Author's Notes: Oh my goodness, Thor's Days is done! There's still so much story to go and my Gods, did this take a year to write, but even though there were a few major personal crises in between chapters it's done! So, so, so, so many thanks to my betas, Amanda, Marjorie, and Jade, who have guided and encouraged this story and me, and to all my readers who have been so patient and supportive and amazing to stick through this work. I am so, so lucky to have you all. :)
I am hoping to post the next installment (!) within two months, so I can have a few chapters on deck. And there may be more one-shots in the tales from the water!verse: parallel universe series! This is already up on AO3, and I will try and upload it here soon. Once the next story is up, I'll be sure to post a link in an author's note, so if you follow this story, you'll be set! :)
The faint hum of the magical auras in the research wing was both a balm to Loki's aura, worn ragged by maintaining his decoys, and a reminder of what necessitated said decoys in the first place.
Loki had many talents. Choosing allies, unfortunately, was not one of them.
Doom had found two more doubles and dispatched them with his usual efficiency. It had taken him three weeks to find these - Loki had shifted the wards these doubles generated, for they would be poor decoys if they didn't adapt and make themselves harder to find.
It should have made him nervous, going without so much as a passive ward to protect him, but it was too much of a risk. Loki had simply jettisoned his second mobile, but not before giving Doom dozens of red herrings, magical and technological. It wasn't as if Doom lacked for means of making a statement.
There were increasingly private statements, however, each subsequent murder buried in smaller stories and crime reports, if they even made the news. There must be a slew of disappointed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents out there, investigating each incident, getting their hopes dashed and then intimidating the city's insatiable journalists, professionals and amateurs alike.
And Stark - who made Loki fervently wish he had flung his primary mobile at his armored head when he called, indignant, about the minor issue of asking permission before appointing him Kara's potential guardian - did he sigh in relief or disappointment when each victim was merely an illusion?
He slid on a silky grey cashmere sweater which he had tucked carefully into his bag - the museum was a respite to the lingering sultry summer heat. He sank into his desk - tea could wait - and took out the little wolf. It was slick and cool beneath his fingers, and although the tingle of magic was still there, it was still only that - the barest flicker of power when he knew, instinctively, it had far more.
"They are going to expect us to put these on display in the near future." Amy Lin, a recent archaeology graduate, leaned over his desk. She was young, bright, and insisted on offering advice, whether one asked for it or not. "If you loan it to me, I might be able to figure out something about it."
"While your offer of assistance is kind and ever so humble, as always, this is still my project. I believe you have a carving of a man and the...tender relationship with his animal awaiting your brilliance."
"Ever the charmer," Lin said derisively. She leaned back, a drop of crimson splashing onto his table, and she cursed into fingers that fumbled to stem the red rivulets trickling down her chin.
"Would you terribly mind not bleeding over my work?" Loki didn't think it normal that one human should bleed quite profusely without even a blow. "Are you all right?" He didn't mean to sound concerned, he was aiming for disinterested coworker, but paternal mode, it seemed, had its own whims.
"Is that you, worried? Hell and the Met have frozen over. Just my damn allergies," she muttered, pressing her hand more firmly as the flow did not stop. "I'm going to stuff half a roll of toilet paper in my nose. Sorry if your desk looks like an Aztec altar."
A few drops had splashed onto the wolf, and Loki couldn't hide his noise of disgust, even if Lin was already halfway to the washroom. As he reached for a cloth, however, he noticed a silvery flash, and runes where there had once been none, trailing across the wolf's flank. .
"I await the blood of my enemy" the runes read, and Loki smiled, a brittle, feral grin that would have made his human colleagues shudder in fear had they seen it. And they would have trembled and cowered had they felt the surge of power that pulsed through the wolf, calling to him, singing to him, saying it would be his if it only had what it desired.
Loki would give the little wolf what it wanted. And in return, he and his daughter would have freedom, and the universe at their feet.
Kara stared at the leaves and waited for something to happen. This is the surprise Daddy had been talking about all day?
"It's a tree, daddy. It's not gonna do anything." She frowned. "Is it gonna do anything?"
Daddy laughed as he lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and she smelled his cologne.
"Perhaps not today. But it is more special than it seems. Perhaps even magic?"
Kara raised an eyebrow. "There's only magic in books and movies. You don't even do magic - you can just make force fields because your pants are different."
"My pants?"
"Olivia said mu-mulations happen because of peoples jeans. But you like to wear fancy pants." Kara frowned as she tried to make everything make sense. "Do you not have powers when you dress nice for work?"
Daddy shook his head, and even if his mouth didn't smile his eyes were happy and Kara felt warmer than the sun could ever make her.
"Olivia's understanding of genetics aside, there is still magic in this world. People think it's gone, but it's never left. You just have to know where to look. And trees have always been thought of as magic, and for a very good reason."
"Are you gonna tell me that very good reason?"
"I am, if you can be patient."
"I'll try."
"There's a tree that goes throughout the entire universe, called Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Its roots are in all the worlds, and in certain trees, you can feel the roots, very strongly. And if you know how, you can travel between the worlds, using Yggdrasil."
"Like Diagonal Alley?"
"Yes, like Diagon Alley. Only wizards can make it work." He leaned in close to the tree, and took Kara's hand, placing it against it, his big hand over hers. "They look at the tree everyone else does, but they see its true nature."
"Daddy, trees are nature," Kara said. "You're not going to help us get our nature badge at all."
"I suppose not," he said, wrapping her into a tight hug before he set her back on the grass. "Speaking of, we need to be meeting the rest of the troop, before they're attacked by rabid squirrels."
"Wait! I have to say goodbye to the tree!"
"We're going to see it again soon."
"But it might miss me!" Kara hugged the tree as best she could. It was scratchy under her hands and her cheek, but it felt soft and cool, and when Kara looked up, she imagined the tree stretching forever into the sky.
Kara skipped all the way through the park, wondering if that's what seeing true nature really was.
Clint didn't want to be here. He really, really didn't want to be here. But what choice did he have?
"You were the last person I expected to see." The voice was manicured, polite, and maybe that's why it set Clint on edge. "Sit down."
"I'll stand, thanks. This is going to be quick. I don't want you getting the wrong idea."
"Then why don't you tell me what the right idea is."
"Listen. This isn't something I do. I don't like dealing with people like you. I hate it. But sometimes you have to, and I finally realize that."
'What a change of heart. Can I ask what prompted it?"
"A lot of things. But I know you've been working with someone, and that relationship hasn't been working out lately."
"You could say that."
"I saw how the first one went down. Saw a few of the other ones too, the ones SHIELD kept off the air."
"Are you proposing to help me with this little dilemma?"
"I am. And I'm only asking you to do one thing - something you'd probably do already anyway. Something none of my friends evidently have the guts to do, even though it's the right thing."
"And what exactly is that?"
Clint pressed his hand down on the table and leaned forward. 'What I want you to do, Doom, is to kill Loki."