Robin was working in the newly finished Stark Tower when Tony returned. Thanks to her status as the only female assistant to Tony (Pepper quickly got upgraded to girlfriend status after the mess with Justin Hammer and the Stark Expo) and the fact Romanoff had finally left (having her cover blown meant she couldn't act as a go between for Fury, so they left that job to Robin) meant she was the only other thing living on the top floor, aside from her son. The time sand seemed to finally wear off, leaving Hermes to age at a normal rate for a seven year old.
Sirius had taken the explanation for the rapid aging rather easily, because Time Sand was notorious for being unpredictable enough that ghosts were the only ones who could work with it.
Robin seemed to be more depressed than ever, though she kept up a front for Hermes' sake.
However Sirius had noted that she had been taking more missions of late. Recently she had been delegated to go to a secret base where they worked on the Tesseract.
"I'll be back before morning Hermes," said Robin.
Robin had Sirius teleport her son back and forth from Xavier's school. This was mostly because she didn't trust the magical community one bit, and she knew he would be understanding about the rapid aging issue.
Plus it meant Hermes could see his friends, who loved having him around.
Just because he was more god than human didn't mean the younger mutants didn't love having someone so normal in their midst who wasn't afraid of them. Hermes acted so blasé about their powers that they felt like normal kids.
It was actually a big part of the reason why Xavier agreed to have him in the classes with the other children.
Robin was both happy about the assignment...and deeply worried. Mostly because while Loki would be coming back from that void, he was also going to be under control of someone else. Someone who Hel worried about for trying to control her.
This would be her first view of her husband in many years. And he wouldn't even know who she was.
Loki landed from the portal near her, and she nearly broke down crying.
His gorgeous emerald eyes, almost the same hue as her own, were pale blue. He was being cruel for the sake of cruelty, which was something she had always hated.
Sure, she had a deep-seated grudge against the British magical society, but that was justified cruelty in the name of revenge for their betrayal.
She watched as he captured Barton and Selvig, among others, but completely passed her by.
A light of hope appeared in her chest as his eyes settled on her for the slightest moment too long, as if he was trying to remember her. He passed her by rather than attack, and stole the Tesseract from Fury as she helped him out of the crumbling room.
"Twilight, I'm reactivating the Avengers Initiative. Get Banner," said Fury.
"Yes sir!" said Robin with a mock salute.
She waited for a bit so she could collect Hermes. If anyone could keep Banner calm, it was a small child. She had noted that the Hulk was far less to come out if there were innocent children around, and he had never harmed one even when he was enraged.
She was surprised Fury had never picked up on that odd fact.
Banner didn't know what to think when the seven and a half year old girl turned into a little boy with neck-length black hair and the most brilliant emerald green eyes.
"Momma! I brought Mr. Green!" he yelled.
"Hermes, I told you, his name is Dr. Banner. The saner and less snarky version of Uncle Tony," said the woman calmly.
"I like Uncle Tony! He's funny!"
"He also thinks it's smart to give a child who has trouble not even ten arc-powered jet boosters for his birthday so he can learn how to fly on his own," she said flatly.
She didn't mind her son flying using technology Tony recently figured out how to shield from magic. She just didn't like the fact that her son had accidentally ruined her collection of books with the thrusters and proceeded to set their apartment on fire.
Tony never warned her son to fly outside, since the thrusters could set stuff on fire.
Needless to say she hexed him good for that incident and made him buy her new copies of her collection...some of which had been a real pain in the ass to find copies of. Pepper had only laughed at the way she got her revenge on Tony.
Sirius had gone into hiding the second Hermes set his tail on fire with the things...plus the noise was horrendous.
After that she had banned anything that could set her books on fire inside the place. Tony had quickly agreed to avoid another repeat.
Bruce Banner stared at her with wide eyes.
"You know who I am, correct?"
"Bruce Banner, designation Hulk. I know who and what you are. Tony won't shut up about your work," she grimaced.
"I hope for your sakes you don't plan to force the other guy out."
"Actually we just need your expertise in gamma radiation to locate an artifact. After that, I'm sure Tony will ignore your attempts to escape and kidnap you to work in his tower. According to him he needs someone who will understand what he's saying who is over the age of ten," said Robin.
"Who is Tony?"
"Tony Stark. The idiot is fascinated by your work and could care less about your...anger issues. Aside from being an ass, he is actually a decent person to be around."
"I don't have a choice do I?" asked Banner.
"You have a choice. Either deal with S.H.I.E.L.D for a few days until this mess is over with and be kidnapped by a bored billionaire with far too much time on his hands, or continue running and deal with someone far less likely to treat you like a human. They're really eager to get the silly thing back," said Robin deadpan.
"And why did you bring a child?" asked Banner.
"Insurance the other guy wouldn't show up. I've read your files Dr. Banner. The Other guy, as you call him, has never shown up when an innocent child could be hurt, and besides, Hermes has been dying to meet you."
Hermes blinked and immediately went up to Bruce, completely unafraid.
"He's not scared of me or the other guy?"
"I let him go to a school full of mutant children, and his godfather is a werewolf. Hermes knows that just because something looks frightening doesn't mean it is. He has nothing to fear from the Hulk, Dr. Banner."
"...Mutants are real?" said Banner. He had always believed them to be superstition.
Robin twitched. Once was a coincidence (forgivable, considering who it was) twice was becoming a pattern. Clearly most of the mutants had been found and picked up by either Xavier or the magical communities.
It was only because she came from the future that she knew of them at all.
"Yes, and they might be able to help you with your alter ego the same way they did Hermes' godfather who happens to be a very nice werewolf."
Bruce decided to go, and Hermes immediately convinced him to a piggyback ride.
"Hello Jean, Scott," said Robin.
"Hello Robin," said Scott.
It said a lot that they trusted her...mostly because she could care less about their powers and more about their loyalty.
Plus she occasionally worked at the school teaching those with the magical gene how to use it. It cut down on several accidents outside the school.
"So are the rumors true that you've located the Wolverine?"
"Wolverine?" said Scott.
"Much like Captain America, Wolverine has a unique gift that allows instant healing and what were originally bone claws. He volunteered for a rather painful procedure that grafted adamantium onto his bone structure."
"How do you know all this?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't the only one with hackers, and Stryker was foolish enough to put his database on the web. People should really keep their important files on closed circuits," said Robin pleasantly.
She noticed Jean was blinking rapidly.
"Headaches again?" she guessed.
"My psychic power has been acting up a lot," admitted Jean.
Robin grinned.
"Why don't you join me in the mess hall and we'll see about erecting some decent shields..."
Years of boredom and a lot of free time on her hands while Hermes was off causing chaos with his uncles had allowed her to expand her magical knowledge. And a DNA test done by SHIELD actually proved Jean Gray was her cousin on her mother's side.
They were just many, many times removed.
Jean concentrated on bringing up shields in her mind to block the signals she was getting from everyone on the carrier while Robin coached her through it using Legilmency. Basically she was making a reverse Occulmency barrier.
Scott was off somewhere else reading.
Jean's sigh of relief when the voices shut off was audible. Finally, the only voice in her head was her own.
"You still have my number, right? If the shields start to act up, call me and I'll be right over to help you rebuild them," said Robin.
"Hello Tony," said Robin amused.
"How is it you keep beating me here?"
"I was already here. Hermes is currently chatting up Dr. Banner," grinned Robin.
"You took Hermes with you?"
"Of course I did. What better way to keep the Hulk quiet than to bring a child?"
"I'll never understand why you let your son near dangerous animals," said Tony.
"Shapeshifter Tony. Most animals that can't stand humans leave the younger of their species alone. And considering who Hermes' father is, shapeshifting is in his blood," smirked Robin.
"And yet we have never even seen a picture of the mystery man," said Tony. He would almost suspect she had made the man up if it hadn't been for the ring and kid.
"Like I told you a long time ago, Time Sand split us apart. It was simply easier to let the timeline catch up to where I left."
'Besides,' she thought to herself, 'You'll meet him soon enough.'
"You're heading for Loki, right? Count me in," said Robin suddenly. Natasha said nothing, but she moved over so Robin could take the controls.
During Robin's large amount of free time, she spent hours on simulators and even had a pilot's license. Which meant she could fly almost anything she wanted.
"Girl time later?" suggested Natasha suddenly.
"Small talk?" said Robin, taking a wild guess why the assassin would bring up the idea. Though a girl's night out did sound like it would be fun. She could bring Jean and Aurora with them and make it a party.
"So how is it you have so much time on your hands?" asked Natasha on the way to Germany.
"I leave Hermes at Xavier's school, help Pepper out for an hour or two, and a few spells do all the cleaning. And I'm not counting the hours during the night, when a quick spell keeps me up for several hours. I get really bored."
Natasha blinked.
"And Stark didn't have a problem with you taking the day off to get your license?"
"I'm a spare personal assistant since Pepper got upgraded. The most I do is insure that the paperwork doesn't get back logged because Tony can't be bothered with it," shrugged Robin.
"And he doesn't mind that you also act as a go between for Fury?"
"He knows I won't sell him out to Nicky. Besides, I'm the one who introduced him to Black," said Robin smugly.
And boy, were they still paying for that. Until she could dump him with the others off-world, they were stuck with Tony and his overactive imagination and genius and the biggest prankster to ever graduate Hogwarts in history.
Pepper had at least managed to get him to stop it around her by telling him he would sleep on the couch for a week (one for each prank conceived by him and Black) if he did it again. Robin was only spared because, well she booby trapped her door with a spray-potion that would turn them into girls for a week. The fact she had to keep replacing it didn't bother her that much.
Plus the fact she was already female and her son could shape shift without even blinking twice about it didn't hurt either.
The son of Loki wasn't going to be bothered about a little thing like gender differences.
Robin barely resisted the urge to bang her head against the console. Only Tony would have "Shoot to Thrill" by ACDC playing in their jet.
"Not on my watch!" growled Robin. She immediately brought out her IPod and put another song in.
Tony stumbled (so did Steve Rogers) when Weird Al Yankovich's "Dare to Be Stupid" started playing instead. Natasha couldn't help it, she started laughing.
"What? I like the classic movies better than the new ones," said Robin innocently.
Loki didn't know whether to be amused or confused by that.
Robin took one look at the thunderstorm outside and growled.
"Great, blondie decided to make an appearance finally."
"Who?" said Rogers.
"Thor, the god of being an ass," said Robin.
"What do you have against Thor?" asked Natasha.
"Dumbass has a habit of frying songbirds when he's really hungover," explained Robin.
"How do you know about that?" said Loki suddenly. He wasn't aware his brother's habit had made it as far as Earth.
"Long story," said Robin, though she was pleased to note Loki's eyes turned emerald green briefly when he took an interest.
There was a low thud on top of the plane, and Loki was abruptly grabbed from the door.
"ANYONE WANT TO GO AFTER THE IDIOT?!" shouted Robin.
Stark took the hint and dove outside, flying after Thor.
"I wouldn't follow them Captain, those two are basically gods."
"They aren't gods. Besides, his iridium shield can reflect Thor's lightning and it won't dent from his hammer. He's safer than Stark is," said Robin,
Rogers jumped out of the plane with a chute, and Robin went to find a place to land temporarily so they could reload Loki in. By the time she found a spot, the boys were already on their way back.