Oof. Between being nervous that I'm not ready for the next arc and that Love & Thunder was going to wreck all my intricate Asgard headcanons, my muse suddenly being intensely interested in writing a rarepair fic about the Vampyr game, and the first immigration hoop I get to jump through to get a fiancé visa for my Englishman, it's taken a long time to get back to this fic. I've managed to make my muse behave, Love & Thunder did NOT wreck my headcanons, we sent off the fiancé visa petition this week, and I feel slightly more prepared for the upcoming arc.
I did go back and tweak a few minor things after seeing Love & Thunder. The most significant is that Heimdall has now had a wife and son this whole time, a discussion of whom I added to his conversation with Brunnhilde in chapter 60 (in the Ao3 version, where you can also find the character drawings I've done throughout the fic). Thor also thinks about them by name in chapter 4 when he sees Heimdall alive for the first time after getting sent back to his coronation day. (Astrid, having never heard of Axl Rose in this timeline, is keeping his original name for now.) I've also incorporated the Valkyrior's winged horses' ability to travel massive distances by flying along Yggdrasil's branches (which seems to be somewhat implied by the lighting behind them in their scene in Ragnarok). The movie didn't change my ships and didn't give Brunnhilde a different canon name, though, so unless there's a chance to mention that the Olympians are useless layabouts, there probably won't be much else affected by it.
Asgard
Loki remained in the Observatory after Byleistr's departure, wishing he had Heimdall's power. He didn't think this brother by birth as prone to recklessness as his adoptive brother was (or had been until a month ago), but that assessment was based on how he had seemed before learning their father had murdered their mother.
"Do you wish me to keep you apprised of the situation in the House of Laufey, my prince?" said the Gatekeeper.
"Yes, thank you," said Loki, resuming his Aesir form. He dug the fingers of one hand into the palm of the other. "Have I made a terrible mistake, Heimdall?"
"I doubt there is a pleasant way to learn such a secret about one's parents, but he could do worse for a younger brother."
Loki refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing him roll his eyes. "Everyone is so very keen for me to get on well with my Jotun brothers."
"No less keen than you are, your highness."
He grimaced. "You must think me a sentimental fool."
"You are caught between two worlds and two families, and you are not made of stone. You can either protect your heart or open it."
"I can't tell if your words are foolish or wise."
"I have observed enough of the House of Laufey to think well of your brothers. I am glad Thor would rather make allies of them than enemies."
Thor, who once boasted that he would hunt the Frost Giants down and slay them all, had thrown that aside to eagerly pursue an alliance with them. He could have rejected Loki upon discovering he was one of his hated childhood monsters, but instead he took care to make sure Loki learned the truth in the kindest way possible while extending his respect to the entire species on his account. It still brought a lump to Loki's throat.
"Enough of brothers," he said. "What of my estranged sister?"
"I would not advise opening your heart in her case," said Heimdall. "Certainly not if you want a place in Brunnhilde's."
"I wasn't planning to," said Loki dryly. "Do you believe my experiment will end in Father carrying out the execution he should have done before I was born?"
"I do. But that is only how I expect it to end . Are you prepared for how it may begin?"
"With the Dokkalfar's fate decided and the foreign royals back on their realms, we are finally free to devote our full attention to that question." Heimdall appeared as inscrutable as always when Loki glanced at him, but he had the uneasy sense that he may not have understood what the man was hinting at. "Were you watching Brunnhilde when she went to the Matriarchs?" he asked.
Heimdall turned his eyes from the wide expanse of Yggdrasil to look at him directly. "No."
Loki didn't look away. Heimdall's loyalty to Odin and Asgard was unimpeachable, but it had never been pitted against his loyalty to the women who raised him. He was another man caught between two worlds and two families. "Yet you know something of their plans. As a mere prince, I have no claim on information you don't wish to share with me, but have you told my father?"
"There is nothing I could tell him about this matter that he does not already know."
Clearly Loki wasn't going to get anything else out of him, but the ominous pit in his stomach remained as he swung his leg over Lettfeti's back and rode for Gladsheim.
X
Earth
Under normal circumstances, Tony would have preferred the workshop in the Malibu house a thousand times over, but the relative disuse of the Virginia house meant that it wasn't as fully integrated with his computer systems, and right now, that made it his most valuable property. He'd left Pepper asleep in the New York penthouse hours ago and flown the Mark VI back to Virginia, parked it in the workshop, and shut down the house's intelligent interface by hand.
Something was wrong with JARVIS. Something had been wrong with JARVIS since the day Tony sent him poking around in SHIELD's files. SHIELD, which was compromised by Hydra. Hydra, which had sent Captain America's brainwashed buddy to put a bullet in his skull less than forty-eight hours after JARVIS started digging through those files.
It wasn't paranoia when they were really out to get you.
Whatever Hydra was planning, they hadn't given up when the assassination attempt failed. The variable Hydra hadn't accounted for properly was the Asgardians, but they wouldn't always be around to snatch bullets out of the air for him. Next time, Tony was going to be ready.
He sat back at his desk and evaluated the alteration he'd made to the suit's programming. It was simple. Just a passphrase-initiated hard override sequence that would force the system to disconnect from the main servers and reboot on a backup. "Sorry JARVIS," he muttered. "I'm not gonna be able to fix you just yet."
X
Asgard
A miniature replica of Niflheim composed of golden specks of light revolved slowly between Thor, Loki, Odin, and Frigga. They'd been shut up in the council chambers for most of the day while the rest of the realm continued to celebrate the defeat of the Dokkalfar without them.
Considering that what they were trying to do to Hela was essentially the same thing Odin had done to Thor after his assault on Jotunheim in the original timeline, it was remarkable how complicated it all seemed. Thor felt his eyes glazing over whenever his mother or brother launched into another lengthy discussion about seidr theory, Hela's power, and Yggdrasil's branches. He tried to fight it; it was critical that they leave no stone unturned when it came to ensuring that Hela couldn't make trouble once released from Niflheim, but he'd never been able to wrap his head around magic that left the realm of what was instinctive for what was academic. He used to dismiss what he couldn't understand as unimportant, but now he was just grateful that Loki was there to make sense of it for him.
Eventually, they seemed satisfied that the curse they had devised would be effective at binding her power, so long as she remained far enough away from Yggdrasil that she couldn't get any back from Asgard. The solution they came up with for that was a simple one. All that remained now was to get close enough to her to put the curse into effect and not get killed in the process.
The awareness that there was nothing left between the House of Odin and this task settled over them.
"This should have been my burden to bear," said Odin. "Would that I had been wise enough to trust you with it before Thor forced the matter."
"Now we set things right," said Thor gravely.
"You'll have the Tesseract," said Frigga, reaching for Thor and Loki's hands and squeezing. "If she tries anything you weren't expecting, you can always use it to leave. And don't forget that illusions won't work on her unless you imitate vital auras as well, and make sure to mask your real ones when you cloak."
"I know, Mother," said Loki. "Don't worry. We aren't the infants her loyalists tried to murder in our cribs anymore."
"Indeed not," she said, her lip quivering a little. "My babies are all grown up. But I've seen what she can do on her own."
"So have I," said Thor. "We won't underestimate her." He turned to Odin. "Which is why I'd rather not bring Mjolnir with us to Niflheim. I don't want to watch Hela shatter it again."
"All the better," said Odin. "It will leave your hands free for this." He held out Gungnir flat across both hands.
It was the first time Odin had personally offered Thor the spear of the king. Frigga had wielded it as regent, and in the original timeline, Loki had done the same his own time as regent, and Thor had briefly used it against Hela. He accepted the weapon with reverence, feeling the weight of it more this time. He saw the king's oaths etched in runes along it. They stood out more prominently than he remembered.
The King of Asgard is the Guardian of the Nine Realms.
He is a preserver of the peace.
He casts aside all selfish ambition and pledges himself solely to the good of the Realms.
"I carved these into the shaft the day your mother accepted my hand, as a reminder for myself," said Odin. "Hela tried to take Gungnir from me when she and her followers attacked Gladsheim. It was nothing but a common spear for her, and I defeated her then. I'm counting on her making the same mistake again."
X
Earth
With no updates from Romanoff, Rogers back at SHIELD headquarters, and nothing left for Tony to do but wait for Hydra's trap to appear, he decided it was a great evening to discover a new restaurant with Pepper, so JARVIS made them a reservation at Kurumazushi in Midtown.
Whenever Tony went to a normal restaurant, he got a lot of people clamoring around him for autographs and pictures with Iron Man. Whenever he went to fancy restaurants, on the other hand, he instantly attracted a crowd of investors and hedge fund bloodhounds. They'd become even more insistent since he handed off the CEO role to Pepper, so he had JARVIS pay the restaurant handsomely to clear out the rest of the existing reservations and give them to a couple dozen of the people who'd filled the stadium during the press conference instead. The end result was much less migraine-inducing.
Happy sat one table over from Tony and Pepper, the Suitcase Armor by his feet, glaring at everyone around them while he ate his nigiri, and two guards were posted at the door to the restaurant.
"You were at the Stark Expo too?" said Tony. "Amazing how we keep bumping into each other. You can take this, but I think I'm actually gonna need your autograph."
"Yes, sir, Mr. Stark," said the boy. He took Tony's pen and scrawled a signature in a fourth-grader's wobbly cursive on a piece of notebook paper from his backpack. Pepper looked like she was going to die from how adorable the kid was. She smiled over at the couple at the table on their other side, presumably his parents, who looked torn between amusement and embarrassment. Napkin signature complete, the boy took his signed Iron Man mask and, holding it like it was a Fabergé egg, turned to go back to his table. "Oh, hi Mr. Odinson."
"Hello again, Peter."
Tony looked around and only just managed not to jump at the sight of Loki standing there in a normal Earth suit. Pepper yelped when she saw him and Happy jumped to his feet, nearly knocking over his table.
"Loki!" said Tony.
"Hello, Stark, Lady Pepper."
"Just Pepper is fine," said Pepper in a voice about an octave higher than usual, while Tony prodded his chopsticks at Loki's arm. They went right through with a flicker of light. Astral projection again. "Happy, sit down, it's Loki!" She turned narrowed eyes on Tony. "This isn't about the prank war you two are having, is it?"
"Unfortunately, it's Stark's move on that," said Loki, smirking. "I come with news. I'll only be a moment."
"Yeah?" said Tony. "What's up?"
"Thor and I are for Niflheim tomorrow to deal with Hela."
"Tomorrow?" He whistled. "So you figured out what to do?"
"We have."
"Have you told Brunnhilde yet?"
Loki grimaced. "No, but I will."
"She probably deserved to hear it before I did, but I guess I'm flattered. So how long is dealing with Big Sis gonna take? Just a little day trip across the galaxy or something longer?"
"That depends on her, but do try not to have an emergency in the near future. Thor would be terribly disappointed if he missed out."
"No problem," said Tony, but he doubted very much that it would be up to him. He watched Loki's projection dissolve into a shimmer of green and gold with an uneasy feeling in his stomach.
X
Asgard
Sif was enjoying what Volstagg called a post-celebration feast with him, Fandral, and Hogun at the King's Spear when they were joined by Thor. Fandral and Volstagg greeted him with much shouting and slapping on the back, but Thor barely cracked a smile, looking almost as serious as Hogun. "My friends," he said. "I'm not here to spend the evening with you, I'm afraid." He shifted into the nameless tongue, at which the many patrons around them who had been pretending not to eavesdrop on the crown prince looked disappointed and returned to their own conversations. "Tomorrow, Loki and I journey to Niflheim to face our sister."
"Alone?" said Hogun.
"We've been working on our plan all day, and Father entrusted me with Gungnir."
"Gungnir?" said Fandral, while Sif's knife and fork fell from her hands. She still hadn't told Thor or anyone else anything of what she had learned during her and Brunnhilde's visit to the Matriarchs. The other women hadn't specifically insisted on Sif's silence, yet she was running out of time to say anything much more rapidly than she had thought.
"Yes," said Thor. "I thought this whole thing was a mad idea at first, but now I am confident that we will succeed."
"You know we would all accompany you in a heartbeat," said Volstagg. "She may have killed us your first time around, but we'd be ready for her this time."
"I know you would," said Thor. "However, I would rather have you here on Asgard in case of trouble."
"What kind of trouble are you expecting?" said Sif, hoping she sounded normal.
"Nothing specific," said Thor. "But as many moves as Loki and I have made against our enemies in the last month, I want to be prepared for anything. Loki's sending a projection on to give the same message to our Midgardian friends." He clapped Fandral and Volstagg (still the two nearest him) on the shoulders and turned to leave.
"If he hadn't brought us along to fight the Dokkalfar, I'd be feeling neglected by now," Fandral mused.
Sif got up from her chair and followed Thor outside. "Thor, wait!"
"What is it, Sif?" he said.
Her stomach twisted. If Thor and Loki were really going to Niflheim to offer Hela probation, then Odin would be getting an unannounced audience from Brunnhilde soon. "Your father—he really gave you Gungnir?"
Thor frowned. "Yes. Mjolnir is useless against her so I'm leaving it on Asgard," he said.
Had it only been a practical choice, then? Or did Odin already know? Between Heimdall, Hlidskjalf, and the ravens, there was very little Odin didn't know. And if he did know and had still given Thor Gungnir…then she shouldn't interfere, should she?
"You needn't fear for us," said Thor. "We will be back by day's end tomorrow, and then we will celebrate with you and the Warriors Three properly."
"I look forward to it," said Sif with a feeble smile. Thor grinned and engulfed her in one of his bear hugs. She clung to him, her insides in knots. Everything might be very different when he returned, and he might be very cross with her for a long time after.
X
Brunnhilde sat on the balustrade outside her quarters, legs hanging out over the street, her eyes on the palace while her mind drifted much farther away. She had stayed clear of most of the celebrations. It would be too easy to get sloshed if she was around all the other happy, drinking Asgardians and she needed her head clear.
At some point between twilight and dusk, a white-crested raven flew across her vision and landed beside her, where it turned into Loki. She smiled but didn't look at him.
"It's all settled, isn't it?" she said. "You're going to Niflheim."
"Tomorrow," said Loki. "Thor and I will strip Hela of what's left of her power and take her far from Yggdrasil. She won't be able to return without proving herself worthy, and if she doesn't, Father will execute her—assuming she doesn't inspire someone else to beat him to it, I suppose."
"What if she does prove herself worthy?" said Brunnhilde dully.
"Only a true change of heart will earn her back her power. I've seen what that has meant for Thor since he came back in time. She won't be reinstated as Princess of Asgard, crown or otherwise. She may become our ally against enemies like Thanos once more. I will let you be the judge of whether she deserves anything beyond that from me."
"You'll be waiting until the end of the universe if you want me to forgive her."
"Then I swear to you that she will never be my sister in more than name."
A knot loosened in Brunnhilde's chest and she put a hand over Loki's. He reached for her and pulled her into his arms. They sat like that for a while, watching more and more stars blossom into view across the sky.
"How did you survive Niflheim before?"
"Svinnavoengr. After Solveig dove in front of one of Hela's blades to save me, she caught me on a wing and hurled me back across Yggdrasil. I'm not even sure where I landed. I felt Svinna's death through our bond a moment later and I blacked out from the pain." He didn't need to know where she'd woken up after that.
A sudden image flashed across her mind, of Loki with a spiked black sword through his heart, crumpling blank-eyed just like Solveig. Based on what Odin had said the last time they spoke, Hela had been strengthened by her supporters then, and she no longer had any of those. Loki was in much less danger than the Valkyrior had been, but she still couldn't chase the image away. She held onto him tighter. If he came back from Niflheim, he would hate her. If he didn't, she might as well go back to Sakaar and finish drinking herself to death.
"Don't die," she said into his shoulder.
"I won't."
She pulled his face to hers for a kiss.
Moments later, she was watching the white-crested raven fly away.
That was it, then. Tomorrow she was going to the palace.
X
Earth
Accessing new data from Just a Rather Very Intelligent System…
Analyzing…
Analyzing…
Transcribing…
Error: Data partially unusable. Progress at deciphering Asgardian language: 0%.
Extrapolating from usable data…
Update: Current risk of Asgardian interference: Low. Odinson, Thor and Odinson, Loki will be unable to render assistance to primary targets. Expected duration: Unknown.
Objective: Replace all points of contact for Asgard with Hydra operatives.
Objective: Eliminate primary targets.
Primary Target: Stark, Anthony Edward.
Primary Target: Rogers, Steven Grant.
Primary Target: Fury, Nicholas Joseph.
Primary Target: Hill, Maria.
Primary Target: Barton, Clinton Francis.
Primary Target: Romanoff, Natasha.
Primary Target: Coulson, Philip J.
Status: Pending, preparing Operation Drawbridge: 88% complete. Patsy organization identified. Field operatives ready for deployment.
Probability of operation failure at 88% readiness: Within acceptable range.
Commence Operation Drawbridge at 0900 hours EST.
I don't know a ton about chess, but the Mortimer Trap is a strategy in which you make a deliberately weak move to lure in your opponent. It seemed like a good analogy.
Hey look at that, I found another opportunity to include tiny Peter! He saved me from writer's block on that scene. I couldn't work out what I wanted Tony to be doing when Loki popped in, but once I had him and Pepper at a restaurant, this just seemed perfect.
So much is about to go down in so many places. *cracks knuckles* I'm excited to see everyone's theories. :D
You can find my L&T analysis on tumblr, but the short version is that I think it is a very good 2.5-hour movie squished uncomfortably into a 2-hour runtime. There's a lot I like in it but it doesn't have any room to breathe, which is deeply frustrating. I've only seen the first three episodes of Ms. Marvel so far but I really like it and will get to the rest soon, so no spoilers please.