Darcy merely rolled her eyes at Loki and he smirked in return before stepping back onto the elevator. Once the doors were closed and he was alone with the ever-present JARVIS, he declared, "I need more directions. Would you happen to know where Captain Rogers' other five soulmates are buried?"
"Of course. Would you like to teleport or would you rather I retrieved a car for you as I would a normal person?"
"I'm far from normal," Loki objected.
"On that we agree," JARVIS drawled sarcastically.
"Give me the address and then give me silence!"
"Normal people say 'shut up' on this planet."
"Give me the address and then shut up!"
"So glad to have you back, Mr. Odinson."
Loki couldn't tell if the AI was still teasing or not, but the god found that he was surprisingly sincere as he replied, "Glad to be back."
When Loki was back in the elevator and gone from sight, the tension in the room relaxed considerably and Jane declared happily, "How great is it that we all have complete bonds now?"
Nobody noticed how many people in the room stiffened guiltily at that, and Clint pointed out quickly, "Except for Darcy."
"Yeah, Darcy, what's up with that?" Tony teased, ignoring Pepper's reproving glare.
Jane murmured a startled "oh," and both women looked at Thor for… something. He seemed to understand what they wanted though, and when he nodded Jane revealed, "I'd forgotten that you guys didn't know. It's not horribly interesting because we're only platonic, but Darcy and I are actually soulmates."
"How have you been living here for two years without mentioning that?" Tony asked.
"You lived for years without anyone knowing that you and Pepper had a third," Bruce pointed out evenly.
"But still!"
"And, like Janey said," Darcy spoke up. "It's not that important; we are platonic, and you all know that we can get along like fire and ice sometimes ."
With that, the idea hit Tony suddenly as he asked Darcy, "Does that mean that Thor's your third?"
"No," Darcy and Thor answered together firmly, and Darcy added sternly, "Don't even start with us, Tony."
So the billionaire didn't say anything… until he was alone, and he asked JARVIS, "Have Darcy and Thor ever actually touched – skin to skin, like Asgardians require for their soulmarks to appear?"
"I can scan Tower video feed to find out," JARVIS answered.
"Good man, J."
"You know," Loki commented to the comm that was once again nestled invisibly in his ear. "For such a 'forgotten' section of the cemetery, these graves are very well cared for; it's almost a shame that they're going to be emptied."
"Mr. Stark makes sure that they're cared for – or at least his money does. He pays the groundskeeper well to care for the plots."
"He does care for them, doesn't he?" Loki mused, reading the names on the headstones.
Jack Thompson.
Angie Sousa.
Daniel Sousa.
Anna Jarvis.
Edwin Jarvis.
"The Jarvises? Is that where Stark got your name from?"
"Yes."
"This…" Loki realized slowly. "Is going to change his world, isn't it? But it will surely please him to have them back."
"Or not," JARVIS drawled in his ear.
"Why not?" Loki asked incredulously.
"Ask your magic tricks."
Loki stared down at the graves, suddenly feeling a little nervous, as he asked, "If this somehow destroys Stark's 'happily ever after' to the point that I have to go back to helping him with something else again to fix it, I am holding you personally responsible for withholding information from me."
"I'm not withholding it from you, I don't think – I'm withholding information from Mr. Stark. I told you before that I can filter what exactly he sees; part of what that means is that though he suspects the eight are soulmates, he doesn't know it for certain."
"But he will when the five of them walk into the Tower."
"My point exactly."
Loki sighed, realizing, "I have no choice either way, do I? This is either a win-win or lose-lose situation. Whichever way it goes, Captain Rogers requires these five to be truly happy."
"That is the way soulmates work, I'm afraid."
"Very well."
Loki sighed one last time and set his jaw, focusing all of his energy on his magic until green light surrounded him – and the five graves. He was trembling with the massive amount of effort his task required, and he slammed his eyes closed, focusing everything he had into the necessary spell. He could hear, smell, feel the cool bitter-sweetness of the magic surrounding him, see the green glow through his eyelids – and then it was gone.
His eyes shot open to find five people staring around them in awe… and then the ground was suddenly rushing towards him as his legs collapsed beneath him. He'd just enacted – times five – one of the strongest, rarest spells in all of the Nine Realms, and it was going to take him a few days to recover from that, even with his stamina.
"Look!" a woman with a European accent cried as his eyelids fluttered closed.
"What the heck is going on here?" a man asked loudly.
"I don't know, but that guy needs help," a second man said.
"Is it just me or did we just… come back to life or some equally freaky something?" a woman with a definite New York accent asked, "Because I very distinctly remember dying!"
"Hello!" the first woman called out and Loki felt someone hovering over him, dropping to the ground and putting his head on her knees as she demanded the others pay attention to her. "He needs help!"
"What happened to him?" a third masculine voice questioned – this one with an accent that reminded him of Agent Carter's – kneeling down beside the woman.
"Do you think he brought us back?" the second man asked.
"I don't know, but it looks like he's passed out; we've got to find a way to get him out of here," the first man said. "He needs a doctor, a hospital."
Loki moaned, shaking his head faintly. The woman who'd originally noticed him placed a cool hand on his forehead and he grabbed her wrist, ordering softly "hold hands," hoping they'd all obey as he prepared to sap even more of his magic.