance levels were vastly diminishing.

"As I have said previously, Darcy may cut in whenever she wishes," Frigga said icily. "If you are so concerned about preserving hierarchy, then you would do well to listen to my orders and allow us to implement some democracy."

"She may be your 'assistant', but she is not of this realm." Tyr said. "You ask us to trust in the logic of a mortal girl so wise she would grant crude mortal weapons to her handmaidens! It is improper and a demonstration of her severe lack of culture."

"What!" Baldr exclaimed. "This is yet another example of what I have been fearing, you intend to completely destroy Asgard's power and traditions! How do we know that you are not arming them and the rest of the lower classes to rise up against us as you did Odin? You claim you are unsafe, you claim there have been attempts made on your lives, but you make no effort to keep us safe. You would happily see us destroyed."

"Have you murdered the Allmother's daughter, abused her son, her grandchildren, started unjust wars?" Darcy asked. "You might be an asshole but I don't think we'll bother to have them rise up against you, thanks."

Frigga winced, she loved Darcy as a daughter, but sometimes she feared the Midgardian was too blunt for Asgard's style of politics.

"The fact remains that you have armed your handmaidens."

"Yeah? And? I think they should be able to help defend Frigga and I from assassins and be able to taze your drunken soldiers who want to take their 'honour'."

"It's a cowardly way to defend oneself," Tyr stated.

"Oh, because it's not cowardly for a totally ripped soldier to try to take what he wants out of a seemingly defenseless woman."

"Well." Frigga was pleased to see Tyr looking awkward. "Everyone knows..."

"Dude, if you're going to give me some bullshit answer about that being the way of things I'm gonna lose my shit," Darcy stated, and Frigga found herself torn between calling the meeting to order or seeing how this would turn out. "Arna tazing a guy who would happily have done what he liked to her is super reasonable."

"Your mortal weapon is disrespectful, it imitates Mjolnir," Leiknir challenged.

Frigga decided to break for lunch.

-Q-

Secretary Pierce sighed and drummed his fingers on the handrail of the metal walkway. Work on the helicarriers had practically ground to a halt over the last few months and there were now only a few dozen people working on them below him. Since that bastard Loki had turned up and seduced Stark and the World Security Council with promises of intergalactic trade and knowledge beyond their wildest dreams, the funding to his project had been cut and cut again, and many of his engineers had been pulled away to work on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge site.

Of course, Hydra did have a large amount of influence inside SHIELD, it was SHIELD, to an extent, but there were only so many people you could cling onto and so many people you could sweet-talk before Fury, the World Security Council and other important and true SHIELD members would get suspicious.

To make things worse, previously loyal Hydra agents were now questioning the point of Project Insight and were asking if it would not be better to go ahead with the Jotunheim-Asgard-Midgard (coined the JAM agreement by the insufferable Darcy Lewis, who was now swanning around as an ambassador on Asgard as if she had any right to be there). Hydra would never be able to control the human race for its own good if the agreement went ahead, the aliens might get testy.

He had Zola's algorithm, but no way to implement it as of yet, and with the E-R Bridge due to be made public news in just over a month's time he would need to act quickly, and think of a way to eliminate the major powers and players in this agreement. If Hydra eventually formed an alliance with the other realms it was going to be on Hydra's terms.

He sighed again and opened up an encrypted line.

"Strucker? Wake the Asset and prep it. I expect it ready for my arrival in 12 hours."

-q-

When Pierce reached the locked room in which the Asset was kept, 12 storeys under an acre of seemingly abandoned warehouses, he smiled grimly.

The blood decorating one of the concrete walls suggested it had not been in a good mood after being defrosted. The spasms and twitching of the Asset's muscles as it knelt on the hard floor in the middle of the room suggested it had quickly been taught its place again.

"How many?" Pierce asked Rumlow, who was holding a high-voltage baton near the Asset's unprotected flesh arm. The Asset seemed not to notice this, its blank stare looked into the distance somewhere behind Pierce's knees.

"One technician dead, two injured."

Ignoring the concerned 'Sir' from Rumlow, Pierce strode forwards and grabbed the Asset by its chin, forcing it to look into his eyes. Its eyes betrayed a momentary flicker of terror before they returned to their usual blank and complacent state. It had been a fraction of a second but it wasn't good enough. The Asset didn't have a right to fear its handlers, it would take what they did to it and it would accept it.

"Do you think you need reprogramming, Asset?" Pierce asked softly.

He could see the cogs turning in the Asset's mind. Oh, he would definitely be reprogrammed, anything other than blank acceptance was intolerable.

"No, Sir," the Asset rasped eventually, almost too quietly for Pierce to hear.

"No!?" Pierce rewarded the Asset with a backhand that sent it tumbling to the floor. "You have no preference, you are our machine, Hydra's to do with as we please. You will be reprogrammed and you will be grateful for being made into a more effective weapon for Hydra to use to shape the world."

"Yes, Sir," the Asset agreed from where it lay sprawled on the floor. At least it hadn't tried to defend itself or move from where it had fallen. That showed it wouldn't need to be seriously reprogrammed.

Pierce sighed and held out a hand to Rumlow, who placed the electric baton into his palm. Grimly, he pressed the baton down onto the Asset's bare stomach, watching with a certain amount of satisfaction as it writhed silently on the floor, its metal arm sparking slightly and doubtlessly only adding to the pain the Asset felt.

It didn't dare to scream, not that it would remember why it wouldn't, but Pierce's predecessors at Hydra had made sure it wouldn't allow itself to do so.

Pierce wasn't sure about this. It was no doubt useful for stealth on missions, but it seemed a shame that the only time he could hear the Asset's screams was when it was being wiped.

Still, having nigh on complete control over the former Bucky Barnes, the late, great Captain America's best friend, did give him a certain rush of power.

-Q-

It was Sunday afternoon and the residents of 10880 Malibu Point were enthusiastically crowded around Steve who was about to have his first go on a cellphone, a look of expectation on all of their faces. Steve couldn't help but feel like a zoo animal and kind of pressured to get this right.

"Have a go, Cap," Tony was saying excitedly, handing the shiny phone over. "I've set it to 'accessibility mode' so even an old man like you shouldn't have any trouble."

"Are you saying I might have trouble using a device that Loki's kids have no issues with?" Steve shot back, trying to ignore the fact that a quick glance down at the phone as Tony had handed it to him had shown him that he had no idea what any of the bright buttons on the 'touch-screen' did.

"Well, if you can figure out how to text me in the next ten minutes I'll deactivate the training wheels." Tony shrugged, leaning back against Loki and smirking.

"Oh, it's on," Steve said, narrowing his eyes. There was silence for ten seconds, then, "What is 'text', exactly? Am I... sending you a telegram?"

-q-

"Right, Steve," Jormungandr said seriously, "this is a toaster." Steve resisted sighing, he knew what a toaster was... even if this one did seem very fancy. "And these, are poptarts. You have to take the poptart out of the packaging before you put it in the toaster, otherwise you will set fire to things like Uncle Thor did." Steve glanced at Thor, who looked slightly embarrassed.

Five minutes later, Steve had to admit that Thor was right, poptarts tasted very good.

-q-

"This is music?" Steve exclaimed, horrified, as he tore the earbuds from his ears. Everything else had seemed much more advanced in the future, why was music so bad! "What is it?"

"Skrillex," Sleipnir replied. "Don't you like it? We could try ACDC?"

-q-

"These are cars!" Steve rushed down the lab stairs and hurried to inspect the bright red convertible. "They're incredible! Do they fly? Please tell me Howard figured out how to make them fly."

"He didn't actually," Tony said, and Steve's heart fell, remembering the Stark Expo and how amazing Howard's almost flying car had seemed. "We could make it fly together, if you want," Tony suggested casually, and Steve swung round to face him. He was well aware that the only thing he would be useful for in this project was the heaving lifting, but, getting to work on an invention with a Stark? Completing Howard's work? Maybe finding some more about Howard in the process? Becoming Tony's friend? Count him in.

"Yeah, I would really like that," Steve said, smiling as Tony's face lit up into a grin.

"Cool, we'll just introduce you to the internet and then we can get started!"

So, I hope you guys all enjoyed that!

Next up: Sleipnir tries to be more assertive.

Loki, Bruce, Erik and Jane finish the E-R Bridge (finally, a chapter from Loki's POV again!)

Tony takes Steve to visit Peggy.

Also, I will shortly be uploading a translation of Dernière Volonté (Last Wish) by SoleilBreton, it's a frostiron AU in which Howard Stark is a ghost who tries to get Loki, an employee at Stark Industries and the only one who can see Howard, to get his murderer behind bars, and Tony and Loki pretend they are just friends with benefits (side note: I learnt that the French word for this is sexfriends, which is amazing) and don't have serious feelings for each other.

It's a super great story and I'm translating it for fun/revision for my upcoming French-English translation exam, so I'm pretty excited about publishing it here!