On the tallest ridge of Stark Tower, the King observed his scientist, Erik Selvig. The miniature portal was near completion. In mere minutes, the sky would rip open and down would come Loki's army to aid in confiscating Midgard. But elsewhere, just off the coast of New York, away from the wreckage of the steel cell, Thor pulled himself from the dirt. Around him, an entire field spoke of the impending chaos. A deep crater scored the earth where Thor slid for great lengths. Dirt caked his skin and clothes, but thousands of flowers lay strewn in crumpled messes. They would die soon. Just like the Midgardians that Thor loved so much, if he did not save them.

The golden haired prince searched for Mjølnir, his beloved hammer. It was some distance away from him. The handle just barely peeked above the tall grass. He slowly made his way forward. Terrible thoughts filled his head. Unusual thoughts. What caused this drastic change in his morality? He liked to think he was becoming the man he was already supposed to be. He reached for the hammer. It did not come to him.

Did he summon it to his palm, or did he only extend his hand to it? For a brief moment, Thor feared himself no longer worthy. He could not stop his brother's fall from the Bifrost. He could not stop the Chitauri from collecting the broken Aesir and twisting him into their slave. He could not stop Coulson's death. He could not stop the invasion and destruction of the Earth.

He clenched his fist tight. 'It is only the after-effects of the dark energy,' he tried to convince himself. 'I can stop them. I will. And Loki will be the man he is supposed to be, and we will go home, and everything will be as it once was.' But Thor was never as good a liar as his brother. It took several deep breaths and the reminder of approaching peril to shape up and collect his pride. Surrender was not in Thor's nature.

҉

Stark hobbled his way through the sky in his faltering suit. It streaked thick smoke behind him, charting his dive. "Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," he ordered. Loki grinned to himself. It would not be so easy to bend his servant's new will.

"It's too late!" Selvig called. And he was right. The mechanism whirred and hummed as energy coursed through it. The top spun like the observatory destroyed mere months ago on Asgard. It must have been nearly three years, if running on the corrupted Midgardian timeline. Selvig turned to his work, smiling. "She can't stop now." The mechanism spun steadily faster. "She wants to show us something! A new universe!"

The King laughed to see Stark's futile attempt at destroying the machine. The Tesseract repelled him with enough force to make a miniature explosion. Selvig was thrown back, presumably dead or unconscious. It was no concern to Loki anymore; the portal was unstoppable and soon ready. Stark eased to the landing pad and undressed himself of the battered armor. He strutted inside. Loki joined him.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki sneered. He held his shoulders back and his chin high. He adopted a new air of regality, unlike his old princely self. His forgotten self. Loki believed himself a king and therefore he was a king. The scepter was gripped so tightly his knuckles were likely to be permanently white.

"Actually, I'm planning on threatening you." Stark somehow still had the audacity to think he could make jests at a time such as this.

The King would play. This servant was still partially amusing. "You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah," Stark considered, agreeing. "It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

Loki smirked down at his staff. Comparing such a mighty weapon to something as useless as a glowing stick was laughable in and of itself. The staff hissed and snarled and threatened the human, though only the King could hear it. "Stalling me won't change anything," he chuckled.

"No, no. Threatening," Stark insisted. "No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one."

Loki's amusement fast faded. His grin morphed into something of a snarl; he turned, pacing by the windows. From here, the King saw his entire empire stretch to the horizon and beyond. Six billion lives would soon be his property. Despite being short lived, these servants were a greater prize collectively. Sixty thousand times greater. "The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" But Stark said nothing about fear. Loki talked more now to the staff in his hands than to the mortal before him. Siv was just short of screaming in Loki's ear. How much more of this could he handle?

"The Avengers," Stark said simply. He poured himself a glass of whiskey. Loki narrowed his eyes briefly. "It's what we call ourselves," Stark explained. "We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type thing."

Loki could have laughed. "Yes. I've met them."

"Yeah." Stark gave a sarcastic grin. "It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the demigod, a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend, a man with breathtaking anger-management issues, a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan," Loki hissed through his smirk.

"Not a great plan," Stark muttered over the rim of his glass. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army," Loki growled.

"We have a Hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off?" Loki questioned, imagining its glorious plunge from the helicarrier.

Stark stepped toward the King without regards to manners. "Yeah, you're missing the point. There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

'He is a liar he will be smothered like a persistent flame you are their king the entire realm is your throne there will be nothing left to avenge when they are all yours take him take his heart let me have him let me control him he is their ally like Barton they may have taken Barton but they cannot take Stark he is strong he is powerful but not for long he fears you he wants to kill you let his friends murder him in battle he is arrogant like Thor is cocksure like Thor this world needs no men like him take over Stark take over the Iron Man he is yours it is all yours it is your home now and they can do nothing about it give him to me give him to me come to me come to me COME TO ME– '

"How will your friends have time for me," Loki hissed, "when they are so busy fighting you?"

Power swelled in the staff, hot blue magic. It touched Stark's heart with an unusual sound. Faltered.

Loki tried again.

Metal against metal.

"This usually works," he whispered, confused. Even the staff had no words for him.

Stark shrugged. "Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five."

Loki grabbed him by the throat. The King would not tolerate such vulgar insults. If he could not control the ignorant fool, the only other option was to kill him. And kill he would. He threw Stark to the hard stone floor before the massive windows. The human muttered something unintelligible. "You will all fall before me," Loki promised, sending him tumbling down to the streets below. Something whirred behind him. A red metal pod propelled itself through the window after its master, Loki having only factions of a second to duck out of its way.

A red suit, much like the one previously discarded, floated brightly, proudly, annoyingly in the sky. Stark just would not close his mouth.

"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil." For a moment, Stark wondered if Teagan would have the heart to be upset. He landed a special repulsor counterattack in her name just in case.

But the portal was ready, and soon after, the Chitauri flooded the skies. Stark fled to stop the warriors, with little luck. The King cloaked himself in his ceremonial armor; what once reminded him of vernal Asgard now only bore the image of blazing golden fire. He stood on the landing pad, observing with quiet satisfaction the carnal destruction of New York City. His pleasure was soon interrupted.

"Loki!" Thor bellowed, dropping from the skies. Loki scowled. Thor pointed to the portal with his beloved hammer. "Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it," he threatened.

'Have we reverted in age eight hundred years?' Loki briefly wondered, finally hearing his own voice in his head after an untold amount of time. "You can't," he growled, "There is no stopping it. There is only the war!"

"So be it," Thor whispered.

Loki roared as he jumped from his platform; the battle quickly ensued. Thor took blow after fierce blow. Was it his uneagerness to harm his possessed brother? Had Loki banished his reserve to fight? The raven haired prince was never a close-range fighter, even in this most vicious anger. This was not his style of sparring. Thor had a terrible time predicting Loki's attack pattern, and thus faltered when forced to return such heavy assaults. Above their heads, Thor's mortal allies did their best to stop the damage. A personal flyer, no, a quinjet hovered in close range, observing their combat. Loki shot at it with his stolen staff, bringing down one wing and therefore the entire plane. Thor barreled into his brother's side. He would have to keep Loki occupied if he was going to prevent the deaths of any more humans. Each punch Thor landed dented Loki's armor, but hurt their pride infinitely more.

"What happened to you, brother?" Thor roared, locking the staff between his hammer and his arms. It clattered with a cold hiss as metal scraped stone. "Who is in your head? What controls you? Is it the Chitauri?"

Loki snarled in his face, though something of a grin curled at his lips. "It is she." He glanced down at the staff. "It is she."

Thor's heart mourned quietly for his brother. He should have listened, all those years ago. When Loki was content to believe she did not exist. That they were all forcing him to chase delusions. Those, somehow, were happier times. When it was not about the kingdom or power or ownership of land. When it was about exploration and growing up and being terrible nuisances to their mother and father and teachers and each other. When Loki focused on magic tricks and clever transformations, and Thor on strength and friendship. Before Loki was anything less than Aesir and before Siv was anything more than human.

"Why?" Thor struggled out. "Why is she doing this to you?"

Loki seemed to regain some kind of recognition. He seemed very much like a child, lost in the confusion. "She gave me power so that I may rule these lost and hungry creatures."

"Look at this!" Thor shouted, shaking his brother. "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"

"It's too late," Loki murmured, blinking. "It's too late to stop it." He stared down at the fires that poured from windows, listened to the screams that drifted up into the sky.

"No," Thor said, searching Loki's face. "We can. Together."

Loki smiled, and for a brief moment, Thor had his old Loki back. But the hope was shattered with the dagger Loki shoved under Thor's armor. Thor dropped his hammer as he stumbled back. The pain he felt lay only in his longing for his brother's return.

"Sentiment," the lost King whispered, blue clouding his usually green eyes. He smiled.

Thor had enough. No more talk; it was time for action. He threw his brother into glass, picked him up over his head, dropped him to the cold stone floor. Loki rolled off the edge of the building, catching his flying chariot and disappearing into the throng of chaos. Thor stared after him, drowning in untold emotions. Thor pulled the silver dagger from his side. For a moment, Thor hoped it was tipped with that silly concoction from their childhood that gave him terrible runs. At least it would have meant Loki still acted on humor. But alas, it was not so nicely poisoned. In moments, Thor felt little coals explode under his skin. Worms hatched from their tiny eggs and began to crawl through his body.

Below, Thor's team of mortal friends were struggling to keep up with the fight. Thor flew down to their aid, destroying several Chitauri with his lightning on the way down. It felt very satisfying. He stumbled against a vehicle as he adjusted to the strange internal pain. He had no time to worry about these blasted creatures in his flesh. The humans needed him. He would protect them as well as he could.

"What's the story upstairs?" Rogers asked, coming forth.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor answered.

"Thor's right, we gotta focus on these guys," came Stark's voice into all ears but Thor's.

"How do we do this?" Romanoff asked.

"As a team," Rogers murmured.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor growled, stepping forth to observe the skies.

"Yeah?" Barton asked, reclaiming as many arrows as he could. "Get in line."

Rogers stood between the three present, formulating a battle plan. Thor was quietly impressed with the mortal's ability to think quickly under such strange circumstances. A heavy purr rumbled under the noise and confusion. Banner hopped off a dying motorcycle, approaching them all with a sheepish smile. Banner was once again himself. And dressed. The mortals exchanged a few words, and they tensed on a silent instant. It was then Thor realized he could not hear Stark speaking with to the rest of them. Stark cut through the sky, an incredible beast on his tail.

Thor growled, readying for battle. It was yet another dark reminder that this time, Thor fought against is brother with the beasts, instead of alongside him. He wished they were bilgesnipes. He wished a great many things.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha said simply.

Banner grinned to himself as he started toward the beast.

"Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry," Rogers suggested.

Banner turned his grin to his comrades. "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." And with a mighty roar, Banner erupted into that startling green beast of a giant, punching the oncoming squadron beast between its helmeted nostrils. His strength alone was enough to send the monster toppling over itself. Stark's miniature missile exploded the beast, sending soggy grey chunks of skin across all six of them and into the street below. The Chitauri shrieked in anger, the mortals with pride as the squadron came down.

But the battle was only just beginning.

"Send the rest," Loki whispered, locked in a neural link with his masters. Hordes of Chitauri soldiers flooded from the portal. The King watched with mild boredom as Thor used a metal building to amplify his lightning. Many of Loki's army never made it past the clouds. The ones that did were quickly exterminated by those annoyances named the Avengers. He grimaced as Romanoff took to the skies on the back of one of his soldier's chariots. He chased her through the fray, firing at her.

"Oh, you," she sighed, as though she had forgotten his existence entirely. "Hawkeye!" Romanoff narrowly dodged a flurry of blasts. "A little help?"

Loki growled. The marksman's loyalties were reconfigured. Barton shot an arrow at Loki's chest. The King caught it. Surely, Barton was not so proud of his skill to think that one measly arrow would fell him? But as Loki looked up to smirk, the arrowhead erupted in a great ball of fire. It sent him down again into Stark's tower. The damage done was quite extensive. A fraction of a second later, Banner burst through the very last window still intact. The beast slammed the King into a stone wall. Loki was quite through with the way his war was playing out.

He got to his feet. "ENOUGH!" he bellowed. The beast halted in confusion. "YOU ARE, ALL OF YOU, BENEATH ME! I AM A GOD, YOU DULL CREATURE! AND I WILL NOT BE BULLIED BY A– "

But whatever speech Loki planned to give was interrupted by a very sudden grab to his legs. The beast swung him around and threw him against the floor again and again; Loki likened himself to porcelain in the meaty hands of a giant toddler. It was not the first time.

"Puny god," Banner smirked as he stormed away.

One Loki-shaped hole graced the wall, the floor, six; he filled one quite nicely, left stunned in wounded pride and body. His mind was once again his own. The staff was long gone.

Erik Selvig hung over the edge of Stark tower. Blood caked his forehead. He was still alive. "The scepter," he struggled out.

"Doctor," Romanoff breathed, caught between helping Selvig and destroying the portal.

Selvig looked down once more. "Loki's scepter. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't protect against yourself," he wheezed.

"It's not your fault," Romanoff assured. She had chosen to aid him. "You didn't know what you were doing."

Selvig paused, a glimmer sparking his old eyes. "Well, actually, I think I did. I built in a safety to cut their power source."

Romanoff frowned in surprise. "Loki's scepter," she repeated.

"It may be able to close the portal." Selvig looked down yet again. "And I'm looking right at it."

Moments later, Romanoff darted through Stark tower to reach the lower platform. She saw Loki in his cement grave, alive but coughing up blood and who knew what else as he laid there on his back. He made no move to get up as she ran past him. Gold threads wove under his armor and around the back of his head, mending shattered ribs and a cracked skull. He was going to have a hell of a concussion if he ever got up again, she thought with grim pleasure.

When she returned to the top of the tower, Selvig had pulled himself from the ground and set up the laptop that once controlled the portal. He could at least monitor it now as they tried to shut it down. The staff felt wrong in Natasha's hands. Alive, maybe. Downright sickly. Something rustled just behind her mental vision, rumbled in her ears amidst the rushing of her blood. Voices. Clint. Static. Was this what Loki heard? Was it some sort of curse? The Black Widow felt ten times more powerful and twenty times more vulnerable. She wanted to get that weapon out of her hands as soon as possible. Stark mentioned something about the way Loki used it to try and control him. As long as she didn't touch it to her own heart, she would be fine. She hoped.

"Right at the crown!" Selvig instructed.

The blade of the scepter cut through the Tesseract's force-field much easier than either had anticipated. "I can close it," Natasha gasped, "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Cap shouted.

"No, wait!" Stark interrupted.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Cap.

"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute, and I know just where to put it." Stark.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip." Cap.

But Stark said no more, shutting off his transmission.

Natasha could only wait. In moments, Tony Stark shuttled through the wrecked city on the undercarriage of a missile. The two narrowly missed blowing up Stark tower as he used the last of his battery on pushing the missile up into the portal. All around them, the Chitauri collapsed on their neural link like insects. The war was over. The missile must have made its mark. The Avengers searched the skies for Tony's return.

"Come on, Stark," Natasha whispered.

But there was no sign of him, and the explosion was fast approaching.

"Close it," Captain Rogers murmured over their earpiece.

Natasha forced the scepter into the heart of the Tesseract.

'You've come back,' Siv whispered, accepting the shard back into its core. The two sisters, the twins, the light and dark of the same soul were at once rejoined as they plunged into the depths of the Tesseract. No more could the shard control the hearts with darkness. Loki's Siv, the true Siv, followed into the Tesseract. This war was over. Loki no longer needed her – no, she no longer needed Loki. The infinitely old being finally grew up. An even greater war was on the horizon, but this soul was heavy and needed rest. Both Siv's fell into an eternal winter, left to sleep for a while and move on, reborn.

The portal closed, swelling with a great blue wave of fire. The rest was Midgardian history.

҉

The battle was over. Teagan watched from the helicarrier a dozen and a half news channels all jittering with nerves about the event. Somehow, she no longer cared. How could she, when one of the two people she allowed herself to care about since the accident were killed. It was her fault. Coulson told her if she went to see Loki, she would jeopardize everyone on the ship; he was dead ten minutes later.

"I think you haven't been completely honest with me," Director Fury muttered from behind her.

It reminded her of Coulson. Were those his own mannerisms, or Fury's? It didn't matter now. Teagan shut down each news reel one by one before turning to face him. Without hesitation she explained everything. The three weeks in New Mexico. How the cube was activated. What she saw. How she felt. The girl. The god. The Tesseract.

Erik Selvig entered their little bubble of solitude, away from the flurry of agents that swirled around them. "I'm sorry for your loss," he whispered to the two of them, but mostly to Teagan. He knew just how much Coulson meant to her.

"Miss Hill, Dr. Selvig, you've both had a rough day at work," Fury nodded, looking between the two of them. "I told the Council that our Ass-Guardian friends flew the coop, but I'll let you in on a little secret. Thor and Loki are laying low in Norway right now, having a little family reunion with some old memories. We've got the Tesseract for exactly one week. Now, I'm willing to bet there's some data you're anxious to recover."

Teagan didn't even offer an empty smile. "With all due respect, sir, I think I'm done chasing gods and helping you find good clean energy to fuel your rocket launchers."

Selvig shrugged quietly beside her.

Fury lowered to Teagan's eye level, piercing her with his stare. "What if I told you that you could use it to bring Coulson back?"

Selvig and Little Hill immediately shared a look. "The research," they breathed.

20:34

14.4.14