Kara didn't answer their knock. Natasha tried the door, it was unlocked. She hesitated before pushing it open, glancing at Pepper. The strawberry blonde nodded her agreement. They were not going to wait for an invitation. As the door swung open they could see Kara sitting in the middle of the floor wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, her hair disheveled. The woman was staring at the small overfilled bookcase and the stack of books that sat beside it. "Please get the books out of here," she told them in a breathy monotone.

Nat frowned at the lack of life in the seated woman's voice. She crouched down beside her and took Kara's chin in her hand and tried to look into her eyes. Tried being the operative word. Kara seemed to be seeing absolutely nothing. This wasn't good. "Pepper, go ask the guys to get the bookshelf and books out of here, now," she said without looking away from Kara. "Look at me." Nat did not like the feel of the energy Kara was exuding. She was no empath, but she had instincts and those instincts were screaming danger at her.

Pepper dashed out of the room without bothering to ask Jarvis to summon the men. Good. Kara focused slightly and spoke again, her voice still dull. "Go away, Natasha," she said.

"No. I need you to talk to me. I know it hurts and I know I can't possibly understand the pain you're feeling, but you need to talk about it." The woman's eyes lost focus again. "Damn it, Kara, I'm talking to you, don't shut me out." The blank stare was fully back. "krovavyĭ ad" she muttered. Pepper came back into the room followed by Steve, Clint and Bruce. "That was fast. Get that stuff out of here, stat."

"Kara, honey, talk to us, please," Pepper asked, dropping down on Kara's other side. Kara's expression didn't change, but she did shake her head in response. "Don't tell me no," Pepper said in a scolding tone. "You make everyone else talk when they're upset, you don't get to give us the silent treatment."

"There's nothing to talk about," she whispered.

"Sure there is. Tell us how mad you are…or how sad. Whatever you're feeling, let it out," Pepper said.

"Empty."

Nat didn't like the sound of that. She knew from personal experience that a feeling of emptiness left one, well, destructive. Clint stopped, holding a stack of books, and caught her eye. The quiet comment had unnerved him, too. 'Call Raj Nassar?' he mouthed. She shook her head. This was way beyond anything Dr. Nassar could handle. Besides which, with their pending resignations, they did not want any of this going in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records. Especially if Kara lost control and really let loose.

"Honey, you're going to be okay," Pepper soothed as Natasha winced. There was no way in hell that Kara was going to be okay anytime soon.

Kara's laugh was bitter. "How, Pepper? How am I going to be okay? I've lost the only man I've ever loved…not that he's really a man…" she trailed off with a sob. But at least she was talking and emotion had entered her voice. That might pierce the emptiness and bring some reason back to her. "I'm so stupid," she muttered. "Pitifully stupid."

"You are not stupid," Nat insisted.

"No? Really?" this time Kara's laugh had an almost hysterical edge. "Nat, I fell in love with a god. And not just any god, oh no. I fell in love with one that tried to take over the planet and only failed because he planned to fail and fail spectacularly. One who thinks mortals are beneath him…one who could never truly let himself love me." She fell silent again, tears running down her cheeks.

"Kara, he does love you, we could all see that," Pepper insisted. "He wasn't worried about what he'd face in Asgard, he was worried about you."

"It doesn't matter, Pepper," Kara whispered. "What good does that do me?"

"When he gets things sorted out, I'm sure he'll come back for you." Nat had to fight not to roll her eyes at that statement. Pepper was trying, but that…

"How?" Kara snapped. "Fine, let's say you're right, he loves me. Odin is going to sentence him for his crimes and Loki refuses to defend himself, so that sentence will be harsh. Loki believes that he'll either be exiled to Jotunheim, where he's certain he'll be killed by their people because of what he did there, or he'll be locked in a dungeon in Asgard for hundreds of years. He'll either be dead, or once he serves his sentence and is freed, I'll have been dust for centuries." Her voice cracked. "No matter what is decided, I'll never see his smile again, I'll never hear his voice again, feel his touch again. He's gone, Pepper, and I can't get him back no matter what."

Oh, damn. Nat hadn't thought about what kind of sentence Odin might think appropriate for the man he'd raised as his son. That…no wonder Kara was losing it. She swallowed. "You're right," she said, as Kara cried and Pepper sat there, stunned. "He is gone, and it's highly unlikely you'll ever get him back. I'm sorry." Nat kept her own voice as even as possible. "You can curl up in a ball and die, breaking your promises not just to him, but to all of us, or you can learn to deal with it and go on. Your choice." She grabbed Pepper's arm and pulled her to her feet and pushed her towards the door. "If you decide to honor your word, let us know and we'll be there for you, every step of the way." She turned and strode briskly from the room, dragging an open-mouthed Pepper with her.

… …

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Pepper said as they reached the hall and the door closed behind them.

Tony stared at the two women as he came down the hall. "What's happening?" he asked. He'd seen Cap, Hawkeye and Bruce carrying his books back to his suite as he'd returned from the conference call that had claimed his attention immediately after Loki's departure. Natasha and Pepper both looked extremely worried. That expression wasn't strange on his fiancé, but on the Black Widow…that was totally unnerving him.

"I think Kara is going to have a meltdown," Natasha said. The heavy thump of containment panels sliding into place punctuated her statement. "Scratch that. Kara is having a meltdown, but at least she's being careful about it."

"Oh, that's so not good," he muttered. "Jarvis, what's going on in there?" he asked the AI.

"Lady Kara has requested a complete lockdown," Jarvis informed them.

Tony blinked. "Lady Kara?"

"You can't let her do that, Stark," Hawkeye said as he came up behind them. "That containment field is going to…"

"No, it's not. We dismantled that part of the system," Tony told him. "The only thing it's got now is a physical containment. The ultimate in fireproofing, as it were. Jarvis, open the door."

"Lady Kara has ordered she is not to be disturbed until further notice, Anthony."

Anthony? Lady Kara? "Oh, shit."

"What the heck?" Cap said as he returned.

"That son of a bitch. I'll kill him." Tony stared at the sealed door. "Jarvis, override Lady Kara's orders and reverse the lockdown, my voice authorization."

"Lady Kara's orders cannot be overridden, Anthony. She has the final override on all systems."

"Anthony?" Bruce asked. "Oh…oh crap."

"Yeah. Looks like the god of mischief left me a final prank. Jarvis, can you stop calling me Anthony, that's damn creepy."

"Only if that part of the protocol is overridden, Anthony."

"Great. Can, uh, Lady Kara override it?"

"Yes, Anthony."

"Anybody else?"

"Yes, Anthony, Lady Pepper can also override that part of the protocol."

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Nat, I swear, if you laugh I'm going to suit up and toss you off of the nearest balcony," he said as he noticed the Black Widow's expression.

"Glad you realize you'd need to suit up to do it," she said, still looking distinctly mirthful.

"Genius, remember? Pepper, could you do something about this?" he asked.

"Sure, Tony. Jarvis, from this moment forward, please address Anthony Edward Stark as either Mr. Stark or Sir as per your pre-protocol instructions."

"Yes, Lady Pepper."

"Thank you, Jarvis." She smirked and he could hear Nat snort softly from behind him. He decided to ignore it, at least the damned assassin wasn't laughing outright.

He sighed. "Jarvis, does Kara know about this protocol?"

"No sir, she has yet to read the email sent when the protocol was initiated."

"Can Pepper override the lockdown?"

"No sir. Lady Kara's authorization is final."

"You can suit up and take out the door," Rogers pointed out.

"I would advise against that, Captain Rogers," Jarvis told them.

"How come?"

"The resulting backdraft would incinerate everyone in the hallway and compromise the tower's structural integrity."

"Back…oh, shit. Jarvis, get me a visual," Tony snapped out.

"The camera apertures are covered by the lockdown walls, Mr. Stark."

"Fine, get me an audio." He took an involuntary step back as a piercing cry filled the hallway. "Oh, Christ." An ominous whooshing sound flowed as a backdrop to the haunting scream.

"Bozhe moy," Natasha muttered.

"Oh sweet Jesus," Cap muttered, "poor Dr. G…what's that other noise?"

"A raging fire," Tony told all of the stunned faces that had turned to him, looking for an answer.

… …

Loki took a half step as the cube's wormhole deposited them somewhat off-balance on the Bifröst and looked around. Repairs were well underway, but seemed to be abandoned. "Welcome home, sons of Odin, Fandral, Hogun," Heimdall said. Loki turned to look at the gatekeeper. If Heimdall was still calling him an Odinson, there was still hope.

"Thank you, Heimdall," Thor said. "Have there been any changes?"

"No, my prince." Heimdall looked past Thor to him. "Prince Loki, a word, if you would."

His eyebrows rose. "Of course, Heimdall."

"This healer, Kara Gunnarssen. Does she pose a threat to the All-Father?"

He suppressed a groan. "Absolutely not. She spoke out of anger and frustration, a mortal cannot pose a threat to our King."

Loki tried not to flinch under the all-seeing gatekeeper's heavy stare. "She is a mortal of great power, are you certain of this?"

He decided that a slighty edited version of the truth would serve him, and Kara, best. "I do not know the full extent of her abilities, to be honest. However, she is a woman of compassion, with a fine sense of justice. Were the All-Father to attack her or anyone under her protection I have no doubt she would do her best to return harm for harm. But if he makes no such attack, nor would she."

"Loki speaks truly," Hogun agreed.

"Indeed," Fandral added. "The lady is strong and courageous, but she is not one to bring harm to another unnecessarily or thoughtlessly. She shows the greatest of restraint, even when provoked." Loki bit back a smirk as Fandral shot Hogun a pointed look. Apparently Fandral realized that Hogun's blatant shunning of him could have had a very different reaction from his lady.

"Very well," Heimdall rumbled as he turned his attention back to infinity.

"Come, we must hurry to the Valhöll," Thor said, urging them along to where Volstagg and Sif stood, each holding the reins of three horses. "I'm certain that father is awaiting us impatiently. Thor strode ahead of them, took the reins of two horses from Sif and turned back to him. "Mount up, my brother, let us ride."

Based on the glare Sif gave him, it was probably best that Thor had collected his horse from her. Loki patted the beast carefully and surreptitiously checked the saddle. Out of all of them, Sif had the most right to hold a grudge against him. She had never forgiven him for the prank gone wrong that had cost her the golden hair that had been the envy of the Realm Eternal. His latest actions had no doubt brought her long buried resentment of him back to the surface. "Thank you, brother," he said quietly and tried not to sigh at Thor's glad smile.

… …

After being advised by Jarvis that the fire had extinguished itself but that they could not open the door without fear of reigniting it for at least an hour, Tony went back to his workshop to look at the programming schematics. He could see where the alterations had been done, but couldn't find any way to get around it without disengaging the entire central processor and rebuilding it and reprogramming it from scratch. If he was lucky, Loki had given Kara authorization to revoke what Tony had found was called 'the Hellbringer Protocol'. "Damn sneaky bastard," he muttered, then laughed as he caught the admiration in his tone. "Guess I can't blame him."

"Sir, I would suggest that you check your email," Jarvis told him. Thank God Pepper had been able to straighten that part out. If Jarvis had called him Anthony one more time he would have lost it. Tony pulled up the visual file of his email. If Loki had voice-enabled it, Jarvis would have automatically offered to give him an audio of the message.

He read through it quickly. The first part was a half-assed apology for, or more accurately an acknowledgement of the prank…though the only part about it that was an actual prank was the programming regarding his name…and the titles for all of them. If anyone else had queried Jarvis, they would have discovered themselves being accorded various more or less appropriate appellations. Cap, of course, would have been addressed formally as 'Captain Rogers', Hawkeye was now 'Master Archer', all of the women were 'Lady' and their first name, and Bruce…Tony plopped down in his chair chuckling. "Oh, damn. That's a good one."

"What's good?" the man in question asked.

"Heh. Ask Jarvis a question, go ahead, I dare you."

Bruce frowned at him and shrugged. "Okay. Jarvis, what time is it?"

"It is four minutes until noon, Master Disaster."

Tony snickered, then guffawed, trailing off to intermittent chuckles. "He got you good," he finally managed to tell Banner.

Bruce sighed. "Well, I did call him a puny god, so I suppose I deserved it."

"Yeah. Christ, Bruce. Am I sick, or what? I'm going to miss that S.O.B.; you know?"

"No, not at all. I know exactly how you feel." Bruce sighed again and sat down on the workbench. "Pepper just got off the phone with legal. It's going to be another two days before they've got all of the paperwork in order. I talked to Nat and Clint. They're pretty sure they can hold off Fury until then."

"Good. Hopefully Kara will be functional and able to hold it together long enough for a meet by then. We'll make them come here. I'm not putting any of us where S.H.I.E.L.D. has a chance of boxing us in. I don't want to start out our new relationship with them by having to fight our way out of their territory."

"Cap's thought exactly. Legal also had some advice as to structure. You as C.F.O./C.O.O. with Rogers as C.E.O.; that would cover him heading up the team for all combat decision making, but you pulling all of the financial strings and day to day administration."

"Considering it's my damn finances…" he trailed off. "Yeah, that's fine. S.H.I.E.L.D. will trust that more than with me holding all the authority." He stared at the email again. "He loved the hell out of her, Bruce."

Banner frowned. "He, who? Oh, Loki? Yeah, no kidding, I think we could all see that."

"This whole 'Hellbringer Protocol' that he programmed into Jarvis is based on protecting her…even from herself." Tony scrubbed a hand over eyes made gritty by concentrating on the complex code. "Well, except for the naming conventions. That was just Loki being a pain in the ass."

"I didn't think we'd left him alone long enough to do something like that. Well, not after he realized that Kara wasn't manipulating his feelings."

"It was all done in one afternoon from the date and time stamps. I checked, Kara had three patients in from S.H.I.E.L.D. and I was stuck in a board meeting, you were delivering a paper to the U.N., and the Wonder Twins were at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ giving a lecture on Asgard's view of history."

Bruce snorted softly, shaking his head. "One afternoon. Great. Well, if we ever get him back, we'll have to coordinate better…and if we all have to be busy, insist he accompanies one of us."

"No shit." Tony looked at his workshop clock. "It's been an hour. We'd better go check on Kara."

"Yeah, about that." Bruce gave him that lopsided smile that meant he was going to say something Tony knew he wouldn't like. "We all think that you need to go in and talk to her first."

"Gee, thanks."

… …

"Jane? Dr. Selvig? You wanna come look at this? I think it's starting again!" Darcy Lewis yelled at them from across the cavernous room.

Eric stood and stretched. "That's Dr. Foster, now, Darcy," he chided. "She hasn't had her degree long enough to stop teasing her about it yet."

The impertinent young woman rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah. Excuuuuuuse me, Doctor Foster for a whole week and a half. Your potential wormhole sites are pinging again."

He sighed at Darcy's theatrics. She was a good-hearted girl, but she had quite a mouth on her. He smiled. Darcy did keep their otherwise dry bouts of intense research entertaining. "Please, Eric. Don't encourage her," Jane said as she looked over the equipment. "Did you do a site by site comparison, Darcy?" she asked, focusing her own attention on what Loki had described as the potential problems, the sites in Galisteo, New Mexico and Sedona, Arizona. The instruments were showing activity in Galisteo, but none in Sedona. "Yes! Iron Man saves the day," she told them. "We're getting no readings whatsoever out of Sedona." He looked over Jane's shoulder as she frowned at another ping located in the United States. "What the hell, this wasn't there before."

"Colorado Springs," Eric mused. "What could be in Colorado Springs?"

"Besides snow in the winter?" Darcy asked facetiously. "Well, NORAD."

He stared at Jane who gave him a horrified look in return. "Perhaps S.H.I.E.L.D. moved the scepter to NORAD for safekeeping?" he suggested.

"If they did, it was a mistake. Loki told them it had to stay at least a thousand kilometers from any of the non-moveable sites."

"Well, my dear, I doubt S.H.I.E.L.D. has much faith in anything that…gentleman might tell them."

"How about you?" Jane asked quietly.

Eric considered the question seriously. "If I thought he had reason to dissemble, then I would doubt his word. But this is a danger to him as well. And we had Kara Gunnarssen present when he made the statement. I have met the lady, she would know if he were so much as stretching the truth."

Darcy walked over, holding Jane's cell phone. "They're punching you through to that dipsh…" she broke off and turned her attention back to the phone with a wince. "Good afternoon, Director. I have Dr. Fosterfor you, we, uh, have an urgent concern?" The girl handed the phone to Jane, biting her lip to hold back a laugh.

"Nick, did your people move the scepter to NORAD?" Jane asked, getting right to the point. She rolled her eyes. "Well, sure, it's secure, but it's also about five-hundred kilometers from Galisteo and that scepter needs to be at least a thousand kilometers from any of the stationary sites and it just got pinged. Yes, that would be important. Uh huh. Well, get it moved now." Jane rubbed her forehead with one hand. "Yes, thank you. When we finish our analysis here, I'll get back to you."

"We'll have to confirm all of the sites within a thousand kilometers that have ocean or seas between them have been pinged again. If so, they'll need to be watched for more activity. While Loki doesn't think they could come through there, I would not want to take the chance that he's wrong."

"Oh, hell to the no," Darcy muttered.

… …

Tony knocked on the door to Kara's suite. From the sound it made, she had disengaged the lockdown. He waited a minute and heard the lock click. "Lady Kara advises that you may enter, sir," Jarvis told him.

"Thanks, J." He pushed open the door. Kara was sitting on the vanity bench from her bathroom, staring out the window. The rest of the bedroom was all but bare. The wrought iron furniture no longer resembled furniture and the bedding and other flammable items were simply…gone. He looked down at the granite floor. It showed signs of charring and a fine black ash covered it, except for a roughly circular area where Kara had been sitting. Her footprints trailed from that spot to the bathroom and then back to the window. "So, I guess we might as well get you regular furniture."

She sighed. "Yeah. It didn't make any difference."

"Don't sweat it. Pepper and Natasha can take you furniture shopping, or we can get a designer in, whatever you want."

"It doesn't matter."

"Yeah, actually, it does. This is your home, Kara. I want you to be comfortable here."

"Tony, they're not going to let me stay here once they know Loki's gone. The only reason they let me stay this long was because they were afraid of what he'd do without me to distract him."

"Funny thing about that. Loki had a free afternoon the other day, he put it to good use. We've got enough material to blackmail S.H.I.E.L.D. into doing whatever the hell we want. Good thing for them that we're heroes and all."

"What about Clint and Nat?" she asked. "Or Steve, for that matter?"

"Kid, we're all resigning any and all relationships we've had with S.H.I.E.L.D., we're going to incorporate 'The Avengers' as an independent entity. We'll still save the world and handle emergencies and such gratis, but for everything else, they're going to have to hire us under contract. That includes you seeing their people for PTSD treatment, they're going to have to pay you a premium hourly rate."

"Um, we're still going to be operating at a loss, you know."

Tony laughed. "Well, I'll fund the start up costs as a charitable contribution and write it off. Then Bruce and I can patent and sell some of the defensive tech we've come up with, that should keep us in the black for the foreseeable future." He frowned. Kara was still staring out the window. "What are you watching?"

"Construction cranes. It's still going to be months before all of the damage from the invasion is fixed."

"True. But somehow I get the feeling that it would have been a lot worse if it had gone down any other way." She finally turned away from the window. Except for her ash-smeared feet and a bit of ash that had drifted into her hair, you couldn't tell that she'd sat for a half-hour in the midst of an inferno. "One of these days you're going to have to explain to me how you do that," he muttered.

"Not burn?" she asked. He nodded. "If I ever figure it out, I'll let you know."

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

"No. Tony, I promised I'd try to find happiness again, but I really can't see how that will ever be possible," she told him as tears filled her hazel eyes.

"I know. Geez, Kara…if I ever lost Pepper it would trash me. Just thinking about it, the hole that would be left in me, it-I can't even contemplate it. I'm not going to tell you anything clichéd, no 'time heals all wounds' crap, anything like that. I don't know if this is something I'd ever recover from. What I can tell you is that we love you. You're important, in different ways, to all of us. And we'd really like you to stick with us and try to go on. I know it's going to be hard as hell, but in many ways you're stronger than the rest of us put together. I think you can do it." He gritted his teeth in frustration as the threatened tears began to pour down her cheeks.

Kara stood and wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck. "Thanks, Tony," she mumbled. "I love you guys too."

… …

Author's Notes: "krovavyĭ ad" means "bloody hell" and "Bozhe moy," means "Oh my God" in Russian. Again, thank you for all of the kind reviews and PMs, it really motivates me to write! Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.