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Part Four

"Steve!" Tony shouted, struggling to free himself from the sentient vegetation that had wrapped around his thrusters. "Steve what hell are you doing!" Was his friend trying to get himself killed?

The blond ignored him, walking slowly but steadily towards the raging god. Honestly, there was a part of Steve that did wonder what the hell he was doing. Loki was dangerous on the best of days, and this was not even close to being one of them.

"Stop," Loki's voice cracked out like a whip. "Not another step." The fires around his fingers flared. "I'm warning you Captain." He would kill the other if he had to.

Steve stopped a mere six feet in front of the raven-haired man. Fingers spread wide as he held his hands up at shoulder level. "I told you Loki, we don't want to fight. I don't know how things are in Asgard," he continued softly but firmly. "But this is Earth, specifically the United States of America, and people here look unkindly on kidnapping." And child abuse, he thought to himself. But they could wait to discuss that when they were someplace safer. "Please," he entreated the sorcerer. "Let us help you."

Loki was silent for a long moment, just looking at the man in front of him. The Avenger's collectively held their breath as the god wavered in indecision, fists clenching and unclenching in time with the pulse of his magic. Until finally, finally, he nodded. The damage disappearing from the area as though it had never been.

In the end, the god's choice had come down to one thing. He had never believed he could avoid the Allfather's forces forever. Everything he had done for the past two years, the running, the hiding, every trick he had pulled from his considerable repertoire, had been nothing more than a delaying action. Putting off the inevitable for as long a possible.

Truthfully, Loki still didn't believe the Avenger's would let him keep her. He was, after all, a criminal. But maybe, just maybe, his daughter would be safe. Free to grow up away from the cruel hands of the Aesir. It was a small hope, but the only one he had.

"Well," Tony said, lifting his mask and approaching the pair cautiously. It wouldn't do to set the sorcerer off again. "That was an adventure," dark eyes surveyed the area noticing the lack of one thing in particular. "So where is the little sprog anyway?"

Loki hesitated briefly before stepping to one side, pulling a well wrapped bundle out of seemingly thin air and cradling it to his chest. Green eyes darting to and fro as though the god was stopping himself from making a run for it through pure force of will.

Huh, Tony made a thoughtful sound as he leaned forward to get a better look at the infant. He hadn't been quite sure what to expect after Thor's dire warnings about monsters and doom, some tentacles perhaps. Whatever he had been expecting though, the genius thought to himself, peering at the headful of coal black curls. This wasn't it. "She's gorgeous Loki," he told the Father, err Mother. "A few years and you'll be beating all the boys off with sticks."

The god just looked completely baffled, as though no one had ever complimented one of his children before. In truth, no one had. "She's blue."

Stark just shrugged. "So's Mystique and I'd do her in a heartbeat."

"Tony!" Natasha smacked the playboy on the shoulder, ignoring his yelp of pain.

"Well I would."

At the strange sounds the baby stirred, crimson orbs fluttering open to examine the scene. Upon sensing no danger, she yawned, snuggling deeper into her parent's chest before falling back to sleep. Perfectly relaxed.

"Ah," Natasha cooed. "She's so cute." The other Avenger's didn't even try to hide their grins over the tough as nails Black Widow melting over an infant.

"So what is her name?" Steve asked, having retrieved his shield.

"Ariana," Loki smiled softly. "Her name is Ariana."

Eye of the Beholder

All right, I admit it. I'm a sucker for happy endings

But don't relax yet, the story is only half over