The Trickster: Ragnarok

by: Shadow Chaser

Disclaimer:

I do not own any characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Comics, and Disney. I am not writing this story for profit, only for my own (twisted) amusement. I will try to return the characters unharmed, but some they might have a few scuff marks.

Story:

Chapter 14

Steve frowned as Sleipnir spoke the word 'Ragnarok' and noticed out of the corner of his eye Natasha and the others looking a bit confused. Only the two young men that had accompanied and held Sleipnir's chains did not react to his words. Instead, he watched as one of them turned to the other with a quick nod before just as suddenly a raven appeared out of nowhere, startling all of them before just as quickly it disappeared in a quiet poofing sound, leaving one of the young men standing there as if nothing had happened.

"What the..." Bruce murmured quietly as Steve peered forward, noticing the raven had suddenly appeared in the room next to Jormungandr. In less than a blink of an eye, the raven turned back into one of the young men.

"Huugin," Jormungandr greeted almost warily and Steve darted a quick look at the other young man standing in the room with the rest of the Avengers.

"...Munnin...?" he tested out hesitantly and saw the young man turn to look at him, giving him a solemn nod.

"You know of us," he had a narrow angular, but willowy face that belied his sharp eyes and jutting chin. His ears seemed just a little too large for his head, but that was a trait that was shared by Huugin who had a more rounded heart-shaped face with the same sharp eyes. It was clear the two were probably brothers.

"Just from...the stories that were written about you and, uh, your brother...?" he flicked another quick look at the apparent silent staring contest that had fallen between Jormungandr and Huugin. Looking back at Muunin, he saw the young man nod once, staring at him with the same sharp look. It was almost unnatural, as if he did not quite remember to blink or even move his head. And when he did, it was tilted to the side, almost avian-like. Another aspect of seemingly unnaturalness of Muunin and even Huugin was that their tunics, armor, whatever they wore, were inky jet black and had a pattern that looked almost like feathers.

"You know of Ragnarok," Muunin did not voice it as a question and Steve nodded before gesturing with a hand.

"Again, based on the stories that were written, myths really," he could tell that the sharp, dead-eyed gaze that was on him was not so much a demand for answers, but just an evaluating look. He supposed that it unnerved others, but somehow, it did not unnerve him. Then again, he supposed that based on the myths, maybe it was Odin looking through his ravens, seeing everything with the so-called All-Seeing Eye he had been given. Maybe it was true, maybe it was not, but it seemed that the ravens did hold something of an authority of Odin if there were here. He could not tell from Loki's reaction to their arrival, but the fact that the two were here must have some significance. After all, he had not even seen them in the last two times Loki had come, nor had they accompanied Thor during the times he was here.

"Usually talking about the end of the Norse myths, about the death of all of the Norse Gods like Odin, Thor, Heimdall and the others. There are a couple of versions of Ragnarok, but basically it started out with the death of Baldr by Loki's hands and then him teaming up with someone named Sutur to unleash a host of Jotuns on Asgard itself. Everyone dies, goes to Valhalla, only to be reborn in some manner," he continued, giving an abbreviated version of what he had read in his childhood.

The New York Public Library had been one of the places he and Bucky had spent a lot of time at during the stifling summers. The two of them went when he was able to take the subway and trolleys in the summer heat without his asthma giving him trouble. Otherwise, he remembered Bucky coming home with armfuls of books for him during the times he was stuck in bed sick and bored out of his mind.

"Norse myths are always so pleasant," he heard Tony mutter none too quietly near him.

"Is that what Strucker, or whomever he really is talking about? What happened on Asgard?" Steve asked the younger-looking man. He was pretty sure Muunin and Huugin were far older than he was. It was still less than twelve hours since Lady Sif, the ravens, and Sleipnir had arrived from an apparent war-torn Asgard and Steve still could not quite process the shock of finding out what had happened to the place. Lady Sif was currently recovering in Bruce's medical labs; the fact that she was clearly bleeding and barely standing up while she gave Loki Odin's sceptre and the apparent kingship of Asgard not lost on any of them.

"The end of an era," Muunin replied in an almost monotone; as if he had forgotten how to properly speak, "the end of Asgard and its ruling house. A cursed epithet given to the House of Bor and Odin for their actions." The human-formed raven gestured with a chin towards the red-headed man that Steve and the others had seen as Baron von Strucker, "Sleipnir knew of it. All members of the Crown Prince's coterie knew of Ragnarok. To prevent Asgard's enemies from destroying all that was built. To watch, guard, and stop those who would see the House of Bor fall."

"Does Loki know?" Bruce asked quietly and Steve glanced at him to see him rub the bottom of his lip, staring down at the still-on-going silent staring contest held by Jormungandr and Huugin. Steve briefly wondered if they were engaging in some kind of silent conversation no one could hear. Of everything he had seen so far, he would not put it past the two to have the ability to talk to each other in their minds – so like the science fiction movies Tony kept plying him with from time to time.

"He did not believe," Muunin answered, giving Bruce a dead-eyed look before seemingly staring at something beyond him, "he realizes the folly of his thoughts now and shadows himself to protect the truth."

"So Strucker, er-Sleipnir-" he shot a questioning look at Muunin and thought he received the barest nod of confirmation, but wasn't too sure, "Sleipnir, is Asgardian. I, uh,guess, what happened? We knew him as an agent of Karpov-uh, as an agent of Baldr, but Thor said that he wasn't human, that he sensed magick within him before he escaped from our custody."

"Deceit, betrayal, fire, death," for a second, Steve thought he saw the glimmer of something in Muunin's eyes, but just as quickly it disappeared, replaced by a flat avian-like look. A part of him realized that the longer Muunin – and by extension Huugin – stayed in their human forms, the more they had human-like expressions. Just what were they, to be able to shift into raven and human forms? The myths he read said that they were Odin's eyes and always ravens, but it seemed like the two could easily transform back and forth between animal forms – much like he had seen Jormungandr and Fenrir do. Thor hinted that it was very advance technology that looked like magic in their eyes, but Steve wondered if some of it really was magic.

"You have history with him, with Sleipnir and by extension, with Karpov," surprisingly it was Natasha who spoke up, breaking the silence that filled the room. Everyone turned to look at her and Steve saw her staring at the younger man with a calculating look.

"Spider," Muunin said in a tone that Steve did not quite like, but Natasha lifted a hand to stop anyone from doing anything. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Clint relax his guard, having almost drawn his bow and arrow in her defense. She gave the younger man a sharp smile.

"Can't eat me, little raven," she replied and to everyone's surprise, Muunin shot back the same sharp grin. Something in the younger-looking man's posture relaxed and Steve had a feeling that Natasha had passed a test of sorts. He hoped that whatever unseen test she had undergone applied to all of them. He was hoping for answers instead of riddles. But these were Odin's ravens, and if the myths said anything about them, they either spoke in riddles when questioned, or only told their words to Odin himself. Currently, they were being very cryptic.

"Baldr wished what every child of Asgard wished; to not live in the shade of the glory of his brothers," Muunin had a disquieted look on his avian-like face, "and so he rose up, was struck down, and has risen once more."

Steve pursed his lips together as he played Muunin's statement over in his mind once more. There was something about what he said- He blinked as it hit him. "Thanos," he said quietly, bringing everyone's gaze on him, but most of all, Muunin's gaze as it narrowed into an almost calculating look that could have been on Odin's face. "It's Thanos that's helping-no..." he replayed the words in his head, "Thanos helped him before. When you said he 'rose up' and was struck down. He had Thanos' help then and his help now..."

He trailed off as he realized something else; the echo of a long forgotten conversation on the star-struck beauty of the Rainbow Bridge on Asgard. He and the other Avengers had been frozen by some kind of spell or power from Thanos himself, unable to move, to defend, to do anything but watch the soul-trembling conversation that had reverberated between Odin and Thanos. It felt like being frozen in the ice, unable to move, except without his senses dulling by the slow hypothermia he had been feeling then. He had seen Loki struggle through the horrific torture Thanos had inflicted upon him in between his capture on the Helicarrier to when they saw him on Asgard back then, but one thing was clear – Thanos wanted them to hear the words of triumph as he crowed over Odin's supposed defeat and futility in keeping the Infinity Gauntlet from him.

It was also where he had first heard the name Baldr spoken.

"The Bifrost," he said, glancing at the others, "when Loki was trying to steal the Infinity Gauntlet from the vaults!"

"I remember," Coulson nodded as he joined in, "Thanos was saying something about some other Loki who killed Baldr before him, about older brothers... Baldr was the youngest in the House of Bor, wasn't he? Odin his older brother, and this Loki's namesake, the eldest which would make him the Crown Prince..."

"So this is revenge," Tony piped up, "plain and simple revenge." Steve shot a quick look at Tony to see him unconsciously flexing a hand. They had all learned that Tony had survived Karpov's attempt to burn him out of the Iron Man armor using Extremis soldiers by the fact that he had a variation of Extremis inside himself. Sometime during the process after which he had the shrapnel removed from his chest, he had experimented and injected himself with a variation of Extremis to prevent someone from doing what Killian Aldrich had done to Colonel Rhodes and the Iron Patriot armor.

"Seems pretty messy for revenge," Clint said quietly, having stayed silent for most of the conversation, "but it's also makes sense since it's Karpov's way of doing things since he got the Chitauri sceptre."

"How do you figure?" Coulson asked, glancing at Clint who shrugged.

"Well, based on its history, each person that came in contact with it, whether or not they've been hit with it or holding it, got a bit crazy and..." he gestured with an absent hand into the air and the others nodded in agreement. Steve had to agree with Clint's assessment. "It's second hand, but some of the others at the base told me that Karpov was all about cloak and dagger-like, making sure Strucker and his experiments weren't found by whatever was left of SHIELD or by the Avengers. When he got the sceptre, people told me he got a little more...active. More missions, more visibility and things that they normally would have only done in the the back room and the like."

Karpov, Baldr, whatever his name was, had been under SHIELD and more than likely HYDRA's radar – if Alexander Pierce's words were any indication – until he more than likely received the Chitauri sceptre after the Battle of New York. He knew that he could argue the case that Baldr was only waiting for the fall of SHIELD and rise of HYDRA to come out of the shadows, so to speak, but even then, based on the limited information they had regarding the older man, it made no sense for him to be this outlandish with his plans unless something else was influencing him.

It was clear that the sceptre had made Loki reckless – though again, Steve thought that Loki's geas with Thanos was the more likely cause – but it had also forced Clint to attack his friends. Maybe the same could have been said for Fenrir attacking Loki on the Helicarrier; apparently so hellbent on revenge that he had forgotten his mission – or at least that was what Fury and Coulson had speculated in their debrief after they returned from negotiations. When Baldr had touched the sceptre to him, Steve knew that he had attacked his friends with an uncharacteristic fierceness. But he had also seen glimpses into Baldr's mind and it was where he had gleaned Thanos from.

"You have glimpsed Baldr's plans," Muunin suddenly turned his head towards him, his gaze sharp and avian-like. He only had half a mind to turn his body so that his head did not look quite unnatural with his body facing a different direction.

"The sceptre," Steve still did not like to talk about what had happened while he had been under Baldr's influence. It had felt like something had pressed on him, trying to crush his soul and will into infinitesimal pieces, like he was nothing but dust. He had fought back hard and that was when he had glimpsed into Baldr's plans. He knew that he could talk to Clint about it, having gone through nearly the same thing – except with Loki holding the sceptre – but also knew that Clint was a very private person.

But it seemed his short answer must have elicited something in the human-formed raven as something in Muunin's eyes softened a little. He must have understood that he had briefly fallen under the control of Baldr somehow. "'Tis the strongest will to have survived," the raven said quietly, "for such an ancient knowledge would have ground others into nothing."

Steve did not know if the implication that he should have died when briefly under Baldr's control was comforting or not. What he did understand was that the sceptre's power was influenced by whomever wielded it – those who lived longer apparently amplified its inherent power versus those who had not lived as long. It made sense, but Steve could not put all of his stock into that theory – he had witnessed its use only twice, once with Baldr and once with Loki; and both were more than one-thousand years old. But if what Sleipnir had said while talking with Jormungandr about Baldr, it set a precedence for the theory to exist.

And certainly explained how someone like Baldr could control Thor so easily.

Before any of that, he would not have expected Thor to be mind controlled, having the mental fortitude of over a thousand years to be able to resist things like that. He did not mean to think that he and his fellow human-Avengers were weak-minded, but then again, he really did not know too much about the properties of the Chitauri sceptre except for the two examples he had seen its use.

"So Baldr's involved with Thanos, or was involved in the past and now is involved with him again," Steve had almost forgotten that Sam was with them, having stayed so silent throughout everything.

He glanced at his friend to see him with a pensive look on his face. "I think it might be safe to assume that one of his goals is to see Asgard burn, but what does he get out of it? The obvious answer is when he grabbed Thor, it was to distract us and more than likely distract Loki as far as I can tell. But when he talked to Tony and I, I definitely got the feeling that he's one of those with plans within plans. He certainly knew more than he was letting on, mentioning things like vaults and geas. There's got to be more than just controlling Thor in all of this. I mean, Loki's here, but he's not saying much except to say that he's looking for Baldr."

"Baldr? Megalomaniac," Tony supplied with a sharp edge to his tone, "pretty much gloating and off his rocker. Aldrich Killian and the Mandarin wasn't as bad as Karp-er, Baldr. And how the hell is Thanos being in the Tesseract- wait, kid, he's still in that thing, right? Not all doom and gloom and coming for us, or rather, coming for Loki – not that I care – because I really don't want him wrecking the Tower or New York."

"Odin Allfather and the Warriors Three were last seen defending the Vaults," Muunin said flatly and Steve was sure that his expression was partially due to Tony calling the raven a 'kid' along with the fact that he more than likely and been ordered to come to Earth with Lady Sif and Sleipnir. So far the myths were proving true that the ravens were utterly loyal to Odin. It seemed that they refused to believe that the Allfather would have fallen in battle; refused to even consider it and anything implied after the fact.

"The fact that it's been several hours since they've arrived and nothing's happened tells me that I think they're still defending the Vaults, Stark," Coulson cautioned, but even Steve heard the slight reproach in his voice. The Director was right in his unspoken mention of not causing a panic.

At the same time, they also knew now that there was a chance with Asgard razed, Thanos might be freed. Steve did not know how the Tesseract worked, only the fact that someone either using a machine with iridium in it to force a portal opening could do it, or just by touch like the Red Skull did on the Valkyrie. When Odin had activated the Tesseract, it had sucked Thanos in like a black hole, unlike the other times when beams of screaming starlight had shot out of it, creating a wormhole portal of sorts. He could only hope that maybe Odin was the only one who knew how to activate the Tesseract as a prison and thus Thanos would not be released even if Asgard had completely fallen.

"So, how is Thanos stuck in the Tesseract supposed to help Baldr? I mean, Steve, you're saying that Thanos helped him in the past, but is also helping him now?" Tony asked again, crossing his arms across his chest.

Muunin only blinked at them before turning to look down to where Huugin was with Jormungandr who now had a petulant look on his face. Something must have happened as it looked like the dark-haired man was sitting sullenly in his chair in front of Sleipnir. Sleipnir himself had closed his eyes, seemingly asleep, but Steve had a feeling that was not the case. He could see the chains that still bound him flash occasionally and hoped that it was doing something to suppress the magic he had in him so that he would not escape like he had back in London.

Huugin looked up as if silently summoned, his head tilted in an avian manner before blinking once at them and Muunin turned back to them. There had to be some kind of silent signal, or even the science fiction concept he had only recently learned called telepathy. Sam had made him watch what he called a classic 90's science fiction show that had a side plot of humans who were called telepaths and talked to each other in their heads instead of out loud.

But before he could do anything else, Steve found the faces of his friends and Muunin, disappearing into a starry field of infinite blackness and galaxies. Just before his vision was totally consumed by what he saw, he saw Muunin's already dark eyes take on a deeper hue.

"Before Creation itself, there were six singularities," Muunin intoned. An involuntary gasp escaped his lips with a quiet whisper and he heard the shuffle of others around him, but somehow did not feel a panic at not seeing them.

"Whoa..." Sam breathed in wonderment behind him.

"Then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of these were forged into concentrated ingots, the Infinity Stones, or Gems. These Stones it seems, could only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength," the raven continued in a hushed monotone.

Steve saw the flow and ebb of power before him, how they coalesced and formed into a variety of shapes and sizes. Some of the 'stones' were solid, while others were liquid and infinite – almost as if alive. He saw the Tesseract in all of its blue-cubed glory, the power pulsating inside it as it seemingly rotated amongst six others. He wanted to reach out and touch one, but the whisper that this was only an illusion stayed his hand. The whisper sounded an awful lot like a raven cawing in laughter.

"Observe," Muunin said and the six ingots that were turned into stone-like gems were washed away by the image of a very powerful-looking being that towered over a planet, holding a sceptre of sorts that glowed purple. The Power Gem...the same cawing laughter whispered.

"These carriers can use the stones to mow down civilizations like wheat in a field," Muunin continued as the being slammed the butt end of the sceptre onto the ground. It sent a wave of terrible destruction that instantly vaporized fleeing beings, spreading across the planet in the matter of seconds. Steve swallowed hard against the sudden lump that formed in his throat at the sheer and sudden destruction of a planet long ago that had been so full of life.

"Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they were quickly destroyed by it."

Steve saw the same gem being used by a group of hooded aliens who seemingly let the power flow through them very much like it had in the sceptre. They writhed and bowed, trying to contain the pain, but suddenly all exploded into flakes and pieces. Each one of their mouths were opened in a silent scream of horror and pain. He pressed his lips together and tried to turn away from their deaths, but found that he could not, not with the illusion over his eyes.

The horrific image dissipated and was replaced by Thanos' icy blue eyes and leering smile as he held what looked like a small yellow jewel in between his meaty fingers. He suddenly ran his other hand over it and Steve saw the familiar blue-encasement that defined the Chitauri sceptre cover the gem. So that was where the Chitauri sceptre's power came from. The Mind Gem...the laughing raven whispered in his mind.

At the same time, he saw the familiar form a Jotun, dressed in more elaborate furs and simple bone-necklaces create a small ornate box, plucking wisps of something from two hands in either direction. One was definitely the cover-encrusted Mind Gem in Thanos' purple hands, but the other was a seemingly weathered hand that held the familiar blue cuboid that was the Tesseract.

The Casket of Ancient Winters...the raven said with a cackling whisper in his mind and Steve was suddenly reminded of the bone-chilling icy interior of the Helicarrier right after Thanos had attacked and captured Loki. He was also suddenly reminded of Loki's fight with Fenrir, how the two battled with their staves. Loki's stave had fired off icy blasts of something, but was it truly the Casket of Ancient Winters? A seemingly hybrid weapon that was both the Mind Gem and the Tesseract?

The Space Gem...the raven whispered before the hand holding the blue cuboid was revealed to be a middle-aged man who looked eerily like Odin, but with a different helmet. It had horns, but they were curled around his ears, giving him a ram-like appearance. Bor Allfather...the raven whispered quietly, almost regretfully when just as suddenly something red lashed out at Bor. Steve watched, fascinated at the sudden flurry of movement from Bor as the blood-red-black tendrils attacked with a ferocity of something alive that did not want to be disturbed.

A sneering pale face with striking blue eyes, elaborately braided white hair and elfin ears roared, guttural and angry. He flung his hand out once more and jagged bolts of red-black shards flew towards Bor Allfather once again. The Tesseract flared a luminous blue, deflecting the attack before pulsing once, sending washes of starlight across the area.

Steve's field of vision suddenly turned into a deathly air as thousands upon thousands of others who looked similar to the white-haired man fell down, some dying from sudden spurting wounds, others clawing at their throats. At the same time, he turned and saw numerous Asgardians, all dressed in their golden-burnished armor, along with what looked like their allies, the Jotuns in their furs, fall. Some were dying from wounds that suddenly appeared while others seemingly were torn to pieces by the jagged shards of black and red.

It was a horrific battle that took place, between the elfin-like creatures – the Dark Elves – whispered the raven; and to his surprise, magic, thrown all about in all of its glory, much like the glimpses of what he had seen on the Helicarrier when Loki fought Fenrir. The spellwork was coming from both Dark Elves, Jotuns, and the Asgardians themselves. Swords, pikes, halberds, and all sorts of weaponry, projectile and not, along with shielding were used, but Steve had never seen spellwork used, even on the Rainbow Bridge when they fought Thanos three years ago. It looked eerily like when he and the Commandos fought HYDRA back in World War II.

And speaking of Thanos, Steve saw him standing in the middle of it, laughing gleefully with the Mind Gem held in his hands. It pulsed with power and he somehow knew that he was enthralling people. What he could not tell was whether or not Thanos had coerced Bor Allfather and his forces to attack the Dark Elves and their leader, or was it the other way. Maybe it was a little bit of both, but Steve wasn't focused on that. Instead, he tried to reach out to see behind Thanos, but found that he was unable to move. Surprisingly, it didn't alarm him, but he focused on the hooded figure behind Thanos that seemingly clung onto his shadow.

The spells, bolts, and other types of weaponry created their own lights and for a moment, Steve thought he saw the face of an incredibly beautiful woman. To him it looked eerily like Peggy...

"...Pepper?" he thought he heard the echo of Tony's whisper and wondered if he was staring at the same thing he was. But he didn't get a chance to dwell on it as the image was shattered by the light of another bolt fired and he saw a skeletal smile on the hooded figure's face.

"Death followed," Muunin's voice was soft and sad as the images continued to play out like a movie that Steve could not turn off or turn away from. He thought he saw the hooded figure in Thanos' shadow smile with razor sharp teeth, and could suddenly imagine that smile being infinitely pleased with how much blood was being shed. How much death hung in the cloudy toxic air.

"But it was not enough," the raven continued quietly, "the Gems were infinite, power unmatched. They were the universe before the universe itself. They pre-dated the darkness and so, they could not be known except in Death."

There was a visible shift in battle and Steve knew that some time had passed when Bor looked a little more wearier, more weathered. His helm dripped of blood, the horns that turned downward pooling and soaking in black ichor. Bor suddenly raised a hand, and Steve recognized the gauntlet he wore as the same one Loki had supposedly stole out of the Vaults three years ago to give to Thanos. On it was the flash of blue that he instantly recognized as the Space Gem, the Tesseract compressed even further. Bot suddenly pointed a finger and there was just a quick flash of blue before the Dark Elf leader writhed and twitched as something was seemingly pulled out of it.

The red-black mass seemingly spilled out of every pore of the Dark Elf as he silently screamed and tried to take the liquid-like mass back into himself. But he failed and Steve saw the red-black mass leap onto the Infinity Gauntlet where it turned into a single gemstone, sitting next to the Space Gem. As he looked up again, he saw that Thanos had stopped smiling and glared at Bor Allfather. Thanos clutched the encased Mind Gem in his hand, sending cracks and splinters of blue-hued power spreading across his skin like a complex maze of runes.

Steve realized that everyone he had seen in the battle had not fought with the Gems directly in their hands, but instead, had used some kind of protective barrier to channel such a power so that they would not tempt the fate and die like those before them who channeled the gems directly. It seemed that Bor Allfather had utilized a far more advance method of channeling with the Infinity Gauntlet and now possessed the power of two of the gems and was apparently looking to take the one in Thanos' hand. The Mad Titan drew back his arm and was about to attack-

"Death was fickle," Muunin said as Bor was faster. He pointed two fingers at Thanos and sent him flying deep into the wash of black starlight. Steve surmised that this was more than likely the moment when Thanos had been supposedly trapped in the shadows of Yggdrasil.

Some more time seemed to past as Bor looked even older, the Gauntlet placed in the Vaults of Asgard, the Tesseract in its blue cuboid form placed in Tǿnsberg, Norway. The red-black liquid-like stone that was called the Reality Gem, was placed in a dusty monolith which closed shut without even a single whisper. It seemed Bor had scattered the Infinity Stones, his weathered face heavy with sadness and regret.

"Death did not stop. Many more died even with the Infinity Stones hidden," Steve watched as apparent quick flashes of the death of Jotuns that apparently had magic, the magic-ruling body was overthrown. A civil war had started and a decadent culture had begun to decline as the ruling magic-wielding class fell to the far more numerous warrior and non-magic-inclined ones. They wielded the Casket of Ancient Winters, a weapon that was seemingly created from the essences of two Infinity Stones. He watched as Asgard cast their judgment upon them, and was greatly reminded of the hidden figure behind Thanos' shadow, seemingly laughing and enjoying the death and destruction wrought.

It only hit him then that he realized the shadowy figure behind Thanos was the actual, literal, Death. He blinked his eyes furiously as the starlight of destruction faded from his vision, returning him to the room where they had been standing in. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the others seemingly shake or start and come to themselves before he looked at Muunin.

"That's Hel's mother behind Thanos, isn't it? Literal Death..." he asked, remembering what Thor had told them about Hel in relation to her part of Loki's former coterie.

"Wait, as in the actual grim reaper?!" Tony asked, "like scythe and all? Dude, I thought I saw, uh-Pep-uh..."

"It is said that she takes on the form of the ones we wish to see in the moment we enter her embrace, and in other literal words, die," Muunin gave Tony an arched look and Steve saw him pale a little. He also felt unsettled by what the raven had said...he had thought he had seen Peggy before he saw Death's true skeletal form.

"Explains how the heck Hel was able to calm the Other Guy down in Trafalgar Square when she, Jormungandr, and Fenrir were on their whole revenge thing..." Bruce piped up, "huh...literally Death's daughter..."

"So what's this got to do with Ragnarok? And why?" Coulson asked.

For the first time since the raven spoke, Steve saw him look a little flustered and seemingly shrugged as if ruffling his feathers if he was in his animal form. "I...do not know..."

"Wait, what?" Tony exclaimed and Steve shot a quick look at him and got a defensive one in return.

"We dare not ask...we dare not fall into the madness that befell the Crown Prince so long ago," Huugin suddenly spoke up down in the room and all of them peered out of the window. The human-formed raven stared at them with look that reminded him greatly of the Allfather. Steve realized that Odin did not know what Ragnarok entailed, only that it was, and it had affected him so much that he did not ask about it in any shape or form. Or even the more important 'why' as Coulson had asked.

"...I asked...and it was the fall of Asgard," Sleipnir suddenly spoke up, making Jormungandr and Huugin jump slightly. His chains rattled gently as he shifted a little bit, "You showed them, did you not? You showed it to them and yet you did not deign to ask beyond what you had seen. The why. I asked...and I found out why my Crown Prince, my adoptive father, had fallen. The fall of Asgard, and the destruction of the House of Bor and now of Odin. The conquering of the galaxy upon the ashes of everything we have once held dear, all for the hand of Death."

The red-haired man smiled, his icy blue eyes seemingly alight with an edge of madness, "Who once was conquerors now be the conquered. Ragnarok has begun..."

Author's Notes:

Muunin's explanation of the Infinity Gems in this universe's context is provided half by the Collector's speech from Guardians of the Galaxy and half based on what I've written in my universe. It's recommended you go play the track "Black Tears" from Guardians of the Galaxy to get the full chilling effect. Also, yay, all characters are on the sort of same page now! Some are still a bit ahead of others, but we're getting close.

In other notes, mental head cast of Muunin is Jamie Bell, and Huugin is Thomas Brodie-Sangster. And contrary to how the ravens act around Loki, they're pretty (or at least Muunin is) chatty around the Avengers. Hilariously enough, Huugin is more chatty around Asgardians and Muunin is the silent brooding one. Also, both their actions towards Jormungandr will be explained.