Two years since being hit by the time sand...
Robin was enjoying her vacation. While Asgard was fun, it wasn't Earth. Since she had heard about Tony Stark, she opted to become an intern to avoid the magicals. While Tony flirted shamelessly with her, he never once touched her or pushed it too far. He would never hit on a married woman.
He found her fascinating, particularly when she told him about magic. More so when she mentioned someone who knew more about magical pranks than even she did.
Sirius had been shocked when she had appeared in Grimmauld place before the Order was fully functioning again. But he had quickly agreed to a simple homuculus to take his place which he could speak through so that history wasn't changed too much.
Remus had to be told what was really going on so he wouldn't blow her cover, but he was just as eager to meet Loki as Sirius was. Finding out that this time, she intended to save them was a bit of a surprise.
Still, Sirius got along with Tony Stark like a building on fire. The two debated pranks for hours, and Tony didn't mind showing Sirius how to work technology. Pepper seem to like him too, since he kept Tony out of trouble.
Sirius once remarked it was like talking to a smarter, more annoying version of James.
In short Robin felt completely at ease with them.
Robin noted with interest the odd crash in a small town in New Mexico that she recognized immediately as when Thor came to Earth to learn humility. She mentioned it to Tony and used two weeks of her built up vacation time to go see it.
He waved her off, plotting with an amused Sirius about some new ideas in which they could combine magic and technology. It had taken Tony two months to learn how to overcome the issue of magic overloading the sensitive computers. And he had been beyond pleased when that opened up a whole slew of people to sell things to...it more than made up for the cash he lost dropping out of the arms market a few years back.
His stocks reflected the sudden influx and his board was more than pleased by this.
"Tony, do you have a newspaper I could borrow?" asked Robin.
Tony Stark took most of what Robin did in stride. The wedding band on her right hand and the young toddler she occasionally brought with her was enough to keep him from doing more than mildly flirt with her. Little Hermes was a handful, and she often dumped him on Sirius in the hopes that her godfather would corrupt him with pranks.
Her husband, who had a job that made it impossible to contact him, was never around but she didn't hold it against him.
All she would say was the man was rampant prankster that Sirius would get along famously with...and that he hadn't known she was pregnant when she got hit by time sand.
Tony, who made a snide comment about papers being outdated, tosses her one of his spare tablets. It doesn't have an critical information on it, but he would still make a smart remark when he found out what she needed it for.
It was Jarvis who informs Tony that she had needed a paper to deal with a rather annoying spider...and that the tablet was now ruined.
When asked by Tony what she had to say for herself, her response had Sirius and Remus holding back a laugh.
"Well at least I know for a fact the spider didn't know what hit it," she said amused.
It was Pepper who brought Tony's mind back to what he was doing, which was working on purchasing enough land in New York for his tower, and later making it magic proof.
Robin was almost about to leave the coffee shop when he showed up. Director Fury of SHIELD.
He had been harassing Tony a lot lately, even though she knew for a fact that Stark was suffering from a severe case of palladium poisoning. She was one of the rare few who knew about that, and only because she stumbled onto the fact by accident.
She was currently trying to find something in her potions stock to at least give Tony more time to find a viable replacement for palladium.
Still, she calmly sat down and ordered another coffee.
"I can only assume you know why I'm here."
"Either to get me to convince Tony to work for you...or to hire me yourself," she said, sipping her espresso.
"The second."
"You are aware I have a toddler who might take the fact his mother is gone a lot very badly, correct?"
"I'm also aware that you have somehow found Sirius Black and given him sanctuary. Work for me, and we can clear his record in the muggle world," said Fury.
"Mundane. Only those idiots in Europe use the world muggle," said Robin with an icy tone. She hated that world, and anything that reminded her of it.
The two chatted for a bit, before she offered a compromise.
She was well aware of the Avengers Initiative, considering she came from the future where it had finally taken off when they stopped Loki. She had never paid the normal news much notice, mostly because of the war going on and later because she was too busy. That was most likely the only reason she hadn't noticed the addition of the Enchantress before.
So, in exchange for helping her clear Sirius so he could walk without setting off alarms by the Americans and other countries (outside Britain anyway), she would work on a case-by-case basis as a civilian contractor.
"Agent Twilight, what is your status?"
Robin rolled her eyes. Ever since she agreed to join their little group, they had saddled her with a very annoying codename based on her animagus form.
Twilight Enchantress, while fitting, was still a rather odd codename.
At least she got to meet interesting people like Stephen Strange, who was surprisingly well informed about the Purge she would later initiate.
Even though he was considered the Sorcerer Supreme, because he had gained his powers rather than born with them, he was immune to the Purge. Certain muggleborns, those with the Mutant gene (inactive or not) were also immune because of that genetic abnormality. Those with creature inheritances, at least fifth generation, also got a pass on the Purge.
According to Dr. Strange, this was the Earth's way of insuring that while the magic was reclaimed, it wasn't entirely lost.
"This is Twilight. I'm on my way to speak to Charles Xavier."
"Remember, he's a mind reader," Fury said needlessly. She had been the one picked to speak to Xavier about sending some of his 'X-Men' their way in case of emergencies. Mostly because Loki had rebuilt the Occulmency shields Snape had so callously shredded to pieces.
"I know that Nicky, why else would you send me to talk to him?" said Robin snarkily. Since this was mostly a peaceful mission she had brought her son Hermes with her. He wasn't scared of mutants like most children...then again because of his status as demi-god, he was able to be around Remus during the full moon without being bitten.
She walked up to the gate, her son holding her hand and looking around curiously. Pushing the intercom, she explained about her appointment and was buzzed in. So far, so good.
"Welcome to the Xavier Institute of Gifted Youngsters," said Xavier. He wheeled into his desk.
"Hello Professor My name is Robin Black and this is my son Hermes. I hope we didn't catch you off guard," she said pleasantly.
"Somehow I get the feeling you aren't here to enroll your son," said Xavier.
"Hermes is magical, not mutant. I am here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D, who would like to extend an invitation for your team. Because of the unique nature of mutant powers, and the fact that they plan to work alongside others such as yourself with extraordinary talents, I can assure you that none of your people will feel out of ease," said Robin.
"You don't fear mutants?"
"Professor Xavier, if I can stand to be around a rather tame werewolf during the full moon, I can handle a mutant. Besides, you're not as alone as you believe when it comes to extraordinary powers. I for one, can speak to snakes as if it were English," said Robin bluntly.
"And shield your mind," he said dryly.
Robin lowered her shields just enough for him to see she was telling the truth, but still enough to cover some of the secrets she was privy to.
"Do I have your word that this...SHIELD will not exploit my team?" asked Xavier.
"Professor Xavier, the organization happens to keep tabs on people such as yourself, yet they chose not to interfere in your efforts to protect those with the gene. They have even gone out of their way to protect someone like Dr. Banner, who has a serious issue with anger due to a lab accident and becomes a juggernaut incapable of any mortal harm known as the Hulk. If they can find a way to work with him, then I believe you can trust them to work with your team and not try to use them."
"May I have some time to think on this?"
"Take all the time you need. I assume you can read which hotel I will be staying at."
"Indeed."
Two days later Robin returned home with good news for Fury. The X-Men were willing to work with them, to an extent. Seeing how they treated Banner as human, despite his alter ego, had been the key factor in Xavier's decision. So had the fact that they would not be asked to kill anyone.
Plus the fact that Hermes had played with the younger mutants and not been scared by their powers (they had mistakenly assumed he was like them) had also helped greatly.
In fact Robin now had another set of people who could babysit her son. He was a little angel...until he grew comfortable around you, then then turned into an imp, as Stark could attest.
"So let me get this straight... Mutants are real?" said Sirius in disbelief.
Robin blinked. She knew pure bloods were behind the times, but this was absolutely ridiculous.
"Sirius, the mutant gene has been documents for years now. They call it the X-gene. The problem is that the mundane's view on mutants is pretty damn similar to how magicals view werewolves."
Remus, who heard that comment, winced.
"In fact, I think they might be able to help you calm down Moony Remus," said Robin.
"How so?"
"They have telepaths in their group. Strong ones that can stop you from hurting others. And I've tested a sample of your werewolf venom on the X-gene... the mutant genome completely overrides any transformation by the werewolf. They're immune," said Robin.
Remus looked speculatively about that, then decided to see if he could time his arrival on the new Helicarrier so he could run into one of the mind readers.
They were sending Jean Gray, Scott Summers and Aurora Monroe to test the waters later that week. If things went well the mutants might make a very strong ally.
"Momma, can you sing me to sleep?" asked Hermes. Robin had to go on another mission later, but she always took time to be with her son.
"Bird or human?"
"Human, momma," said Hermes after a bit.
She cleared her throat and began to sing, just for him. Hermes loved her voice.
"I've never been the kind that you'd call lucky
Always stumbling around in circles
But I must have stumbled into something
Look at me, am I really alone with you?
I wake up feeling like my life's worth living
Can't recall when I last felt that way
Guess it must be all this love you're giving
Never knew, never knew it could be like this
But I guess
Some hearts they just get all the right breaks
Some hearts have the stars on their side
Some hearts they just have it so easy
Some hearts just get lucky sometimes
Some hearts just get lucky, lucky sometimes
Now who'd have thought someone like you could love me
You're the last thing my heart expected
Who'd have ever thought I'd ever find somebody
Someone who, someone who'd
Makes me feel like this
Well I guess
Some hearts they just get all the right breaks
Some hearts have the stars on their side
Some hearts they just have it so easy
Some hearts just get lucky sometimes
Some hearts just get lucky, lucky sometimes
Even hearts like mine
Get lucky, lucky sometimes
Even hearts like mine
Oh...
Some hearts they just get all the right breaks
Some hearts have the stars on their side
Some hearts they just have it so easy
Some hearts just get lucky sometimes
Some hearts just get lucky, lucky sometimes
Some hearts they just get all the right breaks
Some hearts have the stars on their side
Some hearts they just have it so easy
Some hearts just get lucky sometimes
Some hearts just get lucky
Sometimes
Some hearts just get lucky sometimes."
(The song that inspired the title, Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood.)
Hermes was sound asleep by the last chorus. Robin always said that the song suited her relationship with his father, who had no idea he existed...not yet anyway. He couldn't wait until he could meet his dad...having heard some of the pranks his mother played with the man always gave him a laugh.
(Sirius for one couldn't believe his goddaughter had been lucky enough to hook the Loki that the Marauders damn near worshiped as a husband.)
Robin brushed a stray hair from her son's head. He had their eyes, and his father's natural tendency for straight hair. Hers had always been a bird's nest till she was allowed to grow it out.
Unlike Loki, Hermes had the natural talent towards ice magic, and he picked up Norse runes as fast as he did English letters. He had a natural ability towards languages, which was good because she had caught Romanoff teaching Hermes Latin, among others.
He could twist anyone around his finger to get what he wanted...clearly he also got Loki's silver tongue, the charmer.
Robin stared at the stars, a few tears rolling down her face. It had been nearly three years since the time sand dumped her in the past, and their son had aged rapidly thanks in part to the effects of time sand when she hadn't known she was pregnant. He looked six when he should have been at least two. It had slowed down, but it still worried her.
She missed Loki, and his acid wit. The band on her ring finger was a cold stark reminder of the fact that she hadn't had anyone to share the little things with for three years now.
She couldn't wait for the timeline to catch up so she could see him again.