They met Jane at what had once been her mother's flat within London. The astrophysicist looked startled to see the pair of them, her eyes going wide as she took in their bizarre apparel and Thor's less than entirely intact appearance, hands and face still bloodied from the fight.
"You've really got to stop doing that," Jane said to Thor, "Disappearing and reappearing when you please." Nat caught the hint of a smile in the corners of her lips. At least she had a good sense of humor, Nat supposed, stepping inside after the woman and tossing the keys of her car to an astounded looking Darcy.
"You might want them back," Nat said with a dip of her head. Thor was silent beside her, staring around the small apartment, looking far too big for it and far less concerned with being there, his mind obviously elsewhere. Nat took his hand in her own, squeezing it, bringing him back down to earth. She felt, more than saw, Jane's gaze flit towards where their hands had met, could all but feel the confusion as it ebbed from the woman and seeped into the room before it was quickly replaced with the more important one about where they'd been and what had happened. Nat would have to explain the details to her later, she supposed, but Thor needed support then.
"We went to Asgard-that thing, power surge or whatever that knocked me over? It's called the Aether, and right now that power source is in the hands of an enemy that's got a grudge match against all the realms," Nat said quickly, releasing Thor's hand in favor of folding her arms over her chest. "The dark elves-Malekith, I guess-was going to use it to plunge the nine realms into eternal darkness. I saw it," she said, swallowing thickly. "And even though he's dead, his second in command is going to do the same, I'm sure of it. Finish his work. It's what they need in order to survive in our world is for the light-the sun? They need that to go out." She swallowed thickly. "Then they can reclaim the nine realms as their own. Now, the only reason that we were able to shift between worlds was because of the portals."
"Like the ones at the factory?" Darcy interjected, her brow furrowed as she stood from the seat near the center of the living room.
"Yes. Exactly," Natasha said. "Have you found more?"
"Are you kidding? There have been reports of these things going off everywhere," Jane said, picking up a bulky looking piece of technology and showing it to Natasha, rattling off a quick explanation that went completely over her head about how they keep appearing then disappearing at sporadic moments, no sense of reason or purpose behind the shifting of portals other than they kept centering in different continents. "SHIELD keeps calling to ask whether we've got anything going that keeps causing them, or if we can stop them but-."
"But?" Nat hated those.
"There's no sort of warning factor. If we could just figure out where they're trying to localize. I already sent over my blueprints of this baby," she patted the box in her hands, "so they could at least get readings on where the portals would be when they turned up."
Nat could've kissed her. Good, that means they could get Tony or Bruce on replicating it and at least be somewhat prepared. At least they wouldn't be without some semblance of knowledge.
"Any other clues as to where to start looking for this convergence point?" Nat asked.
"I mean we could look for wherever gravity is weakest, where these phenomenons seem to be localizing-."
From the corner there came a cry, Selvig's head popping up from where he'd planted it on the desk. Nat hadn't even noticed him the first time around, though she was pleased to see he at least looked lucid. Though he didn't say anything to them he turned, not exactly a sight Nat had really cared to see, to shuffle a few things off of a table near the back of the living room, grumbling under his breath about something or other. Right.
"Has anything made its way through?" Thor finally asked, voice thick and gravelly, a certain calling to fight that made the sky above them thunder. The intern gave a small start at the noise and Darcy shot him a smirk.
"Nerd," she said, almost fondly.
"Not that we've heard of," Jane answered, her eyes fixing on Thor, brow pulled down as she folded her arms over her chest, almost as though she was readying herself. "Should there be?"
"It is possible. The spaces between the realms with be very thin, near nonexistent," Thor said. "As is the nature of the convergence."
"It's what I've been saying!" Selvig's voice said, coming from the table he was currently hunched over, circling specific points on what looked to be a map. Nat rather liked Selvig, though that was when he was wearing pants admittedly, but after he'd helped her shut the portal down she'd looked into helping him find a decent rehabilitation center to help him deal with the madness that Loki had forced into his brain through the tesseract. At least it had worked well enough to keep his wits with him. He looked up to quickly greet both Thor and Nat, not having said a word before, before launching into his explanation about how the ancients had utilized the thinning gravity at certain weaker points around the world. They seemed, this time, to revolve around a certain point in Greenwich as he pointed out in the map, taking the tallied points where they'd found the most portals and connecting the lines that ran straight through the country. "It's likely the realms will all converge here."
"And with all the realms aligned," Jane finished. "The power of whatever it is will be strengthened."
'Great.' Nat thought. "Anywhere else they could hit?"
"Doubtful," Selvig said. "Our climate is the most similar to their own, in comparison to Southern America or Egypt. which I suspect will be the other two most weakened points around the Aztec, Incan, and Mayan ruins, and around the Pyramids."
It made sense Nat supposed, and after pressing a couple buttons she got a hold of Fury, relaying the same information to him to ensure that they were well enough prepared. He'd informed her that Sitwell's team had already run into problems near Machu Picchu. Apparently an enormous, scaled monster with antlers had started chasing tourists, and Thor, who was standing near enough to overhear Fury's exasperated tone, winced.
"Tell them to go for the head and neck, the weakest points," he murmured to Natasha, who filled Fury in, watching as Thor moved to hang Mjolnir on one of the pegs near the door. She allowed herself an affectionate smile, ending her conversation just as the demigod moved to speak with Darcy about what else they had planned, Jane moving to look over readings of her own. Seizing the moment, Nat tapped Jane on the shoulder and asked where her things had been put. Her Asgardian gown had been ripped and torn but was otherwise still in decent condition. She longed for her suit, though, glad she'd at least brought something comparable to leave at the house. She needed to be ready for anything, at any time, she supposed. Jane led her through one of the smaller hallways towards the room Nat's dufflebag had been " Nat said, keeping her voice down. "Do you know of anyway to keep these things from coming through, or how to manipulate it?" She asked, looking back through the hall to where Darcy was going on about how birds had apparently attacked all four of them, Thor chuckling good humoredly at the tale. She tried to take solace in the solid nature of his laugh, how strong it was despite all they'd been through. She hated to say that she was shaking, that it had nothing with the cold of the evening, but she wasn't entirely over Lokis' death. How could someone that powerful with the Aether intact still be so mortal and fragile? Perhaps the beast would be as well, though he'd evaded being pierced or pummeled even by Mjollnir.
And how the hell was she supposed to fight against a creature such as that? She hated not having solid information to draw upon, no facts to use as reference. Jane, it seemed, was the same, swallowing thickly as she turned back to look at the spy following her.
"We've got a few items that might-well, Selvig does. They should be able to mess with the seams between worlds, so to speak, but there's no guarantee that it'll work, nothing for certain. Just hope and guessing." She shook her head. "Might be able to pull from this world and transport the matter, I mean it's worked before but that was without the shift in gravity and-."
"Jane, I'm sorry," Nat cut her off mid-swing. "Because I know you know what you're doing. And I trust you. But I need as definite an answer as I can get. Please." She sighed. "I just need something so I can come up with an idea or a plan."
Jane allowed herself a small smile, and Nat was surprised to see the strength burning through her eyes as she reached out to take Nat by the shoulder. "Then let's work on a plan. That's all you had to say," she teased.
Nat's own face loosened a little. Right. Of course. She nodded, thanking Jane when she offered her the room to change in, but before she could leave entirely. "Also, about Thor-."
Jane shook her head, turning back to face Nat. "None of my business. You had a point before, about the pressures before and between Thor and I. If you two are together than that's fine. I'm not about to tell you it's not allowed or anything," she laughed, a sound Nat was relieved to hear. There didn't seem to be enough of it. "I appreciate you talking to me about it."
Nat's cheeks ached from the strain of keeping up the smile, even as her heart lightened with the relief of not having to worry about drama or stepped on toes because really, as if this job hadn't gotten messy enough. "You're far more clever than you're given credit for, Jane."
Jane's grin grew, bright as any sun. "I know," she half teased before moving to rejoin the rest, closing the door behind her.
When the others finally went to sleep sometime around two in the morning, Nat and Thor taking up residence in the small living room, pillows and blankets provided for the pair, Thor pressed his lips gently to Nat's. "Thank you," he said, voice so quiet she had to rely on the rumble in his chest to tell what he was saying. "For everything. This ought not to have been your burden to bear."
"It's not a problem," Nat promised, cupping the side of his face and sitting closer to kiss his forehead. "I'm glad to be here with you, burden or not," she said, breath ghosting over his chilled skin, and tried not to think of how cold Loki's hands had been. This wouldn't end the same way. Thor wouldn't die, she had to believe it. None of them would. There had been far too much death already, and for someone who was usually so close to it, who dealt in it on a daily basis, waded through the bodies of the dead and dying to finish her job, Natasha found herself unsettled by it. This was different, she had to remind herself. She wasn't compromised, she was simply adjusting. Her silence hadn't gone unnoticed by Thor, who took both her hands in one of his own enormous ones, and with the second cupped the back of her head and tilted her face upwards to kiss her hard, pouring his sorrow, his inner turmoil, everything into it until she felt the wetness on his cheeks and the shaking in his shoulders.
"We'll avenge them both, I promise," she said as she pulled him into her arms, keeping him there all night, neither sleeping very much.