The U.S. military members on duty outside of the inner chambers that housed the gold reserves looked spooked as they hurried past them. Then they spotted Captain America bringing up the rear and saluted. Kara threw an amused glance over her shoulder as Steve straightened, returned the salute crisply, and said "As you were, soldiers." The six guards relaxed marginally.

Loki frowned at Steve as he caught up with them. "Only six?" he asked. "I was under the impression that this was supposed to be the most secure location on the planet."

Steve shrugged. "You missed all the troops we pulled back outside the walls for their own safety. We could have let them in quickly enough if we needed them. Plus S.H.I.E.L.D. had its best snipers on top of all of the walls, buildings and towers."

"Why did they not fire?"

"Kara was still standing and hadn't ordered it. They were told to leave any attacker to her unless she went down or they were ordered otherwise."

Loki reached out for her gloved hand and squeezed it firmly. "They think highly of your abilities."

"They're scared crapless of me," she corrected. "Especially since their bullets aren't going to slow me down long enough to not fight back in this armor. I'm not going to disabuse them of the notion that I'm totally badass."

He smiled. "You, my precious lady, are totally badass, as you put it. I have never felt such power."

"Humph. It didn't slow you down much."

"No," he said with a smug smirk. "But I am the god of lies, my dear. And your power works on lying to your target about how they feel. It took a bit to sort out that it was a lie each time, but once I had, it was relatively easy to break free. I'm impressed you were able to affect me at all. That tells me more than anything that you are a force to be reckoned with. None of the Æsir would be able to do as I did."

"That's true. I demonstrated the terror on Thor. He was begging me to make it stop in seconds."

Loki snickered. "Serves him right. He's always on about how fearless he is. Damn it, Kara, where the hell is the scepter? This is taking far too long."

"It's just around the next corner, don't get grumpy, we're almost there."

"My brother's people are fighting and perhaps dying as we dawdle. Forgive me if I sound grumpy."

"They're your people too…and don't start, please." She frowned up at him as he shook his head silently.

"Here we are," Nick Fury told them as he signaled to the S.H.I.E.L.D. guards to open the door to the chamber housing the scepter and Jane Foster's equipment. Jane and Erik Selvig looked up as they entered.

"We're ready to go," Jane told them. "Well, you're ready to go," she amended. "I just need you to stand over there. I recommend you all hold on to each other, and I'd prefer Steve hold on to the scepter, he's got the strongest grip out of our people barehanded. Those of you with gloves on, get them off. We need flesh on flesh contact to be absolutely sure no one gets lost."

"I don't need…" Loki began.

"I didn't say you needed it, but it's not going to be a guaranteed trip to Asgard if you're not linked into the group, so just deal with it if you want the damned scepter to go there," Jane snapped.

Kara bit back a grin as Loki subsided. "Fine." He looked down at her and took her hand once her gloves were tucked away. "Can we just get on with this?" Kara grabbed Steve's wrist with her free hand and watched as Tony and Clint joined hands with Clint taking hold of Steve's other wrist while Steve's hands gripped the scepter firmly.

"Okay, I'm going to release the containment field. Good luck!" Jane called as the world began to disappear in a flash of electric blue light.

… …

Loki staggered as the Bifröst appeared beneath them. Regaining his balance he looked around, noting that none of the mortals had been lost in the journey, thank the nine. He helped Kara to her feet, his poor lady looked quite pale. "That was awful," she managed, looking up at him.

"It was. Normal travel by the Bifröst is far less difficult." He glanced at the others. They were replacing their gloves. Stark had opened his visor and was gulping air.

"Okay, that was better than the freefall through the wormhole back to Earth," he said. "But it still was not fun."

"At least you're conscious this time," Rogers told him.

"There is that. Okay, boss. Where to?"

Loki blinked as he realized Stark was addressing him. He turned to point down the bridge. "The gate is open beyond the Valhöll," he told them. "Eh, the largest of the golden buildings," he clarified at their confused looks. "Kara, you and Barton come with me, with all of the energy flying about I'll be able to transport you both to a high point where you'll have a good line of sight on the enemy. Stark…Tony, take Captain Rogers and fly towards the battle, I'll meet you at the base of the Valhöll where we can strategize how to get the scepter to the gate."

"Roger that," Stark said, closing his visor. "Cap, hold on to the scepter and I'll grab you around your waist from behind. Just relax, I won't drop you."

"Wait," Rogers said. "We need to do a comm check." The man tapped the device like the ones they'd all put in their ears and ran lightly down the Bifröst a ways. "Hawkeye," Loki heard over the one in his own ear and then heard the archer respond. "Iron Man," was said before Stark responded. Roger's voicing of "Hellbringer," brought a response from Kara. "Loki."

"Yes, I hear you on the device," he confirmed.

"Great. Iron Man, fly on by and pick me up."

"Hey, soldier, you come here often?" Stark said as he flew towards Rogers.

"You're a laugh a minute," Rogers groused.

Loki turned to the others. "Kara, Barton, both of you step in close. The cliff ledge I'm taking you too is deep enough to be safe but it's not excessively wide." He wrapped an arm around each of their waists and repressed a sigh as Barton stiffened. "My apologies, but I must hold on to you securely lest I lose you in transport."

"Yeah, fine, just do it," the archer muttered.

He smiled down reassuringly at Kara's visor, then concentrated and let the power flow through him. A moment later he felt the ledge beneath him. "Barton, step backwards carefully, you are too close to the edge, I've still got you." Barton took his advice and then looked around. "Kara, you are on the inside, step to your right, please." He looked back at Barton who was peering out over the battlefield.

"Holy shit, it's worse than New York," the man muttered.

"Yes, I'd had Selvig limit the power flow on the gate there. It couldn't get any bigger than it did. Unfortunately whoever is helping the
enemy here showed no such restraint."

"Shit, you really were trying to minimize the damage," Barton said.

He shrugged. "Are you both close enough to reach your targets?"

"I am," Kara said. "If I can see it, and it's flammable, I can make it burn."

Barton frowned. "Yeah, I'm at the outside of my range, but I can manage. I don't have a hell of a lot of ammo, though."

Loki looked down at the full quiver. "Let's do something about that, then." He held a hand over one of the arrows experimentally. A wave of power flowed and with his second sight he could see it settle in that section of the quiver. "Pull that arrow," he directed. Barton did as instructed and an identical arrow replaced the one that had been removed. "Excellent. Let me do the others."

"Wait, Loki. Clint, get your specialty arrowheads for this kind of fight on some of the other arrows. If Loki's magic is duplicating them, you want the best selection possible."

Loki frowned as Barton opened a compartment on the side and pulled out five arrowheads and replaced the standard heads of five of the arrows, stowing the standard heads back in the compartment. "Okay, that's about the best selection in the main quiver now," the mortal said.

"I'll make that compartment do the same," Loki told them as he held his hands over the entire quiver and concentrated fiercely. The power built up swiftly this time, now that he knew what he was doing with it, and settled into the different sections. "There. You should now be able to pull up to a dozen of each arrow. The spare arrowheads should also replace themselves eleven times for a total of one dozen each. Use them wisely."

"Cool, Clint, you've got something out of an awesome RPG there," Kara enthused.

"RPG?" Loki asked as the archer grunted agreement. "Never mind. Barton. I'm counting on you to watch her back," he said, looking the other man deep in the eyes. "Kara is more important to me than life itself. I am entrusting you with her safety. I-I don't know if I could stand having anything happen to her, do you understand?"

"Yeah. I've got it, no pressure. Protect Dr. G or you'll go crazy on my ass."

He ignored Kara's fierce frown. "No, protect her because she is a treasure who deserves to be protected. If you fail, well, I've failed often enough over the past few months that I cannot hold it against you. I'm simply begging you to do all within your power to keep her safe."

Barton swallowed. "Okay, I won't let either of you down."

"Thank you." He turned to his now glaring lady. "I know, you can protect yourself. But you haven't faced this enemy before. They don't have emotions, they can't feel anything but hunger. If your fire doesn't fell them you are defenseless. Don't try to take on the leviathans, they are definitely fire resistant, confine your attacks to the individual Chitauri or to anyone that seems to be aiding them." He stared out over the battlefield and laughed bitterly. "Oh, of course." He pointed out several dark figures. "The Svartálfar, the dark elves," he explained. "They've long been struggling against the truce between the realms. They've brought the true enemy here. If the Chitauri don't burn, they most certainly will."

"I'll go for them first. They've likely got control of the actual gate."

"Good. Stay safe, my love." Loki stepped back and frowned as Kara grabbed the leather of his armor. His automatic protest was cut short by her fierce kiss. Shuddering, he returned it quickly, then set her aside.

"Don't get your ass killed," she told him with a glare. "If you do, I'll find some damn way to resurrect you and then kill you myself."

He laughed at her claim, then sobered. "I swear, Kara, I will do everything I can to come back safely to you." Loki touched her face one last time then used his power to join Stark and Rogers.

… …

"Christ, looks like The SCA meets Star Wars or something," Tony grumbled as he stared out at the battlefield. "Only with more blood and guts."

"War is always full of blood and guts, Tony," Cap told him quietly. "Even if we don't always see it." Ever the soldier, Rogers stood at attention as he surveyed the fighting. He lifted his free arm and pointed. "There, the concentration of fighting…and there's three distinct groups. The Chitauri, some kind of pointy-eared dark skinned people, and the Asgardians. "I'll bet the device controlling the gate is either in the middle of that or just beyond it."

"You are correct, captain," Loki's voice said from behind them. "The third group are Svartálfar and are also our enemies."

Tony whirled and clapped a hand to his arc reactor. "Damn it, Lokes, give us a warning next time. If I didn't have this giant substitute for a pacemaker, I'd have had a heart attack."

"It does not handle the function of one of your human heart managing devices…does it?"

"No, but shit, you still, oh never mind. What's the plan, other than the obvious?"

Loki frowned at them. "Perhaps, Stark, you could take point, try to clear a path for us. I'll shadow Rogers, keep the worst of the fight off of him as we push our way through to the device."

"I don't need your coddling, Loki."

"You're the most vulnerable of the three of us, Rogers, don't be a fool. I fully expect you to take down your share of opponents, but despite your augmentation, you are a mortal with little armor. I'd rather not have to explain to my lady that I let you get killed."

"Don't suppose you guys have the equivalent of a nuke here," Tony asked. "I could just stuff it down their throats like last…uh, that would be a no," he finished, noting Loki's annoyed expression.

"Okay, let's do this, men," Cap said firmly and took off running toward the battle.

"Insolent mortal," Loki yelled. "Wait to have the path at least somewhat cleared, you fool!"

"Guess that's my cue to take off. Jarvis, are you by any chance with me?" Tony asked the AI, not really expecting an answer.

"Yes, Anthony," the AI responded. Tony winced as he realized he'd used a snarky nickname for Loki back at Fort Knox. "I downloaded an abbreviated version of myself before we traveled through the wormhole. Research capacity is limited, but all computational capacity is at full."

"Coolness. How's the power?"

"Power is currently at one hundred and twenty-five percent. Power increased when we landed on the Bifröst, the reason for this is unknown."

"Nice. And if we run low and we can find Thor, maybe he can charge us up." He began targeting and firing upon Chitauri and the Svartálfar in Loki and Steve's path.

"That would be exceeding dangerous, Anthony. I would advise against it."

"Any more dangerous than running out of juice in the middle of a battle on an alien world, J?"

"Good point, sir."

"You bet your ass it's a good point. Okay, Jarvis, get a bead on the energy from the device holding open the gate, and then compute the best path through this mess to reach it."

… …

Kara grimaced as one of the Svartálfar burst into flame. She consoled herself with the fact that it was war, they were trying and succeeding in a few cases already, to kill the legal residents of this world, and that things would go south for her own world if the bastards won here. She concentrated to build enough heat in a new target to combust it internally…she refused to think of them as 'him' or 'her', that way lay madness.

"I'm not gonna be much help with the Svartálfar, doc. They're moving between the Asgardians and visa-versa too quickly for me to be sure of my target. I'll target the Chitauri that are airborne, take them out of play," Clint told her.

"Sounds good," she replied. "Once I've had my target in sight, they can duck all they want, I've got hold of them energetically and there's no hiding, so I'll concentrate on the ground troops."

"Roger that," he said as he let an arrow fly and not one, not two, but three groups of Chitauri riding some kind of flying sleds were knocked out of the air as the one that Hawkeye hit exploded with the arrow and careened into the others. Unfortunately, that meant the five surviving aliens were now on the ground and clambering to their feet.

"No time like the present to find out if they burn," she muttered, concentrating on the one closest to an Asgardian warrior. In a few short moments, the bastard burst into a very satisfying ball of flame. "Score!" she yelled, pumping a fist in the air. "Did you see that Clint? Not only are the bastards flammable, they're excessively so!"

Clint laughed at her enthusiasm, "Damn good work, doc. Try and get them when they're bunched up, the one that combusts might catch some of the others on fire."

"Damn, didn't even think about that, thanks!" Kara scanned the battlefield and found a small cluster of Chitauri facing off against a wall of Æsir warriors. Eying the one in the center, she focused her concentration…just a moment more…YES! The target burst into flame and the fire quickly spread to its two closest companions. Their opponents appeared stunned for a moment, then raised their weapons in what looked like a cheer and surged forward. "Coolness," she smirked.

A flurry of action around a golden armored one-eyed figure with flowing white hair and a grizzled beard caught her attention. Several Asgardians, some obviously Æsir, some that appeared to be something else, rushed to the man's aid, but were themselves quickly engaged by more of the enemy. For an old guy, he was really kicking ass, sometimes with the actual blade of the huge spear he carried, and sometimes with magic. Odin; the old man had to be the son of a bitch that had screwed over her Loki. Speaking of that silver-tongued devil, there he was, bodily grabbing a dark elf who was about to attack the All-Father from behind and slamming it down across his raised knee to stun it, and then slicing its throat open with a long bladed knife.

… …

Odin looked over his shoulder as one of the enemy disappeared. His estranged son was finishing the forsworn Svartálfar; Loki was armed with naught but his favored knives. "Were you not able to retrieve the scepter?" he asked as the boy reached his side.

"Your son made the mortals promise to give it to no one but him," Loki spat.

"So we are lost."

"No, All-Father. The power of the gate opened here caused a connection to the scepter. The human scientist beloved by Thor was able to use it to open an ancillary gate there. Several of the Avengers have travelled through it and have brought the scepter with them so that the gate may be closed, yet they not break their word." Loki gutted another attacker and leaned in and pointed to where a metal clad being flew ahead, blasting aside the enemy and a blue clad man fought his way forward on foot, swinging the scepter and a round shield with equal fierceness. "There are two more on the cliff, attacking from…" his adopted son paused as a Chitauri headed straight for them burst into flames, seemingly from within. The enemies on either side were engulfed in the small conflagration. Loki laughed. "And there goes my lady's work now!"

Odin nodded as he thrust Gungnir through the heart of an enemy. "Impressive. This is the healer, Kara?" he asked.

"Yes, old man, so watch your step with her."

He smiled. Loki hadn't lost his attitude toward him, but that was to be expected. "I shall, son. Go, help your friends reach the gate, we'll hold the others from the city." Odin turned back to the battle as Loki sneered at him and bounded after the mortal carrying the scepter.

… …

Steve was getting the hang of using the bladed weapon. It wasn't that different from a bayonet, though he'd used one of those only rarely in Germany. The Chitauri went down best from a sweeping strike that pulled their innards out. The dark elves, the Svartal-something or other didn't stay down unless he stabbed through an eye and into their brain and twisted. He risked a quick glance over a shoulder. Loki was headed back toward him after reporting to Odin. Steve heard more than saw a Chitauri fire its weapon his way and raised his shield to deflect the blast back into the mass of enemies. "Excellent strategy, captain!" he heard Thor bellow.

"Thanks, hey, can I give this thing to Loki if he can get in to the gate faster without me?" he shouted back, raising the scepter.

Thor frowned at him. "Of course, why ever not?"

"Uh, you told us not to give it to anyone but you!"

"Ah, but things have changed my friend. Do whatever is necessary, I trust your judgment!" The god swung Mjölnir to clear a path and surged forward into the fray.

"Stark's right," Steve muttered to himself. "Thor is thick-headed."

"Glad to hear I'm not alone in that opinion," Loki laughed from behind him. "What are you waiting for, Rogers? Forward!"

Steve rolled his eyes and moved into the path just cleared by Stark. The gap closed too soon and they were reduced to fighting back to back. He sidestepped quickly as several Chitauri on a flying sled shot their weapons at them nimbly avoiding one blast. The next slammed into his shield before he could brace for it and the impact sent him flying to the side. He managed to roll out of the way of a spear wielded by one of the elves, but another slammed the base of another long poled weapon straight down with a force even his augmented muscle and bone could not resist. "Loki!" he yelled as he felt his femur snap.

… …

"Oh, shit, Cap's down, Cap's down!" Clint yelled over the comm.

Kara turned to look for them and targeted the Svartálfar that was swinging the blade of a halberd down toward Steve's chest. The dark-skinned enemy combusted and the great weapon dropped to the ground harmlessly. "Steve, how bad are you hurt?" she asked.

Loki was bending over him, using Steve's shield as cover. "His leg is broken badly, I'm not going to be able to heal it enough for him to continue. I'll get him out of the middle of the battle. Stark, where are you? Stark!"

There was no answer. Kara looked across the field and didn't see the red and gold armored figure. "Clint? do you see him?"

"He was heading down the throat of a leviathan a minute ago."

She looked back for Loki, but he and Steve were gone. Loki's voice sounded in her ear. "Got him to the rear of the action. Rogers, we'll have to wait for Stark to take the scepter."

"No need," Steve's voice said. "Ran into Thor," he gasped, sounding pained. "Take it and get that damned thing closed."

Kara's eyebrow rose at the sound of Steve cussing, then she grinned. Loki was going to get a chance to be Asgard's hero. "I will. Stay safe, captain," she heard Loki say.

"Steve, where are you?" she asked.

"Near a wall, back by that that big gold Valhöll place. I'm out of the way, don't worry about me."

"Got it, uh, Hellbringer out…is that what I'm supposed to say?'

Clint gave her a disgusted look and Steve laughed weakly over the unit. "Yes, ma'am. You've got it. Captain America out for now."

… …

Loki shifted himself as close to the gate as its energies would allow…which unfortunately, was not that close. He was elated. After so many failures, he would be the one to close the gate and save the Realm Eternal. He would do something that Thor could not…finally. After reconfiguring the scepter to its spear configuration, he advanced on foot, swinging it with viscous abandon, taking down each foe that dared to come within his reach. He used his magic to repel enemies that tried to attack from behind and found he was making steady but maddeningly slow progress. A roar to his left caught his attention. "Thor," he gasped in horror as he saw Mjölnir tumble to the ground as his brother was buried under dozens of Svartálfar all employing magic to keep the god of Thunder down and separated from his weapon.

He looked toward the open gate and back to his brother. He could not close the gate and save Thor. Sif pushed past him with Hogun and Fandral in tow, headed for his buried brother. "Get the gate closed and make yourself useful for once," she snarled at him.

Loki swallowed and made a decision he felt sure he'd regret. "No, wait!" he yelled. "They're using magic to contain him. You can't help." He frowned at the anger on the woman's face. "Take the scepter," he said, thrusting it into Sif's hands. "The three of you can make it to the gate, you need only get the jewel in the stream of energy to close it." Volstagg caught up with them as he spoke. "Volstagg, come with me, your great strength will be needed to clear the enemy off of my brother once I break their magic."

"You heard him, go!" Sif shouted at the others, surprising him. "This had better not be a trick, lie-smith," she hissed quietly.

"No trick. I-I will not see him die." Sif nodded and lead the others off. He turned to Volstagg. "I know you have no love of me, but…"

"No great hate of you, either; let us save Thor," the corpulent warrior boomed.

Loki grinned. "Indeed." He hefted the sword Sif had thrust into his hands. It wasn't his favorite weapon, but it would decapitate a Svartálfar mage handily.

… …

Author's Note: Sorry, gang, action scenes are not my forte. Hope my ineptitude with it wasn't too distracting!