Gypsies

by Lalaith Quetzalli

-AU to Nightingale.- Prince Loki died, and his loss brought about a change in fate no one could have ever predicted. As three princesses are left alone, forgotten by the world that was once their home, left to wander through the Realms… until the day comes when they may find some sign and make a new home for themselves. (Crossover with Wonder Woman) Temporary Character Death

3. Balance

So much happens in this chapter. I'm warning you right now, hold on tight, because things will be getting really hectic!

I love this chapter! It's... the last two chapters you've seen the girls grow, evolve, become the best version of themselves they could be after Amora's curse. Now... now you'll see them settle into who they can be, and the way they resonate in themselves, with the world... and with their matches.

Dreamcast: Aside from those mentioned previously we have Julianne Moore as an older Irene Adler, Helen Mirren as an older Anya Willow, Lily Collins as Nina Reynolds, Riccardo Scamarcio as Django Reynolds, Candice Accola as Lorna/Polaris, and Julian Morris as Clavis Hvedrungr.

The song in this chapter is "A Thousand Years", originally sung by Sting, I recommend the cover from Harmonize Projekt 2. I also include a fragment of the poem "Unending Love" by Rabindranath Tagore.

WARNING: More notes at the end regarding the coming AUs.

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Balance

For every dusk there is a dawn, for every wrong there is a right.

xXx Meril's POV xXx

When the photo came across my desk, I was already expecting it. I was in Moscow, where I'd been for a few months, doing my best to undo what damage Shaw had done in his dealings with some members of the Russian High Command. They knew me as Roza, a Fire Elemental. Some listened to me because they believed I was some envoy from god, there to help 'Mother Russia' rise again; others simply believed that I'd grant them power, like Shaw had for a while. All I wanted was to ensure there would be no war.

I had been through enough. Two World Wars were enough for anyone. Human memories seemed to be so short. So many men in power who convinced themselves that they could do what their predecessors hadn't, that they could have power, could push further, and things wouldn't go as terribly wrong as they had in the past… with every war and every revolution. Too short their memories were.

As for me… I'd never forget the sound of my mother's psychic scream, the first time so many lives were lost in a short period of time, in one of the German's camps. Would never be able to forget the taste of her horror, her desperation. My empathy was very little, compared to her, and even then, her emotions had hit me in such a way, nothing would ever be able to compare. If I never had to feel such despair again I would be happy enough.

The photograph itself was of terrible quality, probably taken from one of the ships, all blurry and unfocused. All one could really make out were a bunch of people on a half-destroyed beach, and the fact that there were three standing at the front, facing the sea (the fleets), two men and one woman, wearing identical blue and yellow bodysuits. According to the notes the first male, the taller one (by four or five inches), with short dark mahogany hair was tagged as Magneto, he was said to have stopped at least a hundred missiles and disabled them completely. The second male, with floppy, chestnut brown hair was Professor X, he was the one who'd spoken into everyone's minds, asking them to leave that beach, to leave them alone. The woman, the shortest of the three, with her dark auburn hair in a tight braid, tagged as Hekate; according to the notes she was the most terrifying of the three as, when the fleets wouldn't move, she sent them away. Made their ships turn and sail away, towards their respective countries.

If only they knew, that any of the three could have done exactly that, though the men probably wouldn't have been as nice. That was probably why Mama did it, she chose to play the part of the overprotective mother, to make any possible future enemies think twice before going against them; without actually hurting anyone. If Magneto had turned those missiles on the fleets, or if Professor X had gone into their heads and forced them to do things… that would have been a direct attack, the first salvo in a new war. Hekate never touched them, she just sent them away, and in such a way that no one could be sure she'd done anything other than turn their ships around and then left them to do the rest. It was seen as defense, rather than attack, though with enough power behind them that people would think twice, and more, before daring to go against the newly formed X-Men, or any other Gifted.

It wouldn't be the end, of course not, it was just the beginning, but one that gave me more hope than I'd felt at any other point since first arriving to Midgard all those years prior.

Things weren't all perfect, of course not. The picture was blurry enough that no one would be able to identify any of those in it just with that, they had no names, and it would stay that way. Helena had made sure that what files might have survived Shaw's attacks, none would have any names, nothing more than the code-names the self-named Mystique had given them. I had no idea who exactly decided to make Mama into the goddess of magic… but it was fitting, somehow, a tribute not just to herself, but to Papa, to his magic that still ran under her skin, that she learned to wield like it was a part of her.

I like to believe that my presence in Russia helped, that it made things better for Gifted. Those with authority began seeking the youngsters with power, less to control them, and more to ingratiate themselves to them, courting their favor. It wasn't always like that, but after I had to 'express my displeasure' a number of times, they seemed to understand. There were those who tried to have me killed, of course, when I refused to agree with them and they decided that my power was not worth it; but they never knew all about me, they knew I could control fire, but not that I was fire, that it was as much a part of me as the blood in my veins. And none of them ever knew I was also a Seer. So no matter how hard they tried, they could never really take me down.

Eventually I left them. Not long after the Vietnam War began… it wasn't quite as bad as the WW, but still a war. I heard whispers about some governments using their own gifted, trying to get an advantage over their enemies. I couldn't stop that from happening, but I couldn't just leave them alone either. So I shed my last identity, stepped into the jungles and began making a new name for myself, a legend all my own…

xXx Helena's POV xXx

When the name 'Rose of Chaos' first came across my desk I didn't pay it much attention. The number of Gifted kept growing, and while some had proven to have considerable power, and there were those whose intentions might not be so good, humanity as a whole hadn't had any trouble. Not with the X-Men policing mutants, helping them and stopping them as needed; not with the Triumvirate in charge.

It was almost funny, because there were all kinds of rumors about those three. About the possible relationships between two, or even the three of them. The part that caused me no end of mirth was that while most were very sure that the young woman was related to one of them and married to the other, or they might possibly be all together in some way or another… it never occurred to them to believe that the men might be the ones in the relationship, with Hekate nothing more than a dear friend, sister-by-choice to them. Then again, it was the 1960s and homosexuality was seen as a crime in most countries, so that might be why.

That was probably the one thing I missed about the other realms. In Nidavellir, males taking another male as a partner was as normal as them taking a female, and while the fact that there were fewer females than males might be part of it, I knew it wasn't the only factor (though it might have helped into making it so easily accepted). Alfheim did not seem to have concepts of heterosexuality and homosexuality, an elf chose their partner for many reason, but their gender was unimportant, especially when it came to matches. While Jotnar and Eldojotnar did not even have genders as such. Finally, Vanaheim and Asgard never really talked about it, but everyone knew it happened anyway.

I didn't actually pay attention when the code-name 'Rose of Chaos', or sometimes simply Chaos-Rose, began crossing my desk (by then I was working in a top-secret, believed-abandoned, old SSR base; the only person who even knew about me was Director Marge Sholto); with the War in Vietnam there were a good number of Gifted going around and most weren't that impressive. The biggest fight I had on my hands was when Bolivar Trask tried to make his own experimentation on gifted legal and even government funded. Thankfully Meril had managed to warn me about it on time for me to cut him off before any innocent lives had been lost. It required me making a few promises to certain people in power… but I believed it to be well worth it with all the lives that taking out Trask in that moment (before the rise of Trask Industries, before the creation of the Sentinels, before the government had reason to turn against mutants) would save in the long run (hundreds, thousands… possibly the whole world, according to one of my little sister's vaguer visions)… even if that meant that one day I would have to answer a call from the Director of SHIELD.

Back then the most I ever did for SHIELD was when we began hearing whispers of HYDRA enduring, burrowing itself into organizations and governments. I didn't even see that as work, but as my right. I was there, when the battle took place, when the world believed HYDRA defeated, when we thought we had won… I refused to allow all those fights, all the sacrifices to be in vain. And while I couldn't actually go and hunt them down myself, my own vow making such a thing impossible, I could set up things against them as much as possible. The right whispers in the right (or wrong, depending on one's point of view) ears made it so spies were found, some people had all kinds of 'accidents', were 'made' when it should have been impossible. And when coincidence simply wasn't enough, I called on old friends. The Commandos all felt like I, they were all more than willing to do anything to make sure our enemy would not be rising again on our watch.

I did not actually know my own sister was the famous Chaos-Rose until I learned of the murder of Major William Stryker (that one was not on me, though as I found out later, HYDRA had been close to approaching the man for recruitment). The official version said that some secret project the Major had been working on in (the supposedly abandoned) Three Mile Island had gone wrong and it had ended with the man's death and the place in such bad condition that they couldn't even send a team to investigate. The truth, as Marge herself revealed to me, was that Stryker had been doing something so terrible they wanted no one to so much as get a whisper about it. They had reason to believe that he'd been just in the planning stages, though still, that was probably why no one was trying too hard to find whoever was responsible for his death.

Rose herself told me the truth. Told me what the man had been working on, his team of gifted who had been little more than mercenaries, and how much worse it would have gotten in the next five years, all the lives that would have been lost, starting with Stryker's own son. A young gifted boy who in that moment was in the Xavier Institute. When Mystique picked him up following the mother's funeral, Stryker had believed that the Institute would 'cure' his son of his 'freakishness'; upon finding out the truth he would have demanded his son be returned to him. Xavier, unable to do anything about it without getting himself and the whole Institute into trouble, would have let him go, and then Stryker would have decided to use the boy's gift for his own benefit, no longer seeing him as a boy but as a tool. And it wouldn't have ended there.

"I know you made a vow that prohibits you from killing any being who possesses a soul." She murmured softly. "But even if you tell me that Stryker had a soul… to me he was a monster, the worst kind, and he would have been responsible of so many deaths of innocents…" She seemed to get lost in her own memories, probably of some vision or another for a moment. "So I cannot say I regret what I did."

"You need to be careful sister." I told her in return, worried about her rather than her actions. "The more the world knows about you, the more dangerous it becomes for you."

"I will always stand for what's right, fight for those I believe deserve it." She said in return. "I will not stand down, will not turn my back on those who might need me. It's not who I am Helena. And I know it's not who you are either. We are who we are, even if we're separate for now, even if we've stopped wandering for the most part, we, all three of us, still are who we've always been: the Gypsies… the Thalill…"

She was right, of course. No matter how many years I, any of us, stayed in one place, how long we spent apart, we would never really change. We remained true to ourselves and our choice to do what was right, always.

xXx Tinúviel's POV xXx

A lot changed for us, after Cuba. I never expected to become a public figure, sure I'd left that all behind along with my old crown and the name of Tinúviel (princess of Alfheim and Asgard…). Then again, I didn't go into things seeking any kind of power, authority, nothing at all. I didn't take the role of leader, they made me into that. In between the photograph someone in one of those ships took of the three of us, standing together on that beach; and the fact that, while not much was known of us, everyone had been able to tell that we were the eldest in the group, and thus the ones most likely to be the leaders. Also, according to the newly-minted X-Men, and Anya, there was just something about me that screamed 'Mom', which apparently was only right, since Charles and Erik had made themselves into the fathers of the group.

The name Hekate… I was never sure where it came from exactly. The kids had taken to jokingly calling me 'goddess' when realizing I could cook up a meal for everyone, diffuse an argument between Charles and Erik and keep an eye on the twins (and Sean, because sometimes he could be worse than even them, and they had yet to turn eight!), all at the same time. I still had no idea when or who had made the leap from that to Hekate, only found out when Moira first dropped by for a visit after starting the ruse that she'd been made to forget everything after the attack on Division X HQ (though Charles had done something to her mind that, in case of an emergency she just needed to think of a number of things in a specific order and a 'safeguard' of-sorts would be activated, truly erasing all those memories from her mind; of course, that was a last resource). She had told us about the photograph and what little those at the CIA knew and/or guessed about us. And while I certainly felt that naming me after the Greek goddess of magic and crossroads was a tad much (nevermind that I was technically a Goddess, that of Compassion, even if no one is Asgard so much as remembered my name anymore), a part of me liked it, felt that the name was a way of honoring my match, I could never be against that.

There was only one really big fight we all got into back in the sixties, nearly a year after Cuba. President Kennedy was one of a kind, not only had he dealt with the aftermath of the mess in Cuba, but he actually seemed supportive of mutants. We had it on good authority that he was a mutant, as was his brother, and there were people trying to kill him for that very reason. It was why Erik wanted to follow him, keep an eye on him, just in case. Charles wasn't exactly against it, though I knew he hated the fact that they couldn't just both go (someone needed to stay in charge at the Institute and while I was really good with the younger children, the older ones were another matter entirely; also, unlike Charles I did not have the kind of name, money or influence necessary to deal with all the bureaucracy that came with opening a brand new, very exclusive, private school). We were trying to find a compromise that made everyone happy when I got a frantic call from Rose warning me that if Erik left we wouldn't see him again for nearly a decade and everything we were trying to build would be forever ruined. I knew Charles would only be able to think of one way to stop him, and Erik would never forgive him if he used his telepathy like that, so I decided to take it on myself.

The night before he was supposed to leave, I made sure to actually sing a lullaby to put the twins to sleep, I also made sure that Erik would be listening, and infused it with all my magic. Neither of the three woke up for nearly 36 hours, and by then it was already too late. Charles was actually worried at first, as I hadn't told him what I was doing, not even about Rose's call, until it was already all said and done.

When he finally woke up, Erik was furious, he refused to believe that there was nothing he could have done, wouldn't speak to me for days, until Anya set him straight:

"I don't want you to go dadro!" She cried out to him. "Tanti says sometimes you have to go away because you want to protect people, want to make sure no one else will lose their dai (mama) like you lost yours, but what happens if they take you away forever? Dai did not want us, you are all we have, dadro, I don't want you to go away and then never come back. You are all we have! Tanti is really nice, and so is unchi (uncle) Charles, and everyone else, but you are dadro, you are our father, you and no one else! I don't want to lose you!"

Erik threw himself to his knees then, embracing Anya tightly, not knowing what to say. Especially when the twins rushed into the room from wherever they might have been earlier and joined the hug with almost enough force for them all to end sprawled on the carpeted floor.

"I promise you liebling (darling), I will always come back to you, always." He whispered into her auburn hair eventually.

Nothing more was said about the trip to Dallas that never happened, after that day, or Kennedy's assassination. Thankfully, even if the next president didn't exactly do much to help us, neither did they try to move against us, so that was good enough for us.

And then came the war (how I hated war, it's probably the worst thing to ever exist!)…

The Vietnam War changed us all. It took all Erik and I had, same as the children, to keep Charles from falling into despair as, one by one, we lost most of the Institute's staff and first generation of students as they were drafted. Even Alex and Sean were called.

It was Raven's idea to follow them in order to keep them safe. So we perfected a plan. We were too well-known for all of us to disappear at the same time. Even though the government had kept their distance from us, Charles, Erik and I were known as the triumvirate, I was sure they kept notice of us whenever we left the estate to recruit, rescue vulnerable mutants or to stop those who might be using their gifts to commit crimes and hurt others. So we couldn't all disappear.

Since it was her idea, it was Raven who took point, Azazel, Emma and a newly returned Darwin with her. They would make incursions into the Vietnamese jungles, rescuing the gifted injured, abandoned, left to die; and sometimes humans in the same condition too. They also went and rescued those who were being 'used' by their superiors. When necessary it was easy enough for Azazel to teleport back to Westchester and get me so I could heal someone, or Charles when Emma's powers weren't enough, or Erik when they needed more power.

We came across the legend of the Rose of Chaos several times, but across Meril herself only once. Erik tried to convince her to go back with us, but she was much too dedicated to what she was doing, and too used to working on her own, so while she did go back to help Mystique on a number of occasions, I wasn't around for any of those.

Kurt Azrael Darkholme was born in the Fall of 1972, on the day of the Autumnal Equinox (or, as we had called it in Alfheim, Mabon). He was born months after the death of his father, Azazel, who sacrificed his life to protect his lover and the young children she'd been guarding from both American and Vietnamese soldiers at the time. He never even knew she was pregnant, Raven herself hadn't known until after that.

Charles tried to convince her to leave Vietnam, first when she began showing, and then when Kurt was born, but she refused. She needed to finish what she'd begun, felt like she wouldn't be at peace otherwise. So she left Kurt with us and went back to her mission. Thankfully the war ended less than five months later. She arrived to the mansion with her team, Alex, and a number of members of his own unit that had nowhere else to go. Sean had been back for over a year, since being honorably discharged over an injury to his leg that left him with a permanent limp (I had been nowhere near for that and by the time he made it to us there was nothing I could do).

When Irene Adler arrived, things got interesting. Raven hadn't been in love with Azazel, nor him with her; in her own words, they had been friends and a safe outlet for each other. Irene… she was Raven's match, I knew that from the moment the young blonde arrived to the Institute. She needed no education, or training, she was a precog, and good at it. The problem? She was so used to seeing the future, she was actually quite insecure about the present. It took Raven walking straight to her and kissing her right on the mouth (so unexpectedly I was quite sure Irene could have never seen it coming, no matter how powerful she was), for the younger mutant to see that the shape-shifter loved her too.

On 1975 Anya married Johann Reynolds, a Vietnam Vet Alex had served with, whose younger sister Vera was a mutant and attending our school (one of the few with human family who didn't just know the truth about their gifts but were fully supportive). A year later she gave birth to their first-born, a perfectly human boy they named Django Maximilian Reynolds. Seven years later Nina Solovey Reynolds was born, as perfect as her big-brother, though as Hank's test showed: she possessed the mutant gene.

"Is that bad?" Django asked innocently when he first heard about the test and how the results were different from his. "For her? Or for me?"

"There's absolutely nothing wrong, little one, with either of you." Erik assured him vehemently. "You are perfect exactly the way you are. You and your sister both."

"But Nina is a mutant, and you are a mutant… and I'm not." Django murmured, nervous.

"Yes, just like Pietro and Wanda are mutants, while Anya isn't." Erik reminded him. "I love all three of my children equally. Just like your mom and dad love you and Nina equally regardless of who is gifted and who isn't. We're all still family, we will always be family."

"Okay." Django nodded, confident once again.

I couldn't help but wonder what might have happened in another world. One where he didn't have Erik there to reassure him when necessary. Thankfully it wasn't something I needed to focus on for long, because Erik was right there, as were the rest of us. Things were always getting a tad crazy around Westchester but that was alright, that was life for us and we loved it.

I loved those children like they were my own family, my own grandchildren, just like I loved Anya and the twins as much as I loved my own daughters. It didn't make me forget what I had lost, the love of my existence, but it allowed me to be content with my own existence. I still hoped one day my beloved and I would meet again, but I could wait. His magic running beneath my skin and our daughters would forever remind me of him, of our bond and the love we shared, I could wait until he was ready to return to me.

xXx Meril's POV xXx

Pietro found me sometime in the mid-to-late eighties (I stopped keeping track of the date at some point). It was entirely accidental, at least on my part. I consciously chose to walk away, to isolate myself from everything and everyone. The vision I had back in Wakanda… I had once gotten a glimpse into a possible end of the world, and even that wasn't as bad as what I witnessed that night in my dreams. The things Stryker was planning… and it all would start the moment he got his hands on his son. I couldn't allow it.

I felt so bad about the way I woke up everyone in the palace with my screams, but King T'Chaka understood, I was almost as much a figure of legend in Wakanda as the first Black Panther. Everyone knew I had helped past kings throughout the years, I had a standing invitation to spend time in Wakanda whenever I wanted, even had my own cottage on the outskirts of the capital, and a set of rooms in the palace. Not that I used them that often, but sometimes I just wanted time off, to be somewhere where I could disconnect from the rest of the world, where I didn't have to feel like the fate of the world depended on me. It was insane, of course, but thus was the curse of being a Seer who chose to live history rather than stand aside and watch it pass me by. I felt responsible for every thing I did, and every one I did not as well.

The vision that night, it showed me a level of depravity, of wickedness I would have believed impossible until that day. I never told anyone what I saw, but there must have been something in my eyes, for King T'Chaka asked no questions, just put his fastest plane at my disposal, with instructions to one of his best pilots and a team of warriors to go with me and assist me in any way necessary. He also promised me that I would always have a home in Wakanda, whenever I chose to return (I was sure he knew it wouldn't be any time soon).

We made it to Three Mile Island just in time. Razed the place to the ground. I killed Stryker personally, didn't even give him the honor of seeing his death coming, just took him down with extreme prejudice the moment he was in my sight. He deserved no more than that, the monster that he was.

And then, after I made sure that all the evil I had witnessed that night would never come to happen, and thanking the Wakandans for their assistance I walked away, from the island, and from the world. It was too much, I may have been almost nine hundred years old, mature for my years, a Warrior in every sense… yet it was still too much. The mere thought that someone living, someone with a soul, could have that much evil in them. I couldn't reconcile my mind with that. So I let myself become lost for a while, for a good while.

Helena was the only one I told anything to. Mostly because I needed to vent, and because I knew that if no one claimed responsibility for what had happened I risked governments turning on any and all gifted seeking someone to blame.

I still did not expect someone to find me, to be looking for me at all. Yet Pietro did and, as he told me, he'd been looking for me for years.

"Why?" I asked him when he told me that last part.

"Because you're mine… and I'm yours." He answered, as if it ought to be the simplest thing in the world. "Because without you I'm only half of who I'm meant to be." He exhaled. "Wanda is my twin sister, and I love her. She's one of the most important people in the world to me, but even she could never make me whole. She knows that, and accepts it. She knows one day a person made just for her will come and he will make her whole. Just like you make me. Will make me, if you give me, give us, a chance."

"How can you make such declarations? You don't even know me!"

"Maybe not in the traditional sense, but I can feel you inside, I've always been able to do that, since I was a baby. I always knew that something, a part of me was missing. It was Wanda who found the memory, buried deep into my consciousness. You were there when I was born, when we were born. You were there and something happened… and you walked away."

For a moment I actually considered doing exactly that, again. Yet the moment the thought so much as went through my head, it was too much. Even just thinking it, I'm sure I could have never brought myself to actually do it. It had been hard enough the first time around, a second one would have been just impossible. Even half-broken as I was, as I had been since the terrible vision that had taken me from the closest thing I had to a home, I couldn't imagine walking away from him again.

"I knew you were my match from the moment I first held you in my arms." I confessed after what felt like a very long silence. "I knew you would feel it too one day. That's why I couldn't stay. Because one day wasn't that day, and I couldn't imagine standing by you for years, waiting for when you might be ready. Feared that anything I did, said, might have pushed you into doing things before you were ready for them, or made you turn away from me completely." I exhaled, shaking my head. "Matches… they aren't meant to be like this. Even when those involved have great difference in ages, a match should always go at the pace of the youngest person involved. But my gift… my Sight… it worked against me. I live as much in the future, and the past, as I do in the present, sometimes more so. And I didn't want that to affect the way you lived your own life. So I chose to walk away. To wait for you to come to me."

"Well, here I am now." He pointed out unnecessarily.

"Yes, here you are." I agreed.

What else was there to say? It's not like I would have turned him away. The only reason I walked away the first time was because I managed to convince myself it was for the best, for him; his sake would always be the first priority for me.

"I know you've been hurt." He admitted very softly, one of his hands reaching for one of mine. "I don't know what happened all those years ago, but I know you hurt still because of it. I couldn't be there for you then, but I'm here for you now. Let me be here for you."

"Yes." There was no other response I could have given, no other I would have wanted to give. "Yes, always."

I still wasn't ready to rejoin society at large and he seemed to both know and accept that. A week or so later we met up with his sister, Wanda had been waiting for us in some town (it took me a while to learn we were in South America). Then the three of us took to traveling together, helping those we could, gifted and baseline alike.

xXx Helena's POV xXx

I met Stephen Strange in January of 2014. So much had happened by that point, the world had changed in ways I could have never expected it too. We managed to defeat HYDRA, for good, though in the end it cost the life of half of the Commandos who had made it out of WWII, and of my very best friend: Peggy… She was the very first to fall. Still, we knew the world wasn't ready to lose her, not yet, and especially not when we couldn't even begin to explain why it had happened, as no one outside our small group knew of the war we'd been fighting.

So we kept Peggy's death quiet, and with the help of Jacob Sholto, Dum Dum Dugan, Howard Stark and myself, Marguerite Cartier took her place. She was a french singer who'd been spy for the allies during the war, had applied for political asylum after the end of the war and was denied. The governments doing all they could to hide the things women had done in service of their countries, not wanting to admit the 'valiant men' couldn't do it all on their own. It was absolutely ridiculous. Peggy and I had done our best to keep her safe, with Howard sending her money through fake accounts when necessary. Hardly anyone knew of her by the time she took Peggy's place, which was actually quite convenient.

None of them really knew about me, none but Peggy. The rest believed me to be my own niece or something (it was how I kept changing identities, yet sticking around; all I did was change my hairdo, my makeup and take a new name; if any of them suspected the truth, none ever said).

With HYDRA finally gone, with the Winter Soldier and Von Strucker (the last known members) finally dead for good, I decided I was tired of it all. So I dropped my latest identity and, after warning Marge that I was taking off and how to contact me in case of an emergency, I left the shadows I'd been living in since the end of WWII and began a new life for myself.

In the early 2010s I was going by Helen Carver and working for Stark Industries. Somehow (I was never sure how exactly), I became Miss Potts's executive assistant when when her previous one, Miss Natalie Rushman, had to go away for personal reasons in the Summer of 2011. It was a boring job, all things told, but different enough from what I'd been doing for decades that I didn't mind it much.

I'd heard about Stephen Strange, of course, who hadn't? The man was a legend in medicine, the best Neurosurgeon in the country, possibly the world; part of the most exclusive social circles (which I had effectively become a part of while working for Pepper Potts). I danced with him once, during a gala on the first week of January of 2014, and as much as I loved being in his arms again… I knew he wasn't my Stephanos.

Stephen Strange looked nothing like the man I'd loved, like my match, but then again, that was perfectly normal. A reincarnation concerned the soul, not the body. I'd noticed only one physical thing never changed regardless of how many times we reincarnated: the eyes. Mine were always the lightest green, almost translucent under a certain light, while his were a perfect mix of blue, green and the lightest hint of gold, absolutely enthralling. Then again, magic also tended to be a thing for him, he had once been the most powerful warlock in Midgard after all… though that had been a long time prior, even before I was born as Helena Miriel, daughter of Loki and Tinúviel… But it wasn't about the physical, not really; I could tell it was him, could feel it in my core. But he was nothing like the man I loved, there was none of the kindness, the care for others, the protectiveness, the courage to defy any and all obstacles, all the things I remembered about him. Stephen Strange had the potential for all those things of course, but they weren't a part of him, not yet.

So I danced with him one song, turned away when he tried to kiss me, just enough for his lips to just touch the edge of my mouth. What I never expected was when, less than an hour later my phone was ringing, my little sister's near hysterical voice on the other end of the line:

"Helena you need to hurry!" She practically screamed at me.

I didn't even stop to wonder how exactly she knew my mobile number when Tony had just given it to me, a Stark Tech prototype he was asking some of us to test for him before they were mass produced and sold. It was Meril and she was still the best Seer I'd ever known.

"What…? Meril…? Muinthel…? Slow down!" I cried out, confused.

"No time, Helena you need to hurry or your match is going to die!" She screamed.

I barely managed to make out what followed, a highway, a mile, something about an accident. The very blood in my veins seemed to freeze as my brain finally caught up with what she was saying: Stephen Strange was about to have an accident in his car, or had just had it, and unless I intervened he was going to die!

I didn't even think about it. The desperation so strong I forgot everything about the times, the technology and the fact that I'd been trying so hard to stay off-radar for more years than I could faithfully keep count of. I just stepped into the shadows and rushed to where the very core of my soul knew I needed to be.

What I found… it was almost as bad as my worst nightmares, the kind that still held the edge of the memories from the darkest times of the wars. It was raining in that particular part of NY. I stepped out of the shadows and straight onto the highway. There was burnt rubber, glass and even pieces of mangled metal on the edge, just at the end of a sharp curve (or the start, depending what direction one was driving to and from). I rushed to the spot where the security guardrail had been completely ripped into pieces. There was a drop just past it, a cliff at least fifteen feet deep, possibly more; at the bottom a stream, or at least that's what it seemed to have become with all the rainwater accumulating there.

"Stephanos!" I screeched, not even noticing that I was screaming out-loud.

It took but a thought to get down there, teleporting without even having to focus. Stephen was in the car, the seat-belt keeping him in place though he was so badly hurt I was beyond horrified. For a moment I actually considered taking him, using magic to get us straight to the nearest hospital and damn my anonymity. And then I remembered the first-aid course I had taken, and how they'd taught us it was a bad idea to move someone badly injured. I knew first-aid, but I wasn't certified in any sense, wasn't even a healer but…

"Nana!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, willing my magic to get the message to the person I needed to hear me.

She was there in less than two minutes, in a long nightgown, half-open robe thrown haphazardly on, feet bare, long hair in a messy braid over one of her shoulders. She seemed to care not at all, not about her clothes, the rain, or where she'd just appeared. She hurried to me anyway.

"Cala amin (light mine)… what is wrong?" She asked the moment she got to my side.

"I need you nana, he needs you." I told her anxiously.

It was then that nana took notice of him, immediately getting as close as he could, with the car half turned and partially under the rising water as it was.

"Who is he?" She asked even as she took careful note of all his injuries.

"Elwen amin (mine heart)… enda amin (mine core/soul)…" I whispered, not even noticing when I switched to elvish.

Nana said nothing else, but I could sense as her magic rose and she began working on healing, first the major injuries, the ones that actually threatened Stephen's life, then the lesser ones.

"I'm afraid I know nowhere near enough about biology to do a perfect healing." She admitted to me. "I do know nerves are very delicate. Your match will need a hospital the moment we can get him out of here, and quite probably surgery. I can assure you he won't die tonight, but not much more than that."

"I understand." And I did, already she was doing more than enough.

Nana still kept healing Stephen until she was almost swaying with exhaustion. Just before I rushed to her there was a poof, the smell of sulfur and a man with blue skin and a devil's tail appeared right on time to scoop her up into his arms. He then turned towards me, still holding my mother in his arms.

"Hello, I am Nightcrawler." He introduced himself with a respectful nod of his head. "I'm here to get Hekate home."

"I am Elaine." I use the closest I had to a code-name. "Thank you for looking after her."

"She's family." Nightcrawler said with a shrug.

I knew that. It was ironic, that when we finally managed to stop our wanderings, we did so apart rather than together. We knew so little of the lives each of us had had over the past decades, more than half a century… and yet, for those like us, who measured their lives in millennia, it was such a short time it would probably be a few more decades yet before we began truly missing each other. And it's not like he never got in touch, didn't visit. We were never exactly publicly together (and there was that time when Meril practically dropped off the face of the earth for about five or seven years…), but we still visited one another every so often, and there were calls of course. We didn't stop being family just because we had separate lives.

"You need any help?" He asked, glancing at me, at Stephen, the car, as if wondering if I had a plan on how to proceed.

"No, I can take it from here." I assured him and then, because I had nothing else to say I repeated: "Thank you."

Nightcrawler nodded once and then he was gone in a cloud of blue smoke and sulfur.

I pulled out my mobile, thankful I had kept it on me when shadow-walking out of my floor at Stark Tower and straight to the highway (and that was something else I was going to have to deal with, either making sure JARVIS hadn't discovered me gone, or being honest with him… or at least as honest as I could be) and was about to dial for an ambulance when the last thing I could have ever expected happened: Stephen was still completely unconscious, and yet a word slipped past his lips, just one, but it was enough to turn my world upside down:

"Elaine…"

I froze. My own heart seemed to skip a beat. And then I decided to throw caution to the wind, took hold of Stephen and magicked us both out of there and straight to the nearest hospital. I could deal with explanations (to the hospital staff, to Stephen, to Tony and Pepper) later, in that moment all I needed was to ensure Stephanos would be alright.

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

When Nicholas Fury became Director of SHIELD he got two gifts from his predecessor, Marge Sholto: the first was a bottle of very good scotch, the second were two files, hard-copy, which he was warned were for his eyes only, that there was never and should never be a digital version of them, as it was information only the Director of SHIELD should have access to. After seeing what was inside them, Nick wholeheartedly agreed.

The first file was on HYDRA and on the war that had been secretly waged against the terrorist organization for decades, after WWII. The way each of its members were investigated, and once confirmed, taken down with prejudice. All the ways everything was covered up, so as to avoid the complications and world-wide nervousness that would have happened if any of it had gotten out. It also included information on the Winter Soldier, the list of his known kills, which included Howard and Maria Stark, as well as Shannon Carter (Nicholas's former teammate, and Director Sholto's niece); it even included the assassin's real name and how exactly he'd become the phantom most intelligence organizations still didn't know for sure had ever existed. Only one name had been taken from the list, that of Margaret Carter… there was no need for it to be included, as there was no need for Nicholas to know that the woman who'd handed him his new post wasn't the same one who'd once been known as Captain America's sweetheart.

The secrets that concerned the lives of Margaret 'Peggy' Carter and Marguerite 'Marge' Sholto (nee Cartier), and their switch were need-to-know only; and Nicholas simply did not need to know. Truth was that, aside from Marge's eldest granddaughter, Harriet and Helena Miriel there was no one left who even knew anything about it. Harriet had decided that her siblings did not need to know about it, their grandmother was old and dying, and there was no need to stir things on that front. A day would come when no one but Helena would ever know that the 'famous' Miss Carter had ever been two women, or that Marguerite ever existed.

The other file Nicholas got, was about one Helena Miriel. It included pictures of her through the time, the feats she was known to have done, especially in each of the World Wars, and a list of her known aliases (Elaine Serrure, Lucia Grayson, Eileen Hvedrungr, Lucille Nova, among others). It also included the way of contacting her, and how it was something that should only be done in the most dire emergency.

Fury memorized everything he believed to be necessary and then locked both files away, only keeping them so as to one day be able to pass them on to his successor (if he even believed it was necessary when the time came). Truth was that while he did believe it to be a good idea to keep an eye out in case HYDRA made an attempt at returning, he didn't think there would ever be a situation that would make calling on Helena Miriel necessary. And then the world, the universe apparently, went crazy on him.

Tony Stark with his whole I-am-Iron-Man mess was bad enough, one of the most promising scientists in the country turning into a green-rage-monster and then almost breaking Harlem, while actually protecting it from a worse monster was twisted enough, the mutants with their leading triumvirate and their communities that few 'normal' police dare even go into and a school that was effectively considered a haven and thus even the government of the freaking US had no power over what happened there! All that was more than bad, twisted and crazy enough, he really did not need half a dozen holes opening up in the sky in the middle of London and then monsters, in an honest-to-god spaceship dropping out of one of them before a pseudo god followed and they had it out on Greenwich of all places!

It was until about the third time that Drs. Foster and Hvedrungr went through the explanation that Nicholas began accepting that no, he hadn't gone completely nuts in the last 48 hrs (or at least no more so than usual) somehow the world (the universe) had managed to become even crazier than it already was, instead. Because somehow mutants, metas, magicals and freaking inhumans (the last of which he only knew about because of his 3iC's own protegé, she was one of them, she was their freaking princess!) hadn't been bad enough, they had to add other worlds and at least a score of alien races, at least one of which called themselves gods, and had each enough power to be able to sustain that claim… Oh, and their own crown prince was courting Dr. Foster!

Yes, the world had definitely gone absolutely crazy on him at some point. The only saving grace was that, with Dr. Foster working for SHIELD that gave them an in with Thor and Asgard, which was good if they were going to be dealing with beings like him in the future. He was also very thankful for Dr. Hvedrungr; Nicholas had no idea how the man managed to remain perfectly calm even after just discovering that everything he'd studied, had believed to be nothing more than myths and legends was actually real to a point.

"It's not something new Director." The man actually answered that question, eventually. "The idea that the so-called gods of any given mythology might have existed at some point. Many believe that they may have been gifted in ancient times, times where it was easier to see them as gods than as anything else. Of course, there are also those who choose to believe that they were, in fact, gods, and their reproducing with humans brought about the gifted as we know them today. It just depends how one chooses to look at things."

"And how do you choose to look at them?" Nicholas inquired, honestly curious.

"It's irrelevant to me." The younger man shrugged. "They existed. That much has been made clear, and I'd always suspected. The hows and the whys change nothing at all and are of no use to me so I choose not to ponder on them."

Nicholas was a clever enough man to know that Dr. Hvedrungr was holding back, something, somehow, for reasons that the Director could not begin to fathom. But just like he could tell that, he could also tell it was not relevant to the mess they were in, so he let it go, at least for the time being. He was lucky enough to have managed to convince the man of working for SHIELD, and he was certainly a much better option than Professor Randolph.

Of course, because things weren't complicated enough already, right as they were all finally recovering from the mess in London, Thor told him the last thing Nicholas ever wanted to hear: an army, a huge, alien army, lead by a warlord known as Thanos the Mad Titan was heading for Earth, they'd be arriving in a year at most and their chances (humanity's chances) of defeating them were so small it wasn't even funny. Unless… unless they managed to all work together, all of them: baseline humans, inhumans, metas, mutants, magic-users… gifted and non-gifted… Fury couldn't help but think it was more likely for him to meet an actual god and like him than for such a thing to ever happen.

And then he went to his office the following morning and found about more than a dozen people waiting on him… inside his office (his private, very secure office!).

"Who the hell are you all?!" He demanded loudly, not in the mood for pleasantries, at all.

And then the introductions began:

On one side of the room, standing against the wall were two well-known mutants: Hekate and Nina Reynolds (known in some circles as the 'Mutant Lawyer); near the front of the room, on a couch, sat Coulson's own protegé and her husband: Daisy and Grant Johnson; on a corner, in his usual garish costume was Superman (called himself Kal El though Nick knew for a fact there was no one with that name registered anywhere) and the healer of their team: Cyan (another he had no idea the real name of, and they weren't sharing); on the back of the room, sitting on the floor (the male of the pair seemingly vibrating in place, were Chaos-Rose and Quicksilver (again, no names that could be in any way considered proper and legal), and finally, on the opposite side of the room six people stood closely, they were the leaders of the three biggest magical enclaves in the world and their respective spouses/fiancé: Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt from San Francisco, Cassie (aka Muse) and Adam Blake-Conant from New Salem; and finally, Dr. Stephen Strange and… Nicholas recognized the woman standing with him, even if the name Helen Carver hadn't been in the file, and she wore different clothes and a different hairdo, he knew she was the woman in the file he'd been given.

"Helena Miriel, I presume." He blurted out, seeking a way to regain at least some control.

"I go by Helen Carver nowadays." The raven-haired woman in a smart dark skirt-suit and a tight pony-tail stated evenly. "And if you, Nicholas Fury, are the kind of man who would use such private, sensitive information in a petty attempt at a tantrum, then you're not the man Marge thought you were when she chose you to succeed her."

There was no reaction from Nicholas, nothing to give away his feelings regarding what Helena had just said, but inside he was feeling worse than if she'd chosen to slap him. She'd managed to insult him in the worst possible way, and it was clear she knew what she was doing. And if that weren't bad enough, the redhead in the ivory wrap dress with a print of big red roses and red-leather knee-high boots chose that very moment to get on her feet and put in her two cents:

"Now, can we all talk together like adults about the threat coming our way and what we'll be doing about it, or will you continue to whine about not being able to control things?"

Nicholas would have groaned if that wouldn't have just served to prove her point. He was already getting a migraine, and the day was just starting.

xXx

The meeting reconvened in Stark Tower; where Fury called his own 2nd and 3rd in command to join them: Maria Hill and Phil Coulson, as well as Drs. Foster and Hvedrungr. And of course, the Starks and Banners who lived on the top floors of the tower. It was Tony Stark's greatest coup in the last decade, finding Bruce Banner and convincing him to work for him. Banner who, before the end of the year had been married to Dr. Betty Banner (nee Ross), and has recognized her son: Robbie, as his, officially.

SHIELD had kept an eye on things for a while, concerned about the man that held the Hulk inside him, being back on the States, but nothing had happened. And the one time General Ross had tried anything Tony and, surprisingly enough, his own daughter had come on him hard enough the man had been dishonorably discharged from the military and quietly 'retired' to somewhere in the country before the month ended.

There was a reason why the two men had been candidates for the Avengers Initiative, even if the project had never taken off, not really. While Fury never really erased the idea completely, he wasn't sure about giving gifted people even more power, he was already continuously on edge with the kind of powerful people that tended to run around with no one to direct (or more like control, it was the same in Fury's book) them properly.

Another two possible candidates were Spider-Man and his associate, the Green Goblin, though Nicholas, to his own annoyance, had no idea where to even begin looking for them. Somehow those two had managed to keep their civilian identities secret despite several years active and the Director of SHIELD pouring not few resources into tracking at least one of them down. All he knew for sure was that they were connected to OsCorp somehow (then again, the Goblin's tech gave that away to anyone who knew enough).

The moment Tony and Pepper watched all the newcomers, saw her own PA among them and had no reaction, Fury knew they had to have known.

"How long have you known Stark?" He demanded of the other man.

Helena rolled her eyes, that man obsessed too much over completely unimportant things.

"What? That Helen's a gifted? A while." Tony shrugged. "There's nothing extraordinary about that Nick, not anymore. Gifted are the next step of human evolution, haven't you read Dr. Xavier's papers? Whether they're born different or mutate later in life in order to survive a great event or tragedy, they're the future. Everyone with enough brains knows that. Each year more are born, it's perfectly natural. Evolution at its finest."

"Aylen is a latent." Pepper added for good measure.

Aylen Marianna Stark, their daughter. A latent meant someone with the potential to be gifted, one who hadn't manifested just yet but they knew would one day.

A loud thump on the viewing deck outside served as prelude for the arrival of the last few members of the group. Whom Fury had to introduce then:

"Crown Prince Thor, son of Odin, from Asgard, and his guards and friends: Fandral, Fenrir and the Lady Ylva."

All eyes went instantly to the newcomers, they all looked particularly impressive. Even the second blonde, with the rather garish scar that went down the right side of his face, barely having missed the eye. It was clear right away that the latter two were together, it was in the way they walked and stood, so very close. And the way the Aesir prince went to stand beside Dr. Foster and actually placed a hand on the small of her back gave them away too.

"Norse Gods, really, that's a thing now?" A young-sounding voice called.

All eyes turned to the speaker and Fury had to do a double take, as apparently someone in the room did know Spider-Man, at least enough to get him there.

"I knew it!" Tony's cry broke the stunned silence.

"What?" All eyes turned to him then.

"I knew someone else had come through those portal-thingies last year." Tony clarified. "Beyond those trying to kill us, I mean."

Fury exhaled in exasperation. He had known that if those people ever met things would go absolutely crazy. The worst part? He would have to be the one to put a stop to their jokes and remind them there was still a psychotic warlord with a huge army coming their way and they needed to be ready. Looking around, at all the people beginning to get to know each other, laughing at the most idiotic things, we couldn't believe those were the heroes who would save the world… then again, it wouldn't be the first time.

Truth was that, Nicholas Fury might not exactly like gifted, though it had nothing to do with being a human supremacist or anything of the like. It was the lack of control he was so against. He knew he was a control freak, and he owned to it, he still didn't like it when he couldn't do anything about it. He wasn't an idiot though, he knew the kind of things the people currently in the room were capable of. Knew that the mutants, the first generation of X-Men were the only reason why there hadn't been a third world war, back in the sixties; both them and the inhumans had helped during a lot of natural disasters over the years, Superman and his League had their own thing going elsewhere in America; and Iron Man had almost single-handedly stopped one of the worst terrorist organizations operating in many countries from Eastern Europe to the Middle East (that being the Ten Rings). So no, it wasn't that he didn't believe them all more than capable of fighting to protect the world, it was just the knew he'd end up being the one to have to put up with them in the following year without actually being able to exercise any sort of real power over them and that grated on him. Still, as long as the world was saved, he'd deal with it.

xXx

Introductions were made, each person present explaining what position they had in their respective groups (those who were part of one), and what numbers and abilities they were bringing to the table. Most were team leaders, except for the magicals, who each represented either a number of covens (Muse), or a whole society/community (Piper and Stephen), and Hekate and Nina, who were there in the name of the X-Men in particular (there were currently three active teams, and others that would be willing to run back-up or just to assist with rescue, defense of those most vulnerable, etc.) and the mutant community as a whole.

They also put together all they knew already of the upcoming invasion thanks to the precogs: Destiny of the mutants, Angel of the inhumans, Dr. Fate of the Justice League, Phoebe Halliwell, Muse and Chaos-Rose.

The first real surprise came as Thor, who'd been stealing glances at a certain person for the last hour, finally approached her.

"You seem familiar to me, my lady, why is that?" He asked her seriously.

"Your path and mine have crossed before, Prince Thor, a very long time ago." Helena answered calmly, then, for the benefit of not just him but everyone around she added. "I am long-lived, more than most would ever expect. My name, as has been stated before, is Helena Miriel, I am the Nightingale's daughter."

"The Nightingale's…" Fandral repeated, as if trying to remember why it sounded familiar.

"The Nightingale, the lady with the most beautiful voice in all the realms." Thor quoted, before focusing on Helena again. "Princess Tinúviel of Alfheim is your mother?!"

"She is." Helena nodded regally.

"You're a princess?" Daisy asked in awe.

"I am not a princess of Alfheim." Helena shook her head. "In the realm of the elves, the Queen and Princesses are chosen by their people. My mother was chosen when she was very young, and served for twenty years. But royals are meant to live for the realm alone, Alfheim is their husband and every Ljósálfar their children, they cannot marry or have any family of their own. So my mother gave up her position when she met and fell in love with my father."

If anyone noticed that she had specified not being a princess of Alfheim but never said about being or not a princess at all, nobody mentioned it.

Others things were shared later on, including about Helena, Rose and Hekate (she still was going by that name only) being the Thalil/Gypsies that had become so legendary across the realms. Though the connection between the three was never clarified. Also, when Helena mentioned her father being murdered that killed the topic stone-dead.

Plans were made for getting to know each other better, for training. They had a year before the Mad Titan's arrival and they weren't planning on wasting a single minute of it. It would be more than a little insane, but they believed they could do it, there was simply no acceptable alternative.

xXx Tinúviel's POV xXx

From the moment I first laid eyes on him, I knew exactly who Dr. Clavis Hvedrungr was. It went beyond his well-groomed dark brown (almost black) short-hair, the bare-hint of facial hair, or his gorgeous jade-green eyes. I knew it because the moment my eyes laid on his I could feel the tug, could feel his soul calling to mine, and it took every ounce of my will not to surrender to the siren's call in an instant.

It was the one thing I had wanted most, had dreamt of for centuries; it nearly destroyed me to not allow my soul to reach out to his, to initiate our bond right then and there. It was how it had happened before, all those years ago, the moment we first laid eyes on each other, when we met for the first time in Alfheim, back when I was still a Princess, set to be a Queen, and he the second Prince of Asgard. The greatest proof I could have ever had that we were a perfect match, we'd been together before, and would be again…

But I couldn't allow it. Not because I didn't love him, because I did, even before I knew anything more than his name (and more so after I learned about him, about the amazing man, scholar, he was in his current life); but because he had a life all his own, with Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis and Erik Selvig, he had friends (a family of choice) and a job with SHIELD, he did not need me and all my baggage to destroy what he'd made for himself. And it would have, if he'd found out about me, about us… he was as much a man of honor as Loki had been, he wouldn't have walked away. Even without any proof he would have done the honorable thing, but I didn't want it to be about honor, I wanted more, I wanted it to be about us… and yet I couldn't bring myself to do it. Who was I to destroy a man's life? Everything he knew, had, everything he was…

It was a mess, even in my own head. Wanting him yet not wanting to force him, wanting him to love me for me yet not willing to get any closer. It made no sense at all, but that was probably why matches weren't supposed to reincarnate without their other halves. We were supposed to go into things without baggage, clean slates both of us… it was why Rose chose to walk away when she learned Pietro was meant for her (and even then, the only baggage had been a vision, nothing more, no past, no tragedy or grief); Helena and Stephen, they had met when he was already an adult, and he remembered without anyone telling him, being so close to death (he'd technically died for a few seconds there) somehow turning the right switch in his head, allowing him to know her for who she really was. My situation was very different.

So I did nothing, I said nothing. I kept my distance from Clavis and the Asgardian contingent to the best of my abilities. I didn't even train with them, aside from hand-to-hand and a few times using weapons. It was no secret that I favored my bow and a collection of enchanted knives when necessary. But I avoided using magic, the last thing I needed was one of the Asgardians noticing the green aura that tended to cling to the edge of my spells, a color very different from my own lilac-white aura. A color they might be able to remember characterized my match's magic.

Officially I was recognized as an Omega level mutant. I wasn't a mutant, but no one had known that until our little meeting and our revelation about being the Thallil (because if I wasn't midgardian, I clearly couldn't be a mutant). Still, they knew I had great power, though like with the rest who were known to be Omegas (The Professor, Magneto, Phoenix and Rogue), we tended to let baseline humans believe that our powers had more limits and conditions than they actually did. Like how people still believed that Charles needed Cerebro to reach more people than those in a five mile radius, or that Magneto could only control simple metals (most people seemed to forget that there was iron in the blood, even if it couldn't be seen, and that Magneto was as capable of controlling that as a tire iron), they still thought I needed to see things to use my magic on them; no one knew that Jean had so great a power and so fine a control she was capable of moving individual atoms, not just as she moved objects, but to separate them, to effectively vaporize something (it was terrifying), or just how many powers Rogue possessed by now (and that she could wield they all perfectly, and even simultaneously if necessary); and they especially did not know about Onslaught… Yes, it was much better if we did not actually terrify people (those who weren't yet ready to understand us completely, to accept us) with the true scope of our gifts.

Some days I'd find myself thinking about the curse, the one Amora had placed on us, on me, with her dying breath. It had brought us so terrible griefs, but also amazing opportunities; it was fair to say that neither my daughters nor I would be where we were in that moment (in Midgard, among their own warriors, and getting ready to fight among them, against a threat so great most Realms refused to even acknowledge his existence). Some might even be inclined to believe that, because we had stayed in one place for decades, the curse was losing its potency, that maybe it was fully broken by now… but it was not so. I knew it, could practically feel the threads of it, of Amora's magic, still on me. It was true we might have stayed in Midgard for a long time, even mostly in the same spot (except for Rose, who could never seem to stop traveling, at least she wasn't doing it alone anymore). But the curse was still as real as it had been nine centuries prior, we still had no home, as much as Helena and I might love the places where we lived, the people we were with, we weren't all together, and we weren't home, not really. Chances were we would never be home again… that was a sad reality I'd long since accepted. Focusing instead on making the best I could of my situation. We all did that, and it worked, for the most part.

We weren't the only ones getting ready for the upcoming attack. There were many others that approached one of us in the months following that first, fateful meeting. The Fantastic Four right there in New York, the Flowers in Mexico, several other, smaller, groups in Central and South America, the Loup-garou pack in Eastern Europe; and of course there were mutants, metas, inhumans and sometimes magic-users (either those who followed the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange, or the Halliwell sisters) in practically every corner of the globe.

When the day came for the war to be fought we were definitely as ready as we could be. It still wasn't enough. Watching the battle take place from my perch on a branch of a tree on the Southwestern corner of Central park, I wasn't sure anything could have ever been enough.

Us X-Men had the south end of the park. And we were giving it our all. Jean, after securing her bond to Scott, had unleashed the full force of the Phoenix on her enemies, disintegrating them the moment they got into her range. Scott was her anchor to reality, as well as her guardian so no one would attack her from a blindspot. Erik and Charles, after talking it over, had decided to reveal their ace-in-the-hole and called on their combined power, what we all called Onslaught. Django, while not a mutant himself, was still a hell of a shot, and his daughter Lorna (codenamed Polaris) was on her way to become as great as her great-grandfather, whose power she shared, they served as the Professor's and Magneto's 'bodyguards'. Meanwhile, the rest of the X-Men had taken over small areas or even streets, dealing with the Chitauri as they came. The twins were the only ones not with them, as they'd chosen to go with Rose, which wasn't exactly a new development, so no one felt bad about it.

We'd gotten a huge shock about three months into the preparations for war, when representatives of Vanaheim, Alfheim, Nidavellir, and eventually even Jotunheim had dropped by, offering their assistance in the upcoming conflict. The real shocker? They weren't there because of Odin, or even Thor, they were there because of us, the Thallil… (the fact that Erynion and Thenidiel were leading the Ljósálfar contingent told me they knew exactly who I was, who all three of us were, but as they did not approach us, neither did we go to them).

At first I had focused mostly on my weapons, my arrows and throwing knives. Using just enough to ensure that one hit would be enough to take down an enemy, regardless of where I hit them exactly (the knives were also spelled to return to me, and I'd spelled a caché of arrows to ensure they were replaced and my quiver would never be empty). I was also the only one aside from Iceman and Pyro themselves who could get close enough to the winter-wonderland they'd turned their particular street without my teeth chattering, getting frostbite, or losing my footing in the icy… everything. No one knew why that was though, I let them believe that it was a natural side-effect of my magic/mutation; I was Hekate after all.

And then it happened… I got distracted. Just for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. I did not even scream (wasn't sure I could, actually). I still had enough reflexes to react and totally obliterate the Chitauri that had manage to wound me, but that didn't change the fact that there was a freaking spear in my gut!

The next handful of seconds there was screaming all around me. It took me a beat to realize they were calling to me, using more of my names than I would have ever expected anyone to know. From one moment to the next Kurt was there and then, he actually apologized a moment before picking me up and teleporting with me in his arms.

I actually groaned as I was placed back down, this time on the floor of the viewing deck of what some people had recently been calling Avengers Tower… Kurt apologized again but I waved a hand at him in dismissal. It's not like it was his fault, he'd done enough getting me out of there before something else could attack me, or worse, kill me. He nodded once and then he was gone, back to helping get civilians out, and whatever else he might be able to do.

I didn't stay long there alone, soon enough there were people rushing to me. Those who'd been left in the Tower, both to protect it and to help with what they could without actually putting themselves in danger (mostly coordinating the various groups, keeping in touch with authorities and keeping an eye out for those who might need evacuation and/or extraction).

Of course, once they got there things got a tad more complicated, because while, with a bit of effort, they could have gotten me to the infirmary, I still had a spear through my gut! And it would have been a very bad idea to try moving with it still there. And while at least some of them were certified paramedics, none of them wanted to risk doing anything when they had no way of knowing how much damage getting the thing out may cause.

"What if we end up killing you?!" Jane cried out, horrified by the idea.

"With all due respect my lady, I'm not that easy to kill." I couldn't help but take a bit of offense at that comment.

"Please, no 'my lady', I'm nothing special." She murmured, abashed.

"You're the future Queen of Asgard." I pointed out evenly.

"I'm not in it for a crown." She stated strongly.

"I know, which is precisely why you're the best person for the job." I assured her. "Because you are in it out of love for Thor, not for any crown or throne."

I was quite sure Alfheim had gotten that one wrong. They were so insistent that a ruler should love no one more than their own realm, that it was the only way to be sure they'd would never betray it, never put anyone or anything above the realm, their people… but if so, who could the Queen ever turn to? They'd even looked down on Erynion's and mine bond, because we saw each other as siblings. If I hadn't even had him, what kind of life would that have been for me? So alone, with nothing but the ghosts of those who'd preceded me. It wasn't that I regretted giving up the crown. I could never regret that, could never regret Loki, Helena, Meril… I just thought Alfheim was wrong in believing one couldn't be Queen and Consort at the same time.

"What can we do to help?" Clavis finally asked me.

As he had explained it to me, he was no good with guns, and while he knew some hand-to-hand, it would have never been enough against Thanos's army, so he stayed in the Tower.

"I have… in my quiver, there's a small cloth bag, with Asgardian healing stones. When you pull the spear out, press it against my wound." I explained, panting. "That should help heal me."

I was beginning to have trouble breathing. Wasn't sure if it was the pain, that the damage was extending, or the teleporting had aggravated the wound and managed to damage my lung.

"Should?!" Several cried out at the same time.

Nina was among them, and I could only be thankful that Anya wasn't. It wasn't that I loved Nina any less, but Anya… she was as good as another of my daughters, and even if after so many years she looked older than me, more like my mother than the other way around, I still felt the same, and would have hated for her to see me like that.

"Usually it'd be better for the stone to be crushed… but as no one here has that kind of strength… yeah, we'll have to go with should." I replied, trying my best not to sound too sarcastic.

It actually worked better than I could have ever expected; though a part of me was sure that the fact that it had been Clavis manipulating the stone had something to do with it. Even if he was perfectly human, without an ounce of magic to his name… the magic in me (the magic that should rightfully be his!) had reacted in the way we needed it to, causing the stone to turn to dust on contact with my wound.

It wasn't perfect, the wound was closed but the damage hadn't been fully undone. I wouldn't die, which was definitely a good thing. But I couldn't go back to the battle either, which was bad. I was one of their strongest fighters with my magic, and we couldn't afford to lose anyone…

I cursed (I couldn't help myself), long a hard… in elvish. Took me a moment to notice people were staring at me and blinking in shock.

"I didn't know some of those words even existed, or could be used in such combinations." Clavis stated in a perfect deadpan.

"You know elvish?" That definitely took me by surprise.

"Been learning in the last few months." He shrugged. "It's actually not that different from a language that was used by a writer in his books. I actually have a theory that he might have been either a descendant of the Ljósálfar, or met one of them… one of you."

It was my turn to blink.

"You know…" I blurted out.

"I know." He nodded. "I don't think anyone else does, but yes, I do."

"How?" I couldn't help but ask.

"You may not have noticed, but you tend to hum, sometimes." He explained. "When you're worried, or just sitting staring at nothing. It's not too obvious, but I couldn't help but notice it."

It made me wonder, for a moment, if he felt the same pull I did. And then I felt a different pull. It was absolute insane, beyond that even, yet it was also all I could think of!

"Do you want to help?" I asked him, dead serious.

"I would love to, but I'm just… I'm just me, I'm not a warrior." He shrugged, and I could sense the string of depression that thought caused.

"Neither was I." I pointed out serenely. "I was never meant to be a warrior. Ljósálfar… doing war isn't natural for us. It's a necessity for the males, but for us females, especially those of us who have a particularly marked empathy… It's not natural."

"But you're a warrior." He murmured.

"Because my match made me into one." I told him. "Oh, I'd learned to fight before, by my own choice. But I always did it just for protection, never actually meant to be a warrior. And then my match died, and his last actions, the same one with which he saved me, left me with his magic. The magic of the most powerful sorcerer in the Nine Realms… I couldn't just ignore that. Could not just bottle it all up, ignore it. Nevermind that it's too much power for me to ignore it, but if I had just pushed it aside, I think that would have been an insult to him. I knew I had to do something with it, something worthy of it, of him…"

"So you became a warrior."

"So I became a warrior."

"And let me see if I'm understanding this correctly. You intend to give me this magic? Want me to become a warrior in your place."

"I know it's insane! I know I shouldn't be asking something like this of you…"

"I'll do it!"

"Think about it Clavis!"

"You were the one that offered!"

"I know I did, and I'm not taking it back, but I need you to understand what it means. This magic, it will change you, like it changed me. This is not something that you or I will be able to take back later. Whatever happens… there will be no going back."

"If it helps us win this war, it will be worth it."

"Will it? If it upends your life forever? If it destroys the life you've lead thus far?"

"You managed well enough, think I can't?"

I wanted to pull at my hair (such a human gesture!). He wasn't getting it! Then again, there was a war going on around us, maybe he did get it and just decided the war had priority over whatever might happen to him. The worst part? I didn't think I would have made a different choice, were I in his place. And I was quite sure the same could be said of my Loki…

And yes, the war, there was no time for thinking twice. I'd had the idea, and I had to go through with it. Really. Midgard, and the Nine, we needed all the help that could be given, and I couldn't give it, not with my body still so weak. But the magic… the magic was still there, as strong as ever, and I knew he would be able to wield. It was, after all, essentially meant for him all along (I was quite sure he'd have been born with it, regardless of his status as a human, if he hadn't poured it all into me just before his death).

"Goheno nin (Forgive me)…" I whispered, as I used a hand to draw him closer to me, our mouths so close it almost seemed like I was about to kiss him. "Le melin (love you) Fintalëharyon amin (my Trick-prince)…"

All it took was a thought, and as I willed it, all the magic in me, Loki's magic, poured out of me and straight into him.

Clavis's whole body convulsed, all but his head, which didn't move a millimeter. I could hear the wordless exclamations of those around us yet paid them no mind, focusing all my attention on the man so close to me. When the exchange was finally finished, for a moment (a fraction of a second… a single beat of our hearts) I could feel him almost swaying, closer, our lips grazed for the slightest of instants, the lightest kiss I had ever felt, and yet it seared through me, body and soul, as effectively as the most passionate one I'd ever been a part of. And when I opened my eyes (and I hadn't the faintest idea when exactly I closed them), he was staring straight at me, green on hazel, and there was a light in his that hadn't been there before.

"A'maelamin (My beloved)…"

I wasn't sure if I'd really heard that coming from his lips, or somehow hallucinated it.

Then he straightened up, still staring at me.

"We'll be talking about this." He informed me. "At length. When this battle is over."

I nodded, what else could I do? It was only then, as I watched him walk to the very edge of the viewing deck that it occurred to me that I might have done more than just return the magic to him… a lot more. And then the confirmation came in the most unexpected way. As the dark shirt, open jacket and black-jeans he'd been wearing abruptly changed into a black and dark-green ensemble, golden armor on top. He waved in a most mischievous way at us all before turning around and effectively diving off the tower.

Jane screeched his name in horror, rushing to the edge of the deck. I didn't need her to say anything, I knew she wouldn't find him, not splattered on the pavement, nor anywhere nearby. He'd probably teleported the moment he was in the air.

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

At first Thor thought he was hallucinating. That maybe one of the chitauri had hit him in the head too hard. Or maybe he was dead, he'd died all those years ago, in that stupid fight against the dragon, the 'valiant quest' he insisted on going even when some people told him it was too risky. The same that claimed the lives of one of his dear friends and permanently maimed two others; even Fandral's own scars came from that same 'event'. Thor was quite surprised that he'd chosen to stay with him, after the loss of Hogun, of Sif, after Volstagg had chosen to walk away, to just be with his wife and children.

So perhaps it was no surprise that when he first saw the figure in black, green and gold, 'jumping' around, seemingly everywhere at the same time, throwing magic around like it was the easiest thing in the universe… in his whole life he'd only known one person capable of that. And yes, he knew one of the mutant leaders was called Hekate, that some referred to her as a goddess, that she was a spellweaver, but the crown prince of Asgard had never doubted that if there was one God of Magic, it was his little brother, Loki… who had been dead for almost a millennia!

They won the battle that day. The war wasn't over, not by a long shot, it wouldn't be until Thanos was well and truly defeated, and that wasn't an easy thing to achieve. He was a Titan after all! But there was a hope. The Alliance had managed to defeat the Chitauri, kill the 'Other', Thanos's lieutenant who'd been leading the army on the ground. The Titan never actually appeared, but that was good too. They had hope for the next time.

The moment the battle was over Thor wanted nothing more than to rush to find the man in green, black and gold, but he knew he had responsibilities. So instead he sought Fandral. He was hurt, but not too badly. Fenrir was still in wolf form, and there was a deep gash just above his left paw. Ylva was standing beside him, there were some minor wounds on her but she refused to even think about them until someone had seen to Fenrir. Which wasn't exactly easy, considering that even being one of Thor's protectors, there were some who still saw him as the 'Demon Wolf'. In the end the surprise was great when they saw one of the humans approaching; a dark-haired male in jeans, a shirt, boots, with a rifle slung on his back, a gun under one of his arms and blades in his boots.

"Hey." He greeted them with a bow of his head. "My name is Aiden, I am Vivian's mate." The man introduced himself. "I am not magical, but I do know how to treat wolves."

Thor got one of the healers to surrender a healing stone which helped too; though Fenrir, not really being Aesir, it didn't fully heal him, but between that and what Aiden was doing, it was good. Enough so that Fenrir returned to his humanoid form once they were finished.

Just in time for the silver-furred she-wolf to join them. It went to stand beside Aiden, pressing against his leg for a moment before it seemed to shimmer, leaving in its place a young blonde woman in a loose, sleeveless, off-white dress.

"I am Vivian, Aiden's mate." She introduced himself, bowing her head, enough to show respect, yet not submission. "Alpha of the loup-garou pack."

Fenrir and Ylva had known about them of course, had heard of them, but they'd never actually met. The pack had known not many were comfortable with them, and had kept their distance from those who might not accept them.

General Tyr had everything under control with the Aesir battalion that had been there to assist, same as Lord Freyr with the Vanir, and Prince Hymir (son of Helblindi) with the Jotnar. The real surprise though was when they saw Prince Caél of Nidavellir, who had a deep gash right above his brow, which was being tended to by none other than Princess Tawariell of Alfheim (the leader of the Ljósálfar contingent though she hadn't been there as a warrior, but as a healer, and an ambassador to the other realms).

It took a while, but eventually his responsibilities were done with and Thor headed for Stark's Tower. He really wanted to find the man who reminded him of his brother but had no idea where to even begin looking. So he headed for the Tower, where he immediately went to his beloved, kissing her hair and thanking the stars that she hadn't been in danger, while giving her a chance to look him over and reassure herself of his own well-being. And then, the most unexpected thing, as he caught a mix of black, green and gold from the corner of his eye. He turned then and found the man he'd been thinking about was right there, on the Tower's viewing deck, bent over none other than Hekate and kissing her like his life depended on it.

xXx Tinúviel's POV xXx

I wasn't sure how I managed to convince Jane and the others to let me stay on the viewing deck but I did (the fact that they stayed right there with me, that they'd wanted to, probably had something to do with it). From there we watched the rest of the battle. We witnessed the moment when Quake (Daisy Johnson of the Inhumans) brought down the last group of Leviathans, right on time for Meril to shoot white-fire straight at the Other, fast and hard enough not even ashes were left afterwards.

We watched as people began celebrating, though we did none of that; we couldn't, not until our beloveds returned safe and sound to us.

Spider-Man was the first to arrive, carrying his partner-in-crime, the Green Goblin, who was unconscious and missing so many pieces of his armor we all knew he was bad off even before seeing all the blood on him.

"Harry!" His wife, Mary Jane Osborn shrieked in horror.

"We need a doctor!" Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's (Spider-Man) soon-to-be-wife, yelled to anyone who might listen.

I heard JARVIS repeat the call inside, probably also calling to those stationed in the infirmary floor, but I didn't focus on that, instead turning to Nina.

"Help me." I requested of her.

I didn't need to say more, she knew exactly what I was asking of her and why. I was still more than a bit tender, but refused to let any physical weakness stop me. It took a bit, but we managed to get the people to move enough for me to kneel beside where Spider-Man had placed his friend on a cement bench, waiting for a gurney and maybe the paramedics.

"What do you want?" Gwen asked, confused by my insistence to get closer.

"Trust me." I asked of her, of all of them. "I may have given up my magic, but I can still do this."

I didn't give them a chance to ask what exactly 'this' was, the moment Gwen moved just a bit aside, that was enough. I took the opportunity to get just a bit closer, placing my hands right over the auburn haired man's chest, half an inch from his skin. Then I took a deep breath, and called on the part of my power than I hadn't been given by my match, the part that had always been mine, and mine alone.

"Wha…?" Whatever MJ had been about to say, she broke off as she clearly saw it beginning to take effect.

I felt the warmth first. Starting at my core and extending across my chest, down my arms and straight into my hands. Couldn't see the white-lilac glow as my eyes were close but I didn't need to, I knew it was there. Instead I focused on guiding it, on healing…

It took several seconds, very long, very stressful seconds. But suddenly Harry breathed in sharply and his eyes snapped open.

"Don't move." Nina, thankfully, was quick enough to stop him before he could reflexively sit up. "Tanti (Auntie) is still working on you."

My own eyes were open by then and I guided my power, both by magic and by sight to heal the worst of his injuries. It wouldn't be perfect, it couldn't, otherwise his body would go into shock. But it was enough, especially because once he was out of danger his own enhanced healing kicked in, making things even easier.

"I… thank you!" MJ waited just long enough for me to stop using magic to throw herself at me, hugging me tight. "Thank you so much!"

That was just the start. Soon enough we were all coordinating and the gals got some of the worst injured, those most in danger (especially those who had no special healing to help them) to me. It was tiring work, but oh so very satisfying. I was back to my roots, as an empath, and as a healer.

The next couple of hours went mostly the same. Jane and Nina refused to leave my sight, making sure I didn't overexert myself too much, and insisting that I drank honeyed water every so often and ate a couple of cereal-and-nuts bars. Jane actually offered me energy drinks and protein bars first, the kind that had been somewhat modified by Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and a few others working together, meant to work best for enhanced who required a lot of energy to use their powers effectively; however I wasn't a mutant, meta, or an enhanced human; thankfully Nina did know what worked best for me, as we'd discovered through the years (the honeyed water to keep me hydrated and up my sugar, and it tasted similar to an elven drink I'd favored in the past; the nuts and cereals gave me the energy I needed as we elves had never favored meats, could eat them, but didn't have a preference for them).

I sensed the exact moment when my match reached the tower. It was like some inexplicable warmth filled me even before I had the chance to so much as lay eyes on him. And then, a second later he was there. I didn't get the chance to ask anything, not even to say hello when he was suddenly on me, his mouth devouring mine in a kiss so intense I could do nothing except surrender to it, to him…

That was all that was necessary, really. I felt the exact moment when our bond snapped (back) into place, like a rubber band let go after having been pulled at almost too hard, for way too long. Except it wasn't painful, it was the exact opposite of painful; it was like the first sip of a perfect cup of hot cocoa, or like burrowing deeper under warm covers on a cold morning, or like finally coming home after a long, tiring journey… I realized it then, that was it exactly, it was coming home. A home that hadn't existed for me for nearly a millennia. Asgard, Alfheim, they no longer mattered (mayhap they never did), it was about my match; he was my home, and after so long he was back…

He finally pulled away when oxygen became an an issue for us both, and it was until I looked into his eyes and opened my mouth to say something that I realized I had no idea what to call him exactly. Strictly speaking he wasn't Loki, not really, but was he still Clavis?

"My Maverick…" I settled on eventually.

It seemed right for him.

"My Nightingale." He stated in return.

Yeah, that sounded quite right too.

"I thought you wanted us to talk about things." I couldn't help but blurt out.

Really, I was so stressed out, had been stressing out for hours! While I didn't exactly think he might send me away, or turn his back on me… it still hadn't been good.

"I decided about… five minutes after I left the tower that there was no point in 'talking' about things." He shrugged in an almost careless manner. "I don't care how I came to be here now, even though we were once taught that one match cannot move on, to the Other Side or onto another life, without its other half. I'm here, that's the important part. I also don't care why exactly you said nothing about any of this to me in the past year… Well, scratch that, I do care, but I know you, I remember enough to know that you probably made a perfectly logical and reasonable argument to yourself, probably about not messing up my life or something along those lines, never mind the fact that you should have known I would want to know and we both know that, had our roles been inverted, and had I even thought about trying something like this you would have had my head on a platter…"

He was right, of course he was; and there was no argument I could make, no excuse I could give, and of course he knew that too. So in the end I said nothing at all.

"And in the end… I'm too happy you're here, that we're both here now, together, to even want to focus on the past." He finished.

"I lost you once…" I whispered, a hand cupping his cheek as he bent over me where I was sitting on a bench, Jane and Nina having walked to the other side of the deck to give us some semblance of privacy. "There was nothing I could do then. Now… now it's different. I may not have stepped onto this life exactly by my own choice at first, but it's long since been my choice to stay on it. I will not back down now. Whatever might come, whoever may come, may it be a Titan, or anything else, I'm not leaving your side again, and you're not leaving mine."

"Never again." He assured me vehemently.

The two of us began speaking at the same time, the words of the Ancient Vows falling from our lips practically in unison. They probably weren't entirely necessary, we had both felt our bond snapping into place, but they just felt right. A reminder of the love and commitment and devotion he had for one another. And then, of course, we sealed our promise with a kiss…

That was pretty much how Thor found us. He didn't say a word, but I could feel his eyes on us, and I was sure so could my love. Of course, because whatever name he might be using, whatever his face, he was still the God of Mischief, my match just couldn't help himself.

"Hello, brother…" He called in a perfect drawl, eyes shining with mirth.

Less than two seconds later Thor was right there, embracing Clavis/Loki so tightly that I was quite sure that if it weren't for his returned magic the hold might have cracked some bones.

"Let go you oaf!" My love snarled with no real bite. "This body is still quite new and you're going to break it!"

Thor put him down so fast and looked so chagrined that a part of me really wanted to laugh. The last time I had seen that look on Thor had been when my consort had said something quite similar, except regarding a then baby Helena. Thor had been absolutely horrified back then, and it had taken him a very long time to forgive his brother for the joke (though I had been worrying, when he began swaying with Helena, that he might drop her, Ljósálfar bodies are so much more fragile than Aesir ones, especially infants).

"It is you, brother!" He cried out, his hands still on my beloved's shoulders.

"It is me… somewhat." My reincarnated consort shrugged at the clarification. "Different body but the same soul."

"How…?" Thor didn't even seem to know what to ask exactly.

"No idea." He shrugged.

Finally, Thor let him go, and it was then his attention turned to me.

"My lady Hekate…" The blonde began, until I raised a hand to stop him.

"Tinúviel." I corrected him.

The crown prince blinked.

"I've had many names throughout my very long life, but the one I hold closest to my heart, is the one my match gave me when we fell in love: Tinúviel…" I told him serenely, one of my hands automatically reaching for one of my love's.

"Your match…" Thor's eyes widened, as he looked at one of us and then the other. "Brother…"

"Brother, meet my match, Princess Tinúviel of Alfheim and Asgard." My love introduced me.

"Brother, sister…" Thor added after a moment of thought, addressing us both. "There's one thing I don't understand. If you're match… this clearly is not a new development. I do not believe you have spent much, if any time together since we all began preparing for the confrontation against the Mad Titan. And the Princess Tinúviel… the last that is known about her is from centuries ago. That would imply…"

"That she was my consort before I died." My match finished for me. "That is true."

"Then, why is it that I have no memory of this?" The blonde inquired, he turned to me. "I have no memory of you princess, except for the whispers of your voice being the most beautiful in all the realms. I have no memory of you ever being in Asgard, or my brother's consort!"

"That, I'm afraid, is a bit of a long story Thor." I admitted with an exhale. "And there is one thing I'd really like to do now."

The way he looked at the both of us I had no doubt what he was thinking, I wasn't sure if I wanted to smack him or roll my eyes. In the end, my daughters choosing that very moment to approach kept me from doing either (probably the reason why they chose that exact moment).

"My love," I call to him, directing his attention to our eldest. "You remember Helena Miriel Lokidottir, of course."

"Of course I do." He responded promptly, placing a kiss on her brow. "The light of our lives…"

"Ada (Papa)…" Helena whispered, voice watery, even as she did her best to hold back her tears.

"And…" I added, pulling his attention. "This is Meril Alfdis Tinúvieldottir."

"Lokidottir." He stated automatically, even as he took her in.

Meril just smiled at him, giving him all of a handful of seconds to take a good look at her before throwing herself into his arms, whispering all the words she knew for Father into his ear as she refused to let go. It was understandable, she had never had a father before that moment.

"My baby girl…" He whispered back, kissing her temple repeatedly.

I just couldn't help myself anymore in that moment, I began to cry. Not in sadness, not at all, but in joy, the perfect happiness I was feeling in that moment… I just couldn't imagine anything making the moment any more perfect.

And then Helena had the idea:

"Sing Nana…" She whispered softly, an eagerness in her voice that I hadn't heard in centuries. "I haven't heard you sing in so long…"

"Yes my Nightingale," My love agreed wholeheartedly. "Sing."

I just looked at him. Just for a moment, as I let everything I felt for him fill me; every ounce of love, of hope, of joy, of peace… everything that had carried me to that moment; through all the grief, the pain, the desperation, and made all of that worth it, just to be able to live that instant.

"A thousand years, a thousand more,

A thousand times a million doors to eternity

I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times

An endless turning stairway climbs

To a tower of souls

If it takes another thousand years, a thousand wars,

The towers rise to numberless floors in space

I could shed another million tears, a million breaths,

A million names but only one truth to face"

Stephen and Pietro approached us eventually, holding their respective matches close. Once the song came to an end Helena and Meril would get their chance to introduce them to their father, and he'd get the chance to intimidate them properly. I had no doubt that there would be weddings soon, at least one. Stephen had approached me to ask for Helena's hand nearly six months prior. I had been waiting for them to announce a date for almost that long; and in that moment, as we all stood together, I couldn't help but wonder if there had been a reason why they hadn't. If perhaps she had been waiting all along, waiting for the return of the man who would give her away…

"A million roads, a million fears

A million suns, ten million years of uncertainty

I could speak a million lies, a million songs,

A million rights, a million wrongs in this balance of time

But if there was a single truth, a single light

A single thought, a singular touch of grace

Then following this single point, this single flame,

This single haunted memory of your face"

"I still love you

I still want you

A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves

Like galaxies in my head"

Soon our story would have to be told. There was no way of knowing if Thor, his parents and everyone else in Asgard would ever remember, but it was irrelevant, at least for me. I had my match, along with our daughters, they were my home; that was all I needed, all I could ever need. And it wasn't even just them, not anymore. Even if we had never really felt at home, none of us, not completely, that didn't change that we each had new lives, people we cared for. Meril, with the twins, and her contacts across the Realm; Helena, with those at SHIELD, and Stephen's Mystic Order. And me? I had Charles, Erik, Anya, Django, Nina and every single mutant that was part of the Institute (past and present). I could hardly wait for my love to meet them all, to see the lives we'd built for ourselves; just like I wanted us to learn everything there was to know about his own life, the life of Clavis Hvedrungr, Doctor of Culture and Folklore, SHIELD Consultant.

"I may be numberless, I may be innocent

I may know many things, I may be ignorant

Or I could ride with kings who conquer many lands

Or win this world at cards and let it slip my hands

I could be cannon food, destroyed a thousand times

Reborn as fortune's child to judge another's crimes

Or wear this pilgrim's cloak, or be a common thief

I've kept this single faith, I have but one belief"

"I still love you

I still want you

A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves

Like galaxies in my head

On and on the mysteries unwind themselves

Eternities still unsaid

'Til you love me"

A thousand years… I had been alive for more than a millennia, and from the moment I first laid eyes on him, as I sat on my throne as crown princess of Alfheim, and the second prince of Asgard surprised me by pronouncing the formal elven greeting… I had never known another like him, never loved another like him, and I never would. It didn't matter if Clavis looked hardly at all like Loki, if he was a bit shorter, less muscled. None of that mattered at all. The truth was there, in his eyes, for me to see. He was, indeed, my match. It was his soul shining through those jade green eyes, calling to me, just like they, like he, always had.

And then my love looked straight into my hazel eyes and began reciting, in a low, husky voice:

"I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…

In life after life, in age after age, forever.

My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,

That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,

In life after life, in age after age, forever."

Yes, that was it exactly. I had always loved him, and he'd always loved me, regardless of what forms our bodies may take, our souls were always the same, they always would be. We were matched souls and we'd love each other, until the last star fell from the sky…

---

So, what do you think? I wanted to do so much with this story, to show who Tinúviel/Nightingale is, with and without Loki. And I'd like to think I managed. Also, to show how intense the bond is for both of them, regardless of who is more aware of things before. Of course there also had to be some angst, because what's love without some against? (I'm crazy like that). And yeah... I hope you liked this.

Now, regarding the upcoming AUs... As you must have realized by now, the first 30 AUs concerned different ways Nightingale's story could have gone (those were the first four sets). Then, the first of this last set concerned an incarnation after Silbhé Salani, if she'd died too young to be there for Loki when he needed her. While the previous two (this one included), went into the possibility of Loki having died during Amora's attack, instead of Tinúviel. Now, when I first wrote Nightingale (the first story) it was meant to be a stand alone, nothing too complicated. Giving Loki a perfect match, a true love, a partner, that was it. Then I began the AUs, and about halfway through those, I decided to make a series. It was then that the idea of Nightingale being a reincarnation of another began. And then came Tinúviel into the picture. And for the most part that was it. I did consider briefly the question of why it would take so long for Tinúviel to reincarnate, but decided to ignore it, as it wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things... but it stayed in the back of my head. I was in the third set of AUs when I began to truly contemplating the possibility of other incarnations for Nightingale. And the first thing that became clear to me was that they couldn't come after Nightingale, because that would be pointless (the only thing I could make Nauru work was because of the time-travel, really; and her own reality showcased quite graphically what would happen in a world where she wasn't there, where Loki had no one... which is essentially mostly the canon MCU, only with a Thanos that cannot be destroyed because only the Valar can destroy him), they had to have come before. And that's where the upcoming AUs come in. The last seven AUs will go into other possible incarnations of Nightingale.

So, the idea is that Silbhé Salani wasn't Tinúviel first, or only reincarnation, she was the last. There were others before her, all who never met Loki, most who either died too young, or simply were never born. The Nightingale of the main timeline, and the first 30 AUs was essentially the last chance. In the upcoming stories you will see how things would have gone if one of the others had worked out. I did it that way because I had some ideas that I could never fit into the original Nightingale, because either she was born too late in the game, or was never in the right place to make some of the ideas in my head feasible. If you want some idea: imagine a Nightingale born during WWII, being family to Erik Lehnsherr; imagine her being born an Inhuman, as Jiaying's own child; a princess of Wakanda (by birth rather than by adoption); Stephen Strange's little sister; Tony Stark's daughter... there were actually more ideas than just the ones I ended writing down, but some never finished taking shape. Still, seven came out. And that's what you'll be getting during the upcoming months.

See you in three weeks... the Queen Mother is coming!

P.S. Would anyone be interested in fanmixes for all the songs played and sung by Nightingale and others during the series?