Chapter 3

Conferences & Arguments

Groaning, Toni cracked her eyes opened and looked at the clock on her bedside table. 7:02. Great. What happened to the days she would die before waking up at 9:00 at the earliest? She knew the answer, life.

Slowly, she got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. Catching her eyes in the mirror, she looked at the dark circles under her eyes, the same that had been there since she left the US. Was the last time she had a peaceful night sleep was the night before she got hit with the Bronze Staff? Yes, it was. Steve had dragged her from the lab to bed at about 10:30, saying that he wasn't going to let her fall asleep in the lab since she had been down there for three and half days.

Shaking her head to clear all thoughts of her former fiancé, she undressed slowly and hopped in the shower, scrubbing off the invisible feeling of Loki's hands that still haunted her after seventeen years. When she stepped out, her skin was red from scrubbing. Sliding on some lotion and other ointments, she brushed her teeth and blow-dried her hair. Going to the closet, she pulled out her outfit; a dark green cropped short sleeve shirt with cuts in the back, a button down dark denim skirt, a tan leather jacket, and tan leather boots. She set the shoes and jacket on her bed before returning to that bathroom to put on makeup. She chose a nice brown smoky color to go with her chocolate brown eyes and a light pink lipstick after using concealer and foundation to make her face look perfect, not that she needed it. Magic had its uses and she would never have to deal with blemishes again, or diseases for that matter. It also took care of the dark circles under her eyes and made her look refreshed. After she was done, she walked into the bedroom where her dresser was an looked in her jewelry box was. Digging around, she pulled out green studs, a gold heart necklace with green and white gems covering it, and a gold and green three layer beaded bracelet. Satisfied, she slid her boots on and took her jacket downstairs.

She sat it next to her tan purse that sat on one side of the counter, while she went to work on breakfast. Eggs, toast, bacon, grits, and pancakes were the choices today and knowing her kids, it would be gone in a minute.

Halfway through cooking she heard the door open. She reached out with her powers to find out it was Rhodey. "Sour patch, what can I do for you this morning?" she said, using his old nickname.

He chuckled. "Old school Tones, really, run out of everything already?" he moved behind her and kissed her on the cheek. "How you doing? You feel tense."

She huffed. "And I thought it was Nathan that had the gift of empathy." Nathan Lucas Michaels was one of the eighteen year olds at the SFTG. He had coffee colored brown hair and eyes. He was a rare case, with no siblings, but that was the cause of his situation. His mom was in high school when she got pregnant. His father left her on her own. Her parents isolated her to her own house, far away from anyone they knew. She had been killed in a house fire when Nathan was four. He had been taken to the closest orphanage, where he stayed till he was seven which was when he ran away. He ran into Lauren, Rhodey's wife when she was passing through Dublin when he was ten, about a year after Toni started the work on the facility. She brought him here and he had latched onto Taylor. He was ten at the time. Currently, he was eighteen, and one of the most popular boys here. He was dating Hailey Faith Casten, one of the seventeen year olds. She was pretty, with long straight blonde hair and big brown eyes. Her power was summoning; she could summon any object from anywhere in the world or dimensions or time at will, all she had to do was picture it in her head.

Rhodey shook his head. "No, I'm not Nathan. My power is massive strength. Remember copycat? I just know you well." When Toni had gotten her power, he had gotten something as well. He got strength, basically combine the Hulk, Thor, Steve, and Bucky and that was Rhodey. Toni had multiple powers, well multiple main powers. She was a locator; she could locate any magical object of person with magical abilities in existence. She was a knowledger. She knew everything she needed to know about every power in existence and how to use it. She was an enhancer, meaning she could enhance the power of anyone she found worthy. She was a diminisher, meaning she could diminish power if she found the owner unworthy. She was a giver, she could give people power if they needed it. She was a destroyer; she could take away power of anyone untrustworthy. She was also an absorber or copycat as Rhodey put it. Tim called her a sponge. Any power she came into contact with, she would absorb into her and be able to use at will at any time or place. Every person on the council, in Asguard, in all the realms and dimensions she had been to, every person at the SFTG, every person she had every encountered that had supernatural abilities had been copied by her and was now at her disposal.

Yeah, she was powerful.

"What is it Toni?" he questioned, pulling her out of her thoughts. "Don't tell me it's nothing. I know you better than that."

She took a breath before turning around and hugging him. She stood on her tiptoes and pulled herself to his ear where she whispered, "It happened. Fury showed up in my office yesterday. Loki's back and he has the Gold Staff."

She felt and heard Rhodey's sharp intake of breath. "When do we leave?" he choked out.

She winced at how much pain she heard and felt from him. His life had been almost as affected as hers was. "Later this week. I have to finalize the plan and finish getting the equipment done. I personally am leaving for New York on Friday. I booked my flight last night."

"Just a week, so soon. Damn, that's too soon." Rhodey whispered, knowing today was Saturday just as she knew. "Wait, you said you are leaving Saturday. What about me?"

She smiled knowing he had caught on. "I need you to stay here an extra week and make sure every defense and protection here is up. I also need you here to make sure the twins are okay. I'm wanting Mickey, Taylor, and Lauren to remain here to run the facility. I want Tim in Asguard talking to Odin and more importantly the council about aid and resources. Fury says besides the Avengers, SHIELD agents are the only aid he can offer. The truth is going to come out, Rhodey. This is it. Fury will be done with SHIELD and will be fired and he knows that. The president and the UN might give me aid once they learn what happened, but that doesn't mean we will get it in time for an actual fight. The council might be our only option and if they don't help, we are on our own."

He nodded, seeing her reasoning. "I get it. I know. My problem is will you be ok? This is going into to be bring back a lot of memories. I don't want you to have a flash terror and Tim or I not be there."

Toni knew what he meant. Having super powers had its uses but it also had its drawbacks. Instead of normal flashbacks, she had flash terrors. She would basically relive every major negative thing related to the issue. If she had one bad enough, which hadn't happened yet, she could have one that brought forth every horrible thing she remembered happening. That would include her father's abuse, the mess that was her late mid to late teens plus her early twenties, Afghanistan, Obie's betrayal, palladium poisoning, New York, the Mandarin fight, Ultron, the mess with the Gold Staff, the rape, her pregnancy, and every horrible thing she could think of that happened after. It would be a nightmare, but Rhodey were prepared for it to happen here. If Rhodey wasn't with her and the Avengers were…

She couldn't think of that, neither of them could. "If it happens, we will deal. I promise. We've dealt with everything else." She looked him in the eye and knew he knew exactly who and what she was talking about.

He nodded and they were silent as she turned to finish breakfast and he sipped his coffee he had brought from his place. He broke it as she did finish and start setting the plates out on the table for the twins. "Is it ever gonna get easier? Are we ever gonna be able to say it doesn't hurt?"

His voice was quiet but the question seemed to ring out like trumpets in her quiet kitchen. Her mind flew back in time to the event he was talking about, when they lost the other part of their friendship triad. She had been twenty-one, just starting to get over the death of the only man besides Steve she ever really loved and thought about spending her life with, when she had gotten the worst news of her life. She had been forced to watch the one person besides Rhodey at the time who she would die for, the most vibrant person she knew, fade away to nothing in a hospital bed, the fates not caring that she was only twenty-five and leaving behind her two best friends who needed her more than life itself. "No, I don't think it will." She answered, fighting back tears of pain and sorrow that thought it had been two decade since the event would not fade or heal.

They were silent again, both lost in memory of the beautiful red head that had changed their lives.

"I'm gonna go and get the others to meet to talk about the plans. Does noon work for you?"

She nodded and watched him start to leave only for him to turn around and come back. He yanked her small frame in a hug and held onto her. "Don't worry for now. Everything will be ok." He whispered. She nodded against his chest before he let go and left.

It only took about ten minutes for the twins to come down, both clean and dressed to face the day. Liz, her baby girl, was dressed in a black t-shirt with one sleeve hanging down past her shoulder that read 'LOVE' in giant white letters, white shorts, black and white converse, and black ball earrings that had a rhinestone ball on top of them. Her brown hair was pulled up in a complicated bun with braids running through it that nicely showed off her natural eye makeup and pink lips. Alex, her mischief maker, was dressed in ripped denim jeans, a grey shirt that read, 'PLUTO NEVER FORGET' with a picture of the planet or whatever it was nowadays, gray tennis shoes, and a dark gray ball cap over his messy brown hair.

"Morning Mom." They chirped in harmony as they moved to get something to drink. Her son, weird as he was, went straight to the fridge for orange juice while her daughter went straight to the coffee maker. At least one of her children took after her in that department.

"Morning kids." She sat at the table with her cup of coffee while the other two members of the house came and sat down and began breakfast.

She waited a second before speaking again. "I had a visitor yesterday."

They both looked up from their food, both knowing as she did how rare that was here. She had and Reese, their resident witch, had made sure the facility had a magic border could get in. No normal person needed to stumble on this place. "Really?" Alex asked around a mouth full on pancakes.

She nodded. "Yep, apparently a certain director decided to show up and have a little chat about a certain issue that needs my help and expertise."

Liz gulped down the piece of egg she had taken a bite out of. "Fury was here?"

Toni nodded. Alex continued where his twin left off. "Does that mean that you know who is back?" She met their eyes and nodded again.

She was going to kill Tim. I mean, yes she cursed and yes, she cursed as a teenager. That however didn't mean that her babies needed to be cursing at sixteen. Both of the two teens flat out started dropping swear words back and forth like it was the end of the world, though if Toni and the Avengers didn't do their job right, it could be just that.

"Quiet!" she said sharply, getting both of them to calm down and look at her sheepishly with the fire that showed the Stark in them blazing in their matching sets of brown eyes. "I know, this is not convenient, but we all knew this was coming. I am leaving for New York this upcoming Friday. Rhodey will be following me the week after. With how he fights, this will be over in about a month at the earliest. This won't take long."

Liz spoke first. "We know Mom, we aren't worried about that. We are worried about how you are gonna handle this. We aren't stupid Mom; we have your brains after all. We know that what happened still hurts you, whether you admit it or not. We don't want you getting hurt again and this may cause that." Alex nodded in agreement at his older sister's words.

Toni smiled at the two of them. "I get that. Trust me, I do. I'm doing this, and I know, I am probably going to get hurt again, but I need to do this. I need to finish this once and for all and the only way to do that is to face them and kill Loki. I can't get any better unless I get closure and this will offer that."

They couldn't argue with that.

Sighing they both nodded in agreement that she was right and that this was the only way to go and sat down to finish eating. The three of them were silent and Toni just couldn't deal with it so she decided to do something about it. Shooting Liz a look, she turned to Alex. "So Alex, I've been meaning to as you. How was Rome?"

Her son's brown eyes widened, before he turned to look at his sister who was grinning ear to ear. "Traitor!" he hissed, causing both his mother and sister to laugh.

ST-ST-ST

"You're what?" Tim yelled the question as he sat up straight in his chair at the conference table.

Toni rolled her eyes at the dramatics the eight hundred year old world traveller and Midguard representative displayed. "Do you really want me to repeat what I just said?" she asked in exasperation that almost had Rhodey and Mickey laugh. Lauren looked stoic except for the small smile on her face while Taylor giggled.

Tim looked back and forth between the five other adults in the room in confusion. "How are you all calm? Loki is coming back! You and Rhodey are having to go back to New York! How am I the only one freaking out about this?"

The brunette fought to not roll her eyes again. That wasn't what he was worried about and he wasn't fooling anyone. He was jealous. He knew that if she went back to New York she would have to see and talk to Steve. He knew if this were to get done, Steve would have to know the truth and even Toni knew that unless his feelings really had changed, which from what Heimdall had said the last time she was in Asguard, he would fight to keep her in New York at his side and would attempt to restart their relationship. Toni would fight, she would, to make sure she left the States still single, but she knew that her resolve was at least a little weak.

When she had left the house after the twins had already gone off for the day, she had met up gone to the lab and relook everything over before saving everything and starting the process of building the weapons and trinkets for the Avengers. She would have to wait to get to New York for her make the costumes because she had to redo her measurements to make sure they hadn't changed. After spending about an and a half in the lab she had left to head to the meeting.

She had found all five of the other staff members ready when they got there all waiting for her to arrive and sit down.

Directly to her right was Rhodey who hadn't changed from his outfit this morning; a dark blue button up, black trousers, black tennis shoes, and a black leather watch with a silver outline and black face. His only jewelry was his silver wedding ring. His hair was in the same buzz cut as it had been for most of the time she had known him.

His wife Lauren was next to him. She was gorgeous as always, with her long blonde hair pulled back in half up style while the rest of it was left in waves. Her curvy body was dressed in a lacey bubblegum pink top, faded blue jeans, and white heels. Her only jewelry was her silver wedding band and silver engagement ring that had a single diamond at the top of it. The ring had been Rhodey's mother's. Her makeup was some silvery white eye shadow that nicely brought out her brown eyes and pink lips, the same color as her shirt.

To Toni's left was Taylor Elise Bond, the her closest girlfriend besides Pepper, Siff, and her, the one that shall not be named for fear of breaking down in tears, and she couldn't do that now. Tay was just as pretty as Lauren, with stick straight, long, light brown hair that fell the her waist and stunning hazel eyes. Today her hair was pulled in a complicated side braid that fell over her right shoulder. Her body was dressed in a long sleeve light blue crop top that had a fabric band that wrapped around her back, a black skater skirt with a small leather belt, and light blue heels. The only jewelry she had were a pair of diamond studded earrings. Her makeup was a sparkly light pink and her lips were a natural pink color.

Mickey sat to Taylor's left. Her black curls were left loose to tumble over her shoulders. She was dressed in tight red corset blouse, a knee length black pencil skirt, and black stilettoes. She wore minimum eye makeup that brought out her deep green eyes and bright red lipstick that made her look dangerous and sexy at the same time.

Tim was directly across from her seat. Today he was dressed in a long blue sleeve shirt while the rest of it was white, light grey jeans, and a navy blue tennis shoes. He had the watch she had given him for Christmas on his left wrist; it was silver with a navy blue face. A dark blue ball cap was over his tousled blonde hair. His brown eyes were focused on her, mainly her legs and other skin her shirt showed, and his classic smirked adorned his lips.

When she had sat down, she had started the meeting like always. They talked about normal stuff such as the kids progress with school, the weekends activities, the start of planning for the Fourth Of July party since Rhodey and Toni insisted on even though they weren't in the States, and other mundane stuff. Then Mickey had opened her mouth asked 'Why the hell did that one eyed, sorry excuse of a director for the worst agency on the planet had dropped by yesterday?' and Toni had had no excuse but to answer and had told them about Loki's return and her and Rhodey's agreement to return to fight.

This brought them their current issue. When Toni had finished, the other girls and Rhodey had stayed quiet while Tim had a freaking conniption fit. He was strongly against her returning which is exactly what she knew would happen and dreaded thinking of.

As previously mentioned, she had known Tim officially for about five or six years. They had actually met years earlier, considering he was on the Council of the Nine Realm as the representative for Midguard, a job he had been chosen for when he was still mortal in medieval England, about 1250 AD. He had the gift of knowledge, far more advanced than Piper. He just automatically knew everything, and Toni meant everything. That knowledge had been what intrigued her about him. They had started talking at the reception and had immediately hit it off. Three weeks later, he showed up and asked if it was ok he stayed. The kids loved him because of how charismatic and all. He taught history and literature to all the kids, spending most days telling kids about different worlds that he travelled to in the eight centuries he had lived through.

It hadn't taken Toni long to realize he was in love with her, or close to it. She had taken him aside and had explained her stance on relationships and history of failure at romance. He had sworn he would be different and when she still refused he decided he would do whatever he could do to sweep her off her feet.

Her issues with love were not the only reason she turned the blonde down.

He was the representative of Earth on the council. If they broke up, their business relationship would suffer and she couldn't let that happen.

They just might suffer anyway.

"Look, as I told the kids, this sucks ass. I hate that we have to do this now, but we have no choice. Loki needs to be stopped and I am going to be the one to do this and finish the mess that started seventeen years ago. If that means working with the Avengers, it's a price I'll have to pay. I need closure."

Mickey smiled before shrugging her shoulders. "I'm fine with this. As you said, you and Rhodes need closure. You two had your lives destroyed and had to rebuild everything. I mean, yeah, you still have contact with Happy and Pepper, and those two others you talk about, Enrique and Mr. Cross?" when they nodded that she was correct. "but besides that, you two lost everything and everyone you ever knew. I mean, Toni, you were engaged to freaking Captain America and had been in a relationship for about two years with him, nice taste by the way, he's gorgeous. If this is what you two need, go for it."

Taylor nodded. "I'm good to. You two need this and it'll make a lot of people feel safer if Loki's dead and you need to be the one to kill him Toni. This is what you need."

Lauren agreed as well. "You need this, both of you do. You need to deal with this past and this is the only way you are going to be able to. This is your chance to say goodbye if you need it." Rhodey smiled at his wife and kissed her cheek making her blush.

"You are ok with this?" Tim yelled at them, looking as if they were crazy.

They all nodded, causing him to make a weird noise in anger and leave.

They all stared after him as he left, Mickey in annoyance since she had always had a problem with him. Taylor and Lauren just stared at him bored at his childish behavior. Rhodey just rolled his eyes.

Toni just stared at the door in contemplation as one question ran through her mind.

What would happen now?

Here's Chapter 3. I have no idea when I will update again. I'm getting ready for a trip this week and my birthday is next week. But, two in a row is better than nothing.

I'll see you all as soon as I can. The outfits are up on Polyvore. I have the link on my profile, but if you can't find it, I'm under the same user name.

LUV U ALL!

mitkit99