Natasha shivered as a chill breeze swirled through the cavern, and when she pulled the zipper on her jacket up to her neck, she saw there was an opening in the stone, which hadn't been there before.

"Steve?" she asked. "Do you see it?"

He turned to follow her gaze, and his lips parted in astonishment. "It's really there. What the hell is going on?"

She figured it was open to let Lukas out, but instead she heard a sound, a faint echoing cry like someone in pain. Not hesitating, she darted into the new opening, dashing through the short tunnel until it opened up into a bigger cavern. She noted the beauty of the formations absently as she searched for Lukas – she saw his clothes on the floor as Steve rushed past her.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed.

Lukas was floating, face-down, in a pool of water. His skin looked pale and he wasn't moving at all. Her heart lurched at the sight.

Steve jumped in, grabbing Lukas' limp form and turning him over, to hold his head against Steve's shoulder out of the water. He didn't stir, water dripping down his face and running out of his mouth, insensate. She knelt as Steve grabbed the edge with his free hand to pull himself closer.

"I'll push, you pull," Steve said, and she bent to take hold under Lukas' arms, shuffling backward as Steve helped lift him out of the water.

Lukas was naked, but aside from noting that fact she ignored it, watching his face as she felt for the pulse in his neck. His skin was cold, but she could feel a fluttering against her fingertips. "Oh, thank God," she murmured, and her eyes met Steve's as he hauled himself out of the water. "He's alive." She touched his cold lips and felt no air. "But I don't think he's breathing."

Tilting Lukas' head back, Natasha pinched his nose and sealed her lips to his to give him a few rescue breaths and see if she could prompt him to try breathing on his own again.

He tried to inhale, then convulsed, and she pushed him onto his side as he coughed up water. When the spasm seemed finished, he stayed on his side, panting for breath.

"Lukas? You alright?" she asked.

He pushed himself up on one elbow and pulled a leg under himself to sit. "I think so," he answered finally and inhaled a deep breath, coughing again and wiping his mouth before looking at her then up at Steve, noting that he was wet, too. "Thank you. I owe you."

"No, you don't owe us anything," Steve said. "We're lucky they opened the way to you in time." Steve tried to hand him his pants without looking at him, but also unable not to, then looking away again, as if stung. His reaction made her want to laugh. "Here."

Lukas tried a smirk that came off weary. "If this is for your prurience I will, though Asgard is not particularly modest. Let me gather some strength and I'll dry us both off." He draped the pants over his lap as he shifted to sit cross-legged, and Natasha's eyes went there, as suddenly she realized Steve's problem. Her business-like attitude shifted and she realized she was watching water droplets roll down his skin. She bit the inside of her lip and raised her eyes again, hoping no one noticed her gaze.

Luckily Lukas had his head down, slumping tiredly and coughing again. Steve asked, "So, besides you almost drowning, what happened?"

Lukas gave a brittle laugh. "They thought it would be a good idea to shove me into a dark box to try to tell me something."

All thoughts of trivial attraction fled, replaced by dismay. They'd put him in a position to replicate his captivity which was something anyone on Earth knew perfectly well would be upsetting, and in Lukas' case, caused a panic attack.

"Oh Jesus," Steve breathed, shaking his head. He knelt down in front of Lukas, while Natasha scooted closer to him, offering her hand which he gripped against his leg. "That's just wrong."

"They're ignorant or cruel," Natasha murmured. "Either way, it doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence."

"They knew," he answered, voice hollow. "Of course they knew. Their entire purpose, it seems, is to turn me into the villain of prophecy. Ragnarok doesn't happen on its own, you know." He gave another of those bitter chuckles, and his pale eyes seemed bleak. "They play the long game to get what they want."

"Long game' meaning to break him down into someone more malleable to their intentions. Her own experience made the idea far too plausible. And sickening. "You won't," Natasha said, as firmly as she could. "You're turning away from darkness, not toward it. Besides, if they have to force you to it, then it won't be you."

"Yeah, screw them," Steve added. "They can find someone else. There's no shortage of wickedness in the world."

Lukas' head snapped up, as if Steve's words struck a chord in his memory, and he frowned. "There was someone watching," he murmured. "In the vision. The wolves were gathering."

"No offense to your Norns," Natasha said, "But we already knew that."

"Did you learn anything useful?" Steve asked. "Anything worth the price?"

Lukas touched his stomach, and he looked as if he wasn't sharing everything as he murmured, "No. Only nightmares I conjured up myself. Symbols or warnings, I suspect. The Norns never speak plainly. Sacred pools are supposed to help." He gestured to the water and added with a bitter chuckle, "It worked marvelously." Clearing his throat, he moved his hand and fingers in a peculiar way. The water fell away from him, leaving his hair looking soft and with some wave to it that she suddenly had a need to run her fingers through.

But she turned away as he stretched out his legs to start putting on his trousers, ignoring his soft laugh. "So polite, Natalya. For what you already saw."

Twice, actually, since he'd also been naked when she'd found him in Sokovia. But there was no benefit in reminding him of that. She kept her tone light and retorted, "Put your clothes on, Lukas. You can pretend to be a stripper another time."

"Oh, be careful- you might stab yourself with such wit," he shot back.

Steve snickered as Lukas stood and circled her, to get into her line of sight. She reminded herself that Red Room graduates didn't care about shirtlessness and tight leather pants and let herself look with an arched brow as her only response. But he smirked. "Mmm, I think Natalya is barely holding herself back from jumping me, what do you think, Steven?"

"I think I'm staying out of it," Steve answered, holding up his hands and retreating to gather up the rest of Lukas' clothes.

As Lukas took them, he made another gesture to dry Steve as well, and said more seriously, "Thank you, Steven."

"Hey, I promised I'd have your back, didn't I?" Steve answered. "I meant it."

"Well, I do appreciate it. Both of you," he glanced at Natasha to make sure she was included in his gratitude. "Come, I have no wish to linger in this place."

His intent to leave was immediately thwarted by the discovery that it was snowing outside.

"We can go," Natasha offered. "It's not a bad storm." Which it wasn't – the snow was falling, but not too heavily and there didn't seem to be any wind, though the chill was already touching her nose.

Lukas glanced back in the direction of the pool, whose opening had closed behind them as soon as they'd all passed through, and he shook his head, giving a short sigh of resignation. "No. There's no reason. It's full dark already, and we should use this shelter while we have it. Let us make camp in the cave, and we can start our quest in the morning."

Natasha thought that might be his way of suggesting he needed a rest, and since this wasn't an urgent mission, there was no need to press on. She exchanged a glance with Steve, and they made camp in the cave.

Steve snapped awake at the sound of scuffing against stone. He opened his eyes to see Lukas pad out the tunnel leading outside.

In the dimmed light from the small lantern, he glanced toward Natasha, to have her gaze meet his, as awake. She nodded her head for him to follow Lukas, so he wriggled out of the sleepsack, shoved his feet back into his boots, and left the cave.

Outside, the storm had passed and the sky was clear and lit with a thick carpet of outflung stars. The fresh snow made it easy to follow Lukas' tracks along the rock face. Until they abruptly stopped.

Steve looked around, wondering if he'd gone inside some other cave or done his trick of going Someplace Else. Then he lifted his head to find Lukas's boots inches above him. He was sitting on the edge of an outcropping in the rock, legs dangling. Lukas waggled his fingers at Steve, smirking.

Steve pulled himself up to sit beside him. The view was outstanding, since they were high enough now to see the way the trees sloped downward and the clouds had mostly cleared, leaving a star-filled sky all around them. He let the silence linger for awhile before asking, "Can't sleep?"

Lukas shrugged. "I wanted to be outside. The cold doesn't bother me." He paused and asked, "Does it bother you?"

Steve knew he meant because of his ice nap, and shook his head. "I thought it would, but… not really? I remember feeling the cold before I passed out, but hell, the winter of '34 was worse. Now that was cold, and lasted longer." He looked out at the forest and the sky above. "Remember the Baltic mission? Lots of snow and ice on that one, too." There'd been a lot of very cold water taking down that island base in the Danish straits. London had given them the assignment, not because it was Hydra, but because Steve and Lukas' ability to fall from airplanes had let them take out the perimeter so the rest of the Commandos could come in.

Lukas' grin was sudden and bright. "That was a good one."

"Wait." Steve snapped a look at him, new revelations re-casting old memories. "You used that dimension hopping trick, didn't you? You didn't find a 'secret door.' You just," he gestured with both hands, imitating Lukas' movements in shifting their timeline, "did that thing, sneaking in behind them. I had to fight my way down."

"And you enjoyed every minute of it."

Steve wanted to deny that. It had been a lot of fighting and killing and blood and that shouldn't be 'fun'. But throwing his shield, powering through the enemy, knowing what he was doing was vital to the war effort and breaking the German stranglehold on the northern Atlantic, hadn't exactly been unpleasant. So he had to admit, "I do miss it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do without it."

The smile slipped away and Lukas cast his gaze outward again. "We'll have enemies to fight, Steven," Lukas promised. "Fury's not wrong about the need for something like his Avengers Initiative. This Realm sits on the brink of a massive explosion in technology and magic, and some will inevitably fall into the wrong hands."

Steve frowned at him. "What makes you say that? I don't doubt you're right, but how do you know?"

"Wanda," Lukas answered, and elaborated. "Her powers are far stronger than they should be, when her descent from me is several generations. Also, her potential opened early without prompting. Like me, she wields raw seidr, which is one of the fundamental forces. By its nature, it connects forward and back, future and past, so I believe it was readying her."

"The magic could see what was coming, so it made her powerful?" Steve asked. That seemed weird, though after being in that fallen version of Washington, he couldn't say it was all that bizarre.

"Yes. And because of that, it hints at what's to come. If a mortal needs her level of power, then… there will be a threat its equal."

"That sounds like fate," Steve murmured.

"I suppose it is, at that. The Norns do as they will. And notice, if my descendant is so powerful, does it not make me superfluous?" Loki asked.

Steve knew what he was suggesting, but shook his head. "Or the threat is so large it needs both of you?"

Lukas grimaced. "I suppose that's also possible. Though rather concerning."

Lukas pulled up his knees and wrapped his hands around them, looking outward, but into distant thought or memory. It was a self-protective pose, and Steve hated to see it. He wanted to throw his shield at some Norns and make them leave Lukas alone, but since he couldn't do that, he promised aloud, "Whatever it is, we'll face it together."

Very softly, without looking at Steve, Lukas answered, "I hope there comes a day I can help you as much as you help me."

"That day is every day. I know I wouldn't be nearly so," he hesitated trying to think of the right word, "together, if you weren't here, too."

He reached across Lukas' back to grip his shoulder, fingers closing over the metal and leather feel of his armor tightly enough to feel the muscle beneath. When Lukas leaned into him, as if seeking the warmth or just the human connection of it, Steve tugged him closer. He recalled having that body next to him in the water and how his skin had felt under Steve's hands, all sleek and firm and wet.

He stomped on that memory and pushed it away. Lukas needed a friend, right now, more than he needed those kind of thoughts, even if his mind was treacherously replaying Lukas offering something fun. But no, he and Natasha were in the middle of something, and Steve didn't want to intrude.

That was all beside the point of Lukas having drowned hours before and all the other shit he'd been through. He needed support.

"We'll get through this," Steve murmured. "We should go back in, though; get some rest."

"I am resting."

He probably was, but Steve shook his head. "How about sleep? Do you think you can try again?"

"I'd rather not, but you should go find some warmth," Lukas coaxed him. "I'm used to the cold."

Steve didn't move. Lukas was the Ice Demon, and he'd spent years in Arendelle, so of course he'd be used to it. "Does it feel like home? Being back here in the mountains, the Ice Demon again?" Steve asked with a smile, hoping to prompt a good memory.

Lukas paused and rubbed his fingers against the rock. "No," he said finally. "Maybe in the city," he waved his hand in the general direction of Arendelle the town, "But not here. The mountains are where the Ice Demon was a monster, and where I was alone."

Steve winced inwardly, thinking bringing him here might have been a mistake, but he tried a smile for Lukas. "Well, you're not alone now."

He squeezed Lukas' shoulder and stayed at his side. They sat together on the cold rock until first light. Whether it was simply luck or some kind of magic, the clouds stayed sparse, letting them watch the night sky full of all its glorious stars.