At least two of the five people accompanying Loki screamed when he teleported them back to the Tower. He wanted to scream at them that it was only Thor's living room, but he didn't have the strength… for much of anything, actually, he realized belatedly, once again crumpling to the floor.
"Put him on the couch," the European woman ordered and before Loki could protest he felt himself being scooped up with one man at either of his arms, hauling him roughly to the couch.
"I've contacted Agents Romanoff and Barton," JARVIS declared. Loki wanted to yell because of that too, because why would he do that? As if the AI had read his thoughts, JARVIS added, "They know first aid and will also remain calm in what is admittedly an odd situation."
"Why is the wall talking?" the woman from Brooklyn asked shrilly.
"Where are we?!" one of the men with an American accent demanded. "What is going on? What year is it even?"
These were the questions to which Natasha and Clint opened the elevator, as JARVIS was already calmly answering them, "The wall is talking because I'm JARVIS, Mr. Stark's personal artificial intelligence butler, ready to assist tower residents whenever they require. You are currently at Avengers Tower in New York City, one of Mr. Stark's preferred personal residences in early June of 2014. SHIELD agents Barton and Romanoff are here to assist you; they're personal friends of Mr. Stark's."
"Tony or Howard Stark?" Loki heard the European woman ask just as he drifted off to get some much-needed rest.
"Tony," Natasha replied, stepping off of the elevator with Clint at her side. Both of them had their hands on hidden but ever-present weapons as she said, "I'm Agent Romanoff, this is my partner, Agent Barton. Who are you, what are you doing in the Tower, and how did you get here?"
"I'm Jack Thompson," a blonde man in his early thirties said, stepping forward and offering his hand to Natasha. "These are my neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis and Mr. and Mrs. Sousa."
"As in Edwin Jarvis?" Clint asked.
It was only when Mr. Jarvis nodded that Natasha accepted the outstretched hand as Mr. Thompson added, "As for why we're here and how we got here? I honestly couldn't tell you."
"Loki," Clint and Natasha declared at the same time.
"Is that his name?" Natasha detected an accent – Hungarian? – in the voice of the concerned-looking woman Mr. Thompson had called Anna Jarvis as she gestured to the god on the couch.
Natasha nodded, stepping forward to check Loki's pulse. "He's fine;" she declared. "Just tired…" Exhausted, actually, by the look of him. "Do you know what happened to him?"
"We're not sure we even know what happened to us!" Mrs. Sousa cried anxiously. "I died in early 1989 when I was in my early 70s. Then all of a sudden somebody… it feels like they just woke me up from a nap, except twenty-five years have passed, and I'm what? Am I even thirty?"
"And that's the summary of what we know, Agent Romanoff," Mr. Sousa informed her, going up to hug his wife from behind.
The woman calmed instantly, taking a deep breath as she leaned her head back against him – until Mr. Thompson asked, "Where's Peggy? If we're here, shouldn't she be too?"
Natasha paled, snapping before this got out of hand, "JARVIS, what do you know about this?"
"No more than what they've already told you," Mr. Jarvis said.
"She meant me," the AI said. "Loki went out to the cemetery, resurrected these five, and teleported them back here, exhausting himself and his magic in order to do so."
"Why would he do that?" Clint asked.
"That's classified information."
Natasha threatened, "Either you unclassify it or I'll hack into you and get the information myself. You forget that Natalie Rushman got the necessary codes from Pepper years ago."
"It's extremely private information," JARVIS protested.
Natasha's mind began to click pieces of the puzzle into place as she asked, "Mr. Thompson, are you Agent Carter's soulmate?"
There was a split-second – and extremely telling – pause before he answered honestly, "Yes."
"You mean you don't recognize him, Tasha?" Clint asked in surprise. "That's Jack Thompson. He ran the SSR right before Howard and Peggy turned it into SHIELD and, yeah, he's married to Agent Carter."
Natasha narrowed her eyes, thoughts racing far beyond those few facts as she asked JARVIS, "Is Jane busy?"
"Not particularly."
"Then tell her she's needed here and explain why once you have her alone in the elevator. You, me and Clint are going to go talk in the air vents while Jane entertains our visitors."
"As you wish," JARVIS answered, but Natasha didn't miss the nervous strain in the AI's tone.
"Our friend, Dr. Foster, will be here in a minute," Natasha informed the five before she gestured Clint into the air vent and followed after him. Once they were situation comfortably in a particularly large section of duct that was out of human hearing range, Natasha said, "I know you can hear me, JARVIS. Here's what I want to know. Are they all soulmates?"
"Define 'all'?"
"Clint told me on our first date after Loki talked to him those couple of years back that Loki had said that he'd been assigned to make a 'happily ever after' for the Avengers. Soulmates started getting fixed everywhere in the Tower for the few days that he was here. He left; it stopped – stopped just short of Steve, as a matter of fact. Loki returns; so does Barnes – "
"That was a fluke," JARVIS protested.
"And Loki brought Carter in along with a magic apple, and now there's dead people standing around in Thor's living room. How many soulmates does Steve have?"
"I would prefer that you wait for Loki to wake up and allow him to answer your questions."
"How long until Loki wakes up?" Clint questioned, putting a calming hand on Natasha's leg to soothe her frustration.
"Judging by his current rate of recovery he'll be awake at eight a.m. tomorrow morning."
"Then his family can babysit them until he's awake to explain their presence."
"We're more their speed, I think, Tasha," Clint suggested.
"We have things to do!"
"Jane's a full-time scientist!"
"Who's unfunded now that SHIELD's sunk!"
"SI started funding her immediately!"
Natasha froze before asking despairingly, "Why are we arguing about Jane?"