The city spread out beneath her like captured, fallen stars. Leaning against the concrete ledges, she watched the rushing of the headlights on the street and absorbed the sounds that told het human life was abundant in this area. Murmuring voices and screeching metal and the scent of stone marked them as different from Asgard and she was sorry to leave them. Three weeks that she had been there, almost a month, and she could call Earth more of a home than Asgard had ever been.

Footsteps paused behind her and she turned her head only a little to identify Tony's outline before she turned her attention back to the city below. "I've never been very good at waiting, you know, and I hate to be left behind," he said conversationally, walking closer. "I understand your reasons, but Thor has pulled our collective asses out of the fire plenty of times. Any of us would have been willing to join you and you elected to take none of us with you."

Blunt and straight to the point that had been a festering wound the entire day. It had been a long, hard fought argument that morning in which harsh words were traded and even harsher realities rubbed in each respective individual's face. Old scars had throbbed to life and nurtured resentment until the decision had been snarled out and most of the Avengers had departed for their different, favored area of the tower. Tactics, after that, had been a subdued topic that Loki and Thor had mostly outlined after having drawn from Hogun and Fandral what they knew of the Vanir's various positions.

Sigyn glanced idly at the scientist and noted the bottle that he carried in one hand. Sighing, she again recounted her reasons for leaving each of them behind, "Dr. Banner is a walking green rage monster as liable to turn on me as our enemies and blind strength isn't something we need for a rescue. Clint is still skittish of my husband and I don't trust Natasha to not try and exact revenge against Loki for what was done. Captain Rogers would be…ideal…for our situation, but he is your leader. And you? Tony. You are the most human and most vulnerable of this little group without your metal armor. I'm not even certain how Asgard's magic would respond to your Arc Reactor and that could leave you dead." She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I am worried about Amora, as well," she admitted. "If we take any of you, then how well would those left rally against her should the worst happen?" She chuckled and pulled lightly at her hair while studying the stars overhead. "And now I'm just preaching at you. This isn't the reason I asked Jarvis to relay that message."

He was silent for a moment and then she heard him close the distance between them. When he came into her peripheral, he set the bottle down on the ledge and leaned against the edge with her. "Fine whiskey, this one. I thought you might like to try some vintage Earth alcohol before you vanish forever," he said.

It was as close to a peace offering as she had ever seen him come, but it was alcohol and she knew better than to imbibe any type of spirits before traveling across realms with Loki. Still…her fingers traced the neck of the bottle as she read the label. "Perhaps another time," she agreed. "I do, after all, plan on returning. That's why I needed to speak with you."

Tony looked at her sidelong. "Well, then I'll keep the bottle in reserve. Just in case," he said.

Her grip tightened briefly on the glass neck before she released it. "Thank you," she said and then turned her head to study him. She realized she had been silent for more than a minute when he frowned at her. She sighed and then said, "Right, no point in walking the fringes around it. I intend to bring my son to Earth when everything is said and done. I don't care who rules Asgard, Thor or not. Fenrir is going to be too sorely tempting a prize to ignore for any length of time and that means when I bring him here, I am going to want a safe place for him, somewhere far from the cradle of civilization where I can weave certain spells for him. He wouldn't be a captive there, but it would be someplace where he could hide or call home if he wanted to. It…" her eyes lost focus for a moment as she thought about the different variables. "It would be a place I would, eventually, like to bring each of my children to. Will you find this place for me, Tony? In return, I would give you what knowledge that I have of magic and assist in your various projects that will evolve from that knowledge."

"Why not find it yourself? Why ask for help?" Tony asked and she could see the way he tensed. It was like...he expected there to be an ulterior motive.

She was quiet for a long moment. How best to settle his mind that she wasn't about to turn her magic against everything and everyone he had ever loved? "It's been near a thousand years since last I was here. Then, you were not quite so numerous or so ingenious with your methods of death. I could have turned in all directions and found what I needed now, but time is not something that casters like messing with. I don't know your world today and I've no time to study the land. I have only faith in a few inside this planet and you are the one I would ask for this."

He turned his back to the city and studied Sigyn's tense profile. An idea that he had been toying with for a while finally unfolded itself in his mind. "We're not always going to have Thor, you realize, and what it sounds like to me is that you're planning on displacing the current ruler so Asgard can have a better monarch very soon. So, that means the Avengers are going to lose one of their…founding members."

The light from the city below was reflected in the whites of her eyes when she looked at him sidelong. That was...not an unanticipated request, but still one that had caught her off guard. If it was to be in addition to what she had already offered, then Tony thought very highly of himself and his planet. "You would have me…defend…the Earth as well as share my knowledge with you? You desire for me to take Thor's place?"

"When you put it like that, no. That's not what I want. Asgard doesn't want you and, judging by how Loki left you with us, he doesn't trust the other realms enough to even contemplate leaving you there, however temporary. Hell, you even want to bring your son here, so that tells me you plan on sticking around for a while," Tony pointed out and Sigyn only hummed her agreement. "What I was suggesting was that you make Earth your home and help us to defend it, if or when threatened."

There was a long silence between them. "And Loki? If he decided to try another invasion?" she asked. Best they understood now that where she went, Loki was sure to turn up eventually with one of his mad schemes.

Tony shrugged, not quite meeting her gaze. "We'd fight him to the end, just like last time…and you. We'd fight you, him, and his allies to the bitter end, but I'm hoping that he keeps his word and remains neutral," he said. "Until then, we'd welcome you as a friend and comrade."

She was quiet for a long time after that and Tony was content to let her think. It was, at best, an unholy alliance born from a thwarted invasion and paid for with the blood of ten-thousand human lives lost in that same attack. At worst, he'd just ensured Earth's fate would fall into the hands of two very powerful magic users who had no particular attachment to the planet. Looking at her, though, and knowing what he did about her, Tony found himself strangely unafraid of any future that might involve her as one of humanity's rulers.

"There would be conditions," she said slowly. "And promises that would need backing." To have a home, a real home in one of the realms, where its people were not actively seeking to end the lives of herself, her husband, and her children was a powerful thing to consider.

He smiled, really smiled, and repressed the whoop that was building in his throat. "We can negotiate when you aren't pressed for time. You can get back to me or SHIELD when you figure out what exactly you want in exchange for helping the Avengers, or Earth in general," he said and she smiled wryly.

"SHIELD being the organization that wanted to imprison and torture me when I first awoke? Yeah. No. I'll let you handle the negotiations and dealing with them," she said. Then, she hesitated and asked, "What of request I made? Does that factor in or is it separate?"

"If, say, I stumbled across an island or two and purchased them, no one would question my eccentricities and, likely, they would assume I was drunk at the time of purchase. Say I go one step further and gifted them to an associate, no one would blink twice. So, no, don't worry about it. After yesterday, I think buying you some land would more than cover that score between us," Tony answered, making his decision on the spot. She had, after all, gone so far above and beyond anything he had hoped she would do.

"The…score…is a debt that exists between us, yes? If that is the case, then I owe you more than that," she argued.

"Ah, no," Tony shot back. "Taking you in was justified by the modification that I was able to equip Jarvis with and then you went one step further and saved my life from Amora's demented spell. Oh, and let's not count the time you pulled that spell out of Bruce, how many times you've looked for poison for us, and you talked your husband down from attacking Clint."

"But-"

"No," Tony said flatly. "There is no debt, no negotiating of terms for this. I'll get you your land and that's that. Anything beyond that is selfish. I don't want your knowledge and assistance with any projects unless it's an exchange of ideas between…friends. Between friends. Science could benefit a lot from what you're willing to share, but it's not something I will coerce you into."

"You've only known me for three weeks, Tony," Sigyn pointed out.

"And I've only known most of the Avengers for a few months, but I'd call each of them a friend. It took me less than three days to start trusting Rhodey. I knew Happy for two hours before I offered him a job as my bodyguard. And Pepper? Don't even get me started on her," he chuckled, looking fond. "What about you?"

Sigyn smiled and turned her gaze fully on him. "The only true friends I have ever found were the Warriors Three and Sif. Thor is my brother, blood or no, and Loki is my husband. Of the mortals that I have met, you and Steve Rogers are the closest I have ever come to calling friend. If Clint could set aside his history with Loki, then I might be willing to call him and Natasha friends. With Bruce…" and here she frowned as memory tugged at her "…as long as he doesn't go green and start screaming 'Smash' with me or one I care for as his objective, I think I could work with him…as a friend and fellow researcher."

"There you go. Work with us as a friend on this sort of thing, not as part of an agreement. Withhold the information you think might lead to something that could hurt your husband or children and share what might be beneficial to all parties involved," Tony said. "Let me take care of your request and consider that an end to all debts."

"You are a strange human, Tony Stark, one of the strangest mortals I have ever met," she chuckled. "But, yes. I think I will accept your…offer…and return as a friend rather than as one that owes a debt. This shall be…a most interesting development."

In Fandral's opinion, Loki appeared to be far too smug for the situation at hand. Sure, he was still wounded and not quite fighting ready, but that didn't mean that the sorcerer had any right to look so amused by his discomfort. Really, though, Sigyn-or really any other healer-was preferable to Loki, because they were trained in how best to alleviate the pain of their patient. After all, he had always considered Loki to have a slightly sadistic streak.

Finally cornered and out of reasons as to why he was avoiding a last healing and check-up from either Loki or Sigyn, Fandral had his back pressed to the wall and was glaring at Loki's falsely assumed "bedside manner." Loki wasn't a healer and there had never been any subtlety to that fact in his healing spells and the way that power simply ripped through their bodies, forcing skin to knit back together and bone to reconnect.

The spell had left him gasping, twitching, and crouched. It wasn't an altogether pleasant image that he would have presented to the female species when trying to impress them. He was, at the least, alive-which was more than some of Loki's targets could say. Patting Fandral's cheek, Loki leaned close and whispered, "The next time that you decide to look at my wife, there will no warning. You will simply find your skin turned inside out."

Fandral found himself revising his opinion of Loki's personality. Then, he revised his opinion of what was acceptable to flirt with. Slightly sadistic, aloof, and possessive mixed with an angry, powerful sorcerer were not healthy for his survival.

From his place within the mountains of Asgard, Heimdall wiped his blade clean of the wolf's blood, glancing about at the warriors that had accompanied him on the ambush. It didn't escape his notice that of the thirty odd warriors he had taken, only the youngest and least inundated of their culture's values had survived. The older warriors had charged, bellowing and waving their weapons like charging boars. That had lasted exactly a minute before they were fileted with arrows or ripped apart by teeth and claws. Useful as a distraction and a means of drawing attention to a certain target, but the ambush had been won with the hit-and-run tactics Heimdall had Seen the humans use time and again.

Watching the younger warriors help each other tend to their wounds and clean blood from their faces, he wondered if Asgard had not been stagnant long enough. Perhaps it was time for a change in the Warrior's Code.

His hands, Sif noted, were surprisingly gentle in their direction as he checked over her for the third time since the healing trances had lifted. Sigyn had been the one that she had first woken to see, curled in a chair and a book held in one hand even as her eyes didn't move with the words. That, she wasn't proud to admit, had been a reunion that involved her flopping out of the bed to try and hug the sorceress that had been…missing…for near two-hundred years and there had…maybe…even been a few tears. Then, Sigyn had been business-like in her examination and since declaring her free of concussion or poison, Loki had been the one to see to her.

Looking at him now, feeling his fingers probe for breaks along her arms, it was hard to not remember that he was a Jotuun who had nearly brought three realms to their knees. She wasn't sure she was comfortable with his hands on her in any form or fashion, old comrade or no. Her gaze darted to Hogun again, who had not moved from his place by the window.

"Why is it that you play the role of healer, right now? On the night before we return to Asgard?" she asked. "Why not Sigyn? I remember that you hate healing magic beyond its basic function."

He regarded her coolly and she remembered, too late, just how long Sigyn had been missing. If Hogun's words were to be trusted-and she usually did trust him-then Sigyn had been in the Void and that wasn't exactly a place that was conducive to replenishing magic or strength of any sort. She would have been stranded in the empty space between realms. Any magic she had would, undoubtedly, be saved for the rescue they were embarking on in the morning.

"She will, at a later date, resume her duties as healer, but not tonight," he said and his tone suggested an end to the particular thread of conversation. Sif asked nothing else and he offered nothing further. When he was done, he broke the spells that had been cast over her and said, "A full night's rest should see you fully healed." Then, he left and Sif stared after him, feeling slightly bereft and not quite understanding why.

It was always the night before that found her restless, the unrelenting waiting that drove her mad. The last few hours before plans were put into action left her pacing and Loki amused at her frustration. He had always been the one to pull her back from the adrenaline and coax her to sleep for a while before everything. In the then and now, with his talk of a new spell and its different components and functions, she could almost believe that they had never left their previous home.

Thank you to my reviewers: chipfairy, wbss21, Flavio S, Maia2, and no-MY name's Anonymous.