These Things We've Gained: Eternal Love, Building Hope, Just Honesty

by Tales of Suspense

In the aftermath of "These Things We've Lost" people strugggle to create a new normal. (Slice of Life)

12. Chapter 12

(Author's Note: To those who have read this far, I thank you. I have a small announcement to make. I'm posting this chapter on 1 August 2023 instead of on 24 August 2023 because of a death in the family. I hope to be able to resume posting on my normal schedule on 24 September 2023. Thank you for your patience.)

- Chapter 12 -

Outside The Bounds Of Time

Vanaheim Royal Palace Guest Chambers

Checking the last crate was as fast as all of the other crates that Anthony had checked. All the parts were checked by James, and he verified all of them. All the parts were there, they were all checked and checked again. He put the lid on the crate and moved it into the stack of crates. "The sub-relays are accounted for, and the sheets of lining are ready to move. Are you sure we can really do this?" He looked over to Lady Sjofn as the tall woman stood by his taller older brother. She stood awaiting her orders where most women who got that close to James would be trying to drape themselves on his arm. The normal women were always shunted off to someone else, but Lady Sjofn wasn't, and Anthony was still trying to understand why. It wasn't because the Lady was extraordinarily beautiful. Lady Sjofn had an average looking face with average features, average looking long fire engine red braids, average looking dusky brown skin. What pulled it all together to elevate her above average was her stunning eyes that were a bright metallic yellow that were ringed in fuchsia sjel-seidr. They were the exact right shade to compliment her clear dusky skin as well as complimenting her pretty red hair. Her eyes made her seem dainty and feminine when she was muscled like a body builder. She was a beautiful example of what a dvergar was. Anthony didn't understand why the dvergar were also called dwarves when the dvergar were tall and thickly muscled. On a visual sliding scale, they were closer to 'brick shit house' than 'plump midget'. Is she actually here to help us? No one is ever here to help us. They always want something. What does she want?

Lady Sjofn noticed the firehawk noticing her. He wasn't lusting after her. If anything, he seemed almost confused by her presence. He'd been confused by her presence since he first noticed her. She wasn't going to correct a firehawk, but she was going to bring it up with James when they had a moment alone. Staring was a rude gesture in polite society that might get the person staring challenged to a duel. In the kingdom of beasts, it was an aggressive gesture that might get the one being stared at eaten. Rude or bestial, she needed to know which it was.

23May2023 – Afternoon

The Malibu California Mansion Of Anthony Edward Stark

The booklet explaining the metal and enchantment on it adhered to the wall piece that he was working on. "That is the last of the metal with the Blank Wall Enchantment on it," James motioned to the sliding section of wall that he'd just taken off the stationary wall in front of the elevator to the drone armory, "Let me put this out front with the rest of it, then we can get down to the drone armory." James took out the short section of wall, carried it with his unfolded seidr. He walked from the middle of the long hallway that went from the workshop out to the landing pad for Anthony's armors outside. From the hallway and into the workshop then out into the main hallway where the entrance to the hidden rooms and medical lab were. He carried it out to the front to find several large trucks pulling up to the front of the mansion. Quickly, James deposited the scrap wall with the rest of the boxes and scrap and stowed his seidr back into his core.

As the trucks rolled to a stop next to the seven guardians James focused his soul song of stillness through himself and smiled at the men cautiously getting out of the trucks. One of the men got out of one of several black SUVs that rolled up behind the trucks. He recognized the man as an agent of SHIELD by the professional suit and tie, communications earpiece, and the obvious gun under his suit jacket. The bushy mustache was unusual against the agent's dark skin, but impressive. The agent straightened his jacket and walked over, pulling out his badge as he did so.

The agent approached the man they weren't expecting. Something was odd about this man. There was a sense of calm so powerful about him that Agent Reeves suspected that he was a meta-human of some kind. "Sir, my name is Agent Reeves of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," he held up his badge so that the man could examine it, "this area is now subject to an official SHIELD operation and is no longer safe for civilians. For your safety, I'm going to have to ask you…"

"Stand down, Agent Reeves." Director Fury came quickly out of the front of the house and motioned to James. "This is the homeowner, Colonel Rhodes. He's making several very generous contributions to SHIELD, which I want packed up securely and taken back to L.A. for shipment to D.C. headquarters. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Agent Reeves looked back to the colonel, "Thank you, sir."

"Is there any way I can help this along, Agent Reeves?" James asked respectfully and unfolded his seidr to mount several Conjuration Spells as he waited for the answer.

"Staying clear of this area and keeping anyone else in the house clear of this area while we work would be very helpful, sir. This will be a dangerous area for a while. We don't want any accidents happening." The agent was surprised that this colonel was so willing to cooperate, but glad to see it anyway. Few people were so cooperative.

"Can do." James nodded to the agent, then snapped towards the front of the house, off to the side, some to release the Conjuration Spells. The spells created a table with buckets of ice with small Dearth of Heat Spells anchored to the buckets to keep the ice hard. In the buckets were bottles of water. Beside the buckets were bowls of fresh fruit with Dearth of Heat Spells similarly attached to the bowls to keep the fruit chilled. Farther away from the table a portable bathroom came into existence with a handwashing station next to it. Looking to the sky, then back to the agent, he smiled again. "It's warm out today, Agent Reeves. Make sure your men stay hydrated."

For an agent of SHIELD, Agent Reeves had seen some very strange things, was aware of even more strange things. He'd never heard of someone who could snap and create things. The Director seemed nonplussed by this, so the agent took it all in stride. "Thank you, sir. We appreciate that." He wasn't sure about the water and fruit, but the bathroom was greatly appreciated.

His agent was looking warily at what was being offered. He was well trained, but the suspicion wasn't needed in this instance. "It's all safe, Agent Reeves," he said then pointed to all the boxes and such and spoke, "All of that needs to be packed up." Director Fury got out his phone, pleased that it still worked, and sent the agent a text through the secure SHIELD app. "If you need me, reply to my text, and I'll come out. Don't leave until I dismiss you." He hoped that there might be more gifts to get and didn't want his agents to leave before they could be collected.

"Yes, sir." Agent Reeves turned and went back to the crew who were waiting for their orders. From the looks of it they had a lot of work to do.

"Good," looking back to James, the Director motioned to the house, "We're good here."

"Let's get back to it then." James lead the way back down to the group who were waiting in the hallway off of the workshop. Another smile touched his face when he saw Jay waving at him as he returned.

"Afi Frey and Afi Odin were telling me that you let Director Fury have my process for creating mannequins. I was thinking, do we give him my lab too," looking down for a moment, Jay flushed, "or do we scrap it?"

"I'd like to be rid of the lab, but if you want to keep the mundane tools you made to work in the lab, I wouldn't be opposed to that. It's your first toolset after all." James still had the first set of tools that he made for himself. They were outdated now, but still meant something to him. The hesitation in Jay's face was open for anyone to see. The tools were tainted in the boy's mind. "It's okay to keep those tools. You designed them. You crafted them. There will be opportunities to build better things with them. You don't need to leave those behind if you don't want to."

"Would you purify them with me, to make sure that they're clean when they go to our new home?" Jay didn't think that his tools were tainted by the coalesced machine solution, but he didn't want to take that chance.

"I will absolutely purify them with you. The rest can go to SHIELD."

"Good! I don't want to make any more mannequins. Father uses them to make scary things. Then he hurts himself with them. I'm tired of being responsible for hurting father." Jay looked down, a little dejected. "I keep hoping that mother and father will stop doing needlessly dangerous things, but I guess that's too much to ask for."

Odin thoroughly disliked the crushed little look on Jay's face. "That's not too much to ask," he spoke quickly and quietly, "Your Afi Frey, Amma, your uncle James, and I are going to do everything we can to make it so that you can spend time with your parents safely. They ought not be doing dangerous things if there's no good cause for them."

Resting against his grandfather, Jay smiled. "I would like that."

"Your Afi Odin is quite right, but can you tell us what other things Anthony has tested on himself?" Frey was surprised that he was still surprised. Anthony's mind was not well, and he knew that already. He had hoped that it was limited to the nimp though.

"I know he tested the non-lethal parts of the Gorgon Spell on himself. I suspect that he tests charms, enchantments, and things of the like on himself as well," James looked to Jay, "Is there anything else that he hid from me?"

"No, that's everything. Whenever he gets a new way to manipulate seidr, if it's non-lethal he tests it on himself, always when mother isn't here to stop him." The digital boy wanted one thing. "I just want to spend time with my family without them doing needlessly dangerous things. Other people do it, I've seen them. I must be doing something wrong. I can't keep it from happening."

Again, Odin spoke quickly and quietly to his grandson. "You aren't doing anything wrong."

"Does he think it's amusing in some way?" Frey worried more on Anthony's health then, wondering how much damage he was willing to do to himself.

"No, he doesn't enjoy it. He just want to be 'thorough'. That's why I made the mannequins, so that he would stop testing on himself, but he uses them to create weapons," Jay looked at his Afi Frey, still flushed, "I think I made a mistake in giving them to him. I don't know what else he'll make with them. I'm sorry." The boy's gaze drifted down again.

"I've confiscated all of them from him. There are only fifteen, right?" James was going to have to come down harder on his younger brother than he first thought he was. Intentionally self-destructive behavior was grounds for more extreme interventions, like involuntary commitment to an appropriately secure psychiatric ward. Only because he didn't think he could get Anthony to stay put in a psychiatric ward did he always disregard that as a solution. Again, James wished that Anthony would behave better, like Arno and Morgan. Those two stayed put and cooperated when he had to commit them to a psychiatric facility.

"Fifteen complete models, and one finished crystalline nervous system in the growth vat with the brain unit on the side. The printer is sanitized and ready to be loaded with the synthetic flesh compound, and that never takes too long to make. It's almost ready to be made, I just didn't get around to it." Jay truly didn't really want to make anymore. They looked too much like his father for him to be comfortable with using. When he first used his father's DNA to make the mannequins he didn't put any thought to the fact that it would look like his creator. The more of them he made the more uncomfortable he became with using his father as a template. When he got his own body, just a few months ago, he destroyed the template from his father and planned to switch the DNA template to himself to begin growing another nervous system to use. It never ended up being used, and he was glad of that now.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?" James hadn't had a chance to sit down and discuss everything with Jay yet. The check-ins were going to take care of that. For now, he had to accept the information he was getting piecemeal.

More hesitation filtered into Jay's thoughts, slowing his answer. He opened his mouth to speak anyway, and hoped that his uncle was right, that his father wouldn't be angry with him. "Father has a new project. He works on it outside of the house at a different workshop. He was afraid that if he puts it in the ghost-drive, or in the library, or worked on it here, that you would track it down. He said that it's too important for him to be stopped. He asked me not to say anything because he," Jay almost looked away from his uncle in shame, "made it seem like you might hit him if you knew. I don't know what he's going to use the project for, but he told me that he's trying to create something that could sever larger quantities of white seidr than the Gáe Dearg function of the Gorgon Spell, to cut it out cleanly."

A tight and unfriendly smile found its way onto James' face. "Oh, really? Do you know where he's going to work on this?" watching his tone, since he was aware of his own displeasure, "I'm not angry with you. You're doing the right thing," he spoke quickly.

Impelling his seidr from his core Jay wrote it into a Wavering Visions Weave and a Learning Spell, which drew in his memories. He released both of the when he held up his little hand to show them a map of the United States, focusing in on Illinois. "I don't have the address; he takes precautions to not be followed. All I know is that it's near Tovey, Illinois. Cell phone signals disappear there. There are no cables, or wires, or communications equipment for me to get in through, so I can't tell anything else." At that point Jay hoped that his uncle wasn't angry with him, because he certainly looked to be getting angry. A frosty chill went through the area around them, and he shivered next to his Afi Odin.

James closed his eyes and took a deep breath to contain his own anger. Tovey, Illonois. Are you serious?! James knew what was past the entrance to that dark place. It was something he thought he destroyed twenty two years ago however. Another deep breath helped him to contain his anger. When he opened his eyes he saw that Jay was worried, so he cupped the side of the boy's face for a moment. "You did the right thing in telling me this. Do you know of any other places where he goes to that have no address?"

A second Learning Spell was written in Jay's impelled seidr which drew his memories into it. He released it to change the map he was holding up. Five other places in California, New Mexico, South Dakota, Louisiana, and Vermont appeared on the map as red dots. "He hasn't said why he goes to these places, but he's violently angry when he comes home. Do you want the coordinates?"

"No, I know where those places are. It seems I'll have to go back to them." James was looking at six points of relapse that Anthony was trying to hide from him. Now that he knew what Anthony was up to he was going to have to check all of them again. Hiding with Howard, are we? This is not the way back to the righteous path! Looking down, he took another moment to think about what needed to happen and came to an unhappy conclusion that a more permanent solution was going to be needed. It was fine in the only way he really cared about, the legal way. For legal purposes he had everything he needed. He had everything when he thought he destroyed them. They should have stayed destroyed. An unhappy sigh gusted out of his mouth carrying a whisper of irritation. "You leave me no choice, Anthony."

Unfolding his seidr, James mounted a Conjuration Spell and a Learning Spell which drew his unhappy memories into it. He released it to create a piece of paper with the coordinates and instructions on how to get to the seventeen places around the country where Anthony might be hiding things. He handed it over to Director Fury and made his request. "Give me four days to make sure your people aren't walking into any traps. I'll leave the entrances marked in red and I'll hand over the deeds for these places for free. You can have anything that's left. If SHIELD has them then Anthony won't go back to them."

Director Fury wanted to be happy as he looked over the list of coordinates in different states, but he got the feeling that he was just made the custodian of something unpleasant. "What's in these places?"

"Misery," another sigh gusted out of James, "They're Howard Stark's workshops that he placed in booby trapped bunkers. Most of the seventeen were made to hide his weapons designs, and to punish Anthony. This list is all of them that we've found so far. I'm giving it to you because seven of the seventeen had small nuclear weapons stashed in them. We disarmed them, but there was a nuclear weapon near San Franscico at one point. If we find any more of them then SHIELD will be involved." James didn't like this solution, but it was the only one left to him where he felt that Anthony would leave the bunkers alone once James had finished with them. If Anthony didn't, SHIELD would let him know.

"Howard Stark had nuclear weapons near major cities, and you didn't let us know?" That didn't seem very responsible to Director Fury. Howard had nuclear weapons aimed at us. Motherfucker! How did we not know about this?!

"Up until the past few years we didn't know SHIELD existed, and I prefer to handle things discreetly. The bombs were easy enough to disarm and disassemble. The nuclear material was appropriately disposed of. After we cleaned out the dangerous elements we firebombed the interiors to destroy the bombs' apparatus and then filled the entrances in with concrete to top it off." A darker look came over James' face. "He's normally better about telling me if he's going to a bunker. It seems I'm going to need to be more involved with what he's doing than I thought I would be."

The Director thought it was a fair point. Until a few years ago SHIELD only dealt with Stark Industries through middlemen. SHIELD wouldn't have been there for them to ask for help before a few years ago. "This is all of them," Director Fury gave the good colonel a stiff look, "There's no others?" He didn't want to be too hard on James since it was possible that there were still things he could get from this house, like Jay's lab, but if there were nuclear weapons involved he didn't feel unreasonable in taking a harder stance.

"Those are all the ones we've found so far."

"You think there are more?" How many bunkers did Howard have? Wait, bunkers! The Director could hear James' words yesterday in the files that were being played, as he asked Stark a series of concerning questions. James was angry when he asked, "Is anyone's life immediately in danger from what you did or are there casualties already? Is there a warrant out for your arrest? Do you know if any foreign government has filed extradition paperwork for you? Are there timed explosives involved? Are any of them nuclear? Have they gone off or do I have time? Are there any dangerous substances and/or the general public involved? Are there one or more bunkers in play?" Howard's bunkers had nuclear weapons in them, it was still a shocking thought.

A heavier sigh came from James before he answered. "Everyone we find, we hope is the last, but I suspect that they may be a bunker in the majority of states. There have been clues that point to other bunkers. I strongly suspect that there's one in Alaska, and maybe one in Texas. Unfortunately, we haven't found them."

"If you do find them please let us know before you go in, so that we can go in and disarm the nuclear weapon."

SHIELD wouldn't be able to get in the door of any of the bunkers without setting off the weaponry inside. None of them had even a single key to open the doors to any of the bunkers, let along the three to five that were needed. Only Anthony had the keys; his own memories, his body, and his blood. If James could keep his younger brother away from the bunkers permanently then he would, but only Anthony could get him into the bunkers and to the bombs that needed disarming. Only his brother's mind, body, and blood could safeguard the lives Howard put in danger. "We can work with you to resolve the problem if we find another bunker. With any luck I'm wrong about the clues and there aren't any more." After another moment of consideration on how badly Anthony was backsliding on his behavior, James once again felt that he had no other option but to make a hard choice. "You said that the psychiatrist's name is Dr. Frost?"

"Yes. You don't want to talk to Stark about it?" Surprise crept into Director Fury's mind for what he thought was about to happen.

"If he's going back to the bunkers then he needs help as soon as I can drag him to it." James hated not being able to handle his brothers' needs himself. It was nerve-wracking to hand them off to others knowing what others had already done to them. It wouldn't always be that way, but it irritatingly was at that moment. "Can I contact you sometime in the next week to get the information for scheduling?"

Pulling out his phone, the Director brought up the secure SHIELD app and went to the counseling tab, and brought up the schedulers' phone number, "The outside number to the office is, (202)555-4357. I'm sending them a note letting them know you'll be calling in," Director Fury looked up James. "When I get back to the office I'll type up a full authorization myself and make sure it gets to them."

"Thank you very much. I appreciate that!" The number went into a note pad on his phone. It was going to be called very soon, within the next day or so.

Waiting until James was done with Director Fury was difficult for Frey because he wanted to know more about this situation immediately. He liked that Anthony was going into counseling but didn't like the thought of these bunkers. To punish Anthony? How? Why? They sounded like inhospitable places that Anthony didn't belong in. "Why would Anthony's father have such weaponry?"

That's a very good question. What was he doing with them? SHIELD found nuclear designs in Howard's hidden library in the Stark Enterprises headquarters before Anthony Stark renamed the corporation, shut down the building, and demolished it. Director Fury hadn't thought that Howard actually built any of those things. SHIELD was the one who used the designs to build things.

"I don't know, and I can't guarantee that he did either. When he was at the end of his life Howard Stark built the bunkers. He was paranoid and delusional by then, he put all manner of weaponry in them, Mostly, he just wanted to punish Anthony for trying to get away from him. The bunkers hold workshops for Howard, yes, but they also force Anthony to keep coming back." Dark and old anger tinged James' thoughts as he thought about how often Howard caused his younger brother to bleed and suffer. The bastard needed to be gotten rid of permanently. James just hadn't figured out a way to get it done yet.

"Howard did it all because he's a scummy monster. All he ever did was hurt father." Jays little hands clenched into fists. "All he does is hurt father." A red ring of anger looped around his vision as heat chased through his body. His breathing sped up some.

All he does… James couldn't help but notice the very obvious change in Jay's grammatical tense. Analyzing his nephew's face brought him to the conclusion that Jay believed that Howard was actively harming Anthony. The boy couldn't know about how Anthony was still hearing Howard's voice from time to time, but he could know about other things. "You know about the nightmares?" It wasn't much of a question.

Nodding and taking a deep breath, Jay answered. "He's talked to me several times about them, about how Howard showed him what to do, how to do it, that it was ok to do the wrong things. Father still has nightmares. Howard was an evil monster! Monsters do evil things because they can!"

"You're not wrong. He was a monster, and he has caused extensive harm to your father, but I don't want you to be irrationally angry over this." James prepared to give his Little Hawk another lesson that he hoped would sink in quickly like the others. Jay looked shocked and almost offended then and went to protest.

"Uncle Rhodey! How can you say that?!"

"Easily," James held up a hand to cut off the argument, "When you let yourself be irrationally angry with someone you let them into your head and carry them around with you. They're there every minute of every day, just waiting to make you angry again. Wherever you go, they go. No matter what you do they're always with you. Do you want to take Howard with you everywhere?"

Doubt entered Jay's mind then, his gaze drifted down, and his little fists unclenched. His anger with his creator's creator always felt right to him. It was such a strong emotion that he wasn't sure how it could be wrong. "No! But I, I just want…"

"You want to hate him for what he did." And you don't even know a tenth of what he did.

Looking up swiftly, Jay met his uncle's calm gaze. "Yes! He deserves to be hated."

Heartfelt pity crept into James' expression. He strengthened his soul song of stillness as much as he could then aimed it solely for his nephew. "Little Hawk, hate is the poison that you give yourself thinking it will make you stronger. It never does, it never can. All it can do is carve away at your spirit. Don't let it in," he gently tapped the boy's chest, "your heart is too beautiful to be marred by Howard. He doesn't deserve to have your mind, your time, or your heart."

"How should I think about this then? I don't understand." Everything his uncle said made sense to Jay, but it was also a bitter pill to swallow.

"Don't make him reviled, make him irrelevant. Give him as much emotional time as an individual grain of sand in a desert. Show people he means nothing to you by not having him in your life. Publicly leave all the pain and anguish he's caused with him where it belongs. And when time moves past him and all his works begin to crumble into dust as they're surpassed by others there will be no one left to still speak his name, no one to remember him and recall his accomplishments. Let him be forgotten." It was the worst fate James could think of for a narcissist like Howard Stark, to be a footnote in history. The pity he felt for Howard as a child couldn't overwhelm the wrathful anger he felt for Howard as a man. Punishment was deserved in his opinion.

Frey wondered how much James hated Anthony's father for him to want the man to be entirely forgotten. At first he thought that it must have been quite a bit, but then he remembered James' own words about how hate was a poison. He could neither disagree with James that hate was a poison nor say that James would take that poison. It was a situation that he wasn't sure what to make of. Odin, on the other hand, knew what to make of the situation. If Howard Stark did something to his own son that was still causing nightmares and James seemed viciously angry with him for it, it was severe. Stark suffered through whatever it was and still turned out so kind. How amazing.

Jay tilted his head slightly to the side as he thought about it. "Make Howard into Ozymandias?"

A knowing look was directed at Jay, along with a smile. "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains, round the decay. Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away." Don't remember him, not when I have to. Let it be my burden.

"Time waits for no man." Jays voice was nearly a whisper.

"No, it doesn't."

It was a hard consideration to let go of his hate for Howard Stark, but his uncle was right. "I'm enjoying being tall with Afi Odin. I like getting hugs from Afi Frey. Amma Frigga has been so nice to me. I don't want Howard to touch those times." He didn't mean to take Howard with him everywhere. That he might have was a disgusting thought. The hate felt true though, and he had a hard time separating it from what he knew happened. It felt right to be angry over those things. "How can you be so calm about what happened? You're always so calm."

"Discipline and practice." It was an easy answer for James. "And the certain understanding that if I poison myself with anger and hate that I'm not going to be able to help my family as much as I could without those things. They cloud your judgment, make you vulnerable to missing things, but, I'm not saying that there aren't rational reasons to be angry. I'm saying not to engage with the anger past ridding yourself of it. The anger is a gift from Howard. Don't take it. Put it in the trash where it belongs."

"I don't want any gifts from that monster!"

"Then don't take the anger from him."

It was a lesson that was easy for Jay to understand, but hard for him to practice when it felt right to hate. He tried to think of how he could separate his knowledge of what happened to his father from his emotions. Just the effort of trying felt like a Herculean task. "I don't know if I'm strong enough to do it. I'm not as strong as you."

A sweet smile touched James' lips and he cupped the side of his nephew's face briefly again, continuing to aim his soul song of stillness as his nephew with all of the undertones of hope that he felt. "Little Hawk, you're young, not weak. You're strong enough now, and in time you'll grow into a strong man, just as strong as I am. I know it."

In that simple touch Jay could feel his uncle's belief in him. It was a hopeful feeling, one that he enjoyed. He looked to his Afi Odin and smiled, then looked to his Afi Frey and smiled. Taking a deep breath, he set himself and looked back to his uncle. "I'll try as hard as I can to keep Howard out of my life."

"Good," James paused for a moment to let Jay settle, "Now, are you ready to show them your lab? It's the first door on the way down through to the drone armory."

"We can pick up my tools!" A happy smile crossed Jay's face them and he held on to his grandfather's shoulder without thinking about it.

A gift from Borr. Did I carry Borr around with me? It was a sickening thought that he might have done that for two thousand years, but not one that Frey could deny. Lord Borr had shaped much of his life, and he was sickened by the hate; burnt out from the inside. He always thought that he was hating so that he would remember those who he lost. Looking back, he thought that maybe he remembered Lord Borr more than his own parents. Gratitude filled Frey's mind then. Since he knew what unrestricted hate could do to a person, he was glad that James took the time to deal with Jay's anger. He didn't want his grandson to go down the same raging path that he did.

A small smile touched Frigga's lips. While James was around, her grandson truly was well seen to. This was a simple lesson, but not an easy one. Frey had never learned it. It was one that she came to on her own but couldn't ever explain to her brother. She tried her hardest to never let Lord Borr ruin her life. He didn't deserve her time and she wasn't going to give him any part of her heart, even the angry part. Instead of Lord Borr, Frigga always tried to remember her parents. It was never so that she could remember who she lost. It was always so that she wouldn't lose them entirely. While whatever Howard Stark did was enough to earn Jay's hate, James wasn't going to lose Jay to that hatred. As she saw her brother looking thoughtfully at the situation she couldn't help but think, Thank you, James. It's a lesson I could never teach him.

I'm not as strong as you. His grandson's words stuck in Odin's mind. Having lived through the memories of the Dark Days he knew that Jay was a very strong soul indeed, with a mental fortitude that was seldom seen. It was a rare type of strength that the boy worried he didn't have; the strength to not hate, to control his anger. Though Odin agreed with James on that too. Jay was strong enough to take this lesson to heart, practice would make it easier for the boy, but not for Odin. It was a strength that the elder King knew he didn't have. He'd hated Lord Borr since he was a child, hated him still and only acknowledged Lord Borr as his father when he had to. The previous Lord of Asgard tormented him for the entire time he was growing up and for a time after that as well. There wasn't a point in Odin's life when he thought he could not hate Lord Borr, yet at the same time he didn't like the thought of carrying his father around with him. Perhaps I should try letting him go. I don't know how to not hate him. I'll must speak with Frigga on it. She'll probably have wise insights. Odin knew she would. Frigga had been trying to get him to give up his hatred for Lord Borr since she figured out that there was something amiss. I wish I could tell her what was amiss, but I don't want to tell her that.

How many things are wrong in this house? Hirdmen Vilulf tried not to wonder, it wasn't his place to do so. It also was growing more difficult not to do as more wrong things were discussed. Dishonor, horror, abuse, terror, death were all in the house that he'd seen. At that moment what he wondered the most was why Prince Loki, and his children were there and without a Royal Guard.

An evil monster. That wasn't the man I knew. He had problems, but nothing like they're talking about. Problems, not bunkers. How, where, when, and why Howard Stark went wrong interested Director Fury greatly. James made Howard out to be a monster and the Director trusted his judgment. What he needed to know was where his own judgment went wrong. Did I see it and not pay attention? Did I excuse it? Did I just not see it? I spoke with Howard regularly; how could I not see this?

An idea occurred to Sean then that he hadn't had before. There was white seidr shimmering on the boy's skin. Looking to Jay, he focused on the boy's white seidr in an attempt to see more. All he saw was the time since Jay was gifted with a body by Lady Loki. That was in March of the same year they were in. There was very little information there. Before that the same carmine and orange flames were swirling about the boy, blocking his view even as he probed at them. It was a little disappointing. He still had nothing to offer his Lady by way of getting information on the firehawk. He found it odd then, that Lady Loki was unshielded by Lord Stark while he and their children were. Sean was just about to stop focusing on Jay when he heard a hint of a whisper, so he listened intently while James spoke with Jay. Under my protection, whispered at him. When he realized that he was only hearing the whispering of James' song he stopped focusing, more disappointed than before. He thought he had something, but he didn't.

Sean's probing gaze as it was aimed at Jay caught James' attention and looked over to the young man and smiled. He must be impatient to get to Jay's lab or the drone armory. We have taken a little detour. "Now that that's settled, I suggest that we head down. We'll stop at Jay's lab quickly, then head on to the drone armory."

To Sean, James looking to him was proof that James couldn't know that he was focusing on people. Jay wasn't James, and he didn't believe there was a way for James to randomly feel his gaze as it fell on Jay. It had to just be a fluke before when James seemed to catch him looking.

It was an unexpected detour, but James was still glad that he had a chance to talk to Jay about letting go of his hatred. It was something that he was going to have to bring up in Jay's check-ins. For the moment though, he pushed the button that withdrew the safety railing to the elevator in exposed in the wall. It was a large service elevator capable of holding all of them comfortably. Before they got in, James turned to Frigga. "This will take us down to Jay's lab, the drone armory and workshop, and the facility in the cave with the Chitauri leviathan. There's no one else there, and I've put all the drones into sleep mode. The leviathan is chained, and the chains are undamaged and holding. Do you want a team to go down first, or do you want to deploy from the hallways?"

"There's no one in the lower levels on the house, as there's been no one in the upper levels?" Frigga looked to James for explicit confirmation of that.

"There's no one in the house who isn't with us currently." James motioned to the party as he spoke.

Nodding once, Frigga carried on with her other questions. "These drones, are they like the ones from the testing ground? Are they disabled?"

"The drones at the testing grounds are Mark II, these are Mark III. There are a significantly more advanced iteration of the Iron Legion. They are all in sleep mode though, which means that they have enough power to their core processor to continue functioning but nothing more. They won't move unless I command them too and won't respond in this state even if attacked."

Nodding again, Frigga answered. "Very well. We'll move forward from the hallways then."

"Yes, ma'am," James motioned to the elevator, "if everyone would get into the elevator, we can get going." The whole group moved into the elevator, with the guardsmen at the edges of the enclosed area. James hit the '1' button on the elevator's control panel. The rails slid closed again. It was a short trip down, just one floor. The elevator stopped on Jay's floor, and everyone stepped out. A short hallway stretched out ahead from the elevator to a plain door.

"Huskarli Hartvigsen, Bielke, move into the room ahead and clear the way." Frigga looked to the closed door ahead of them. The two huskarli moved forward instantly towards the door then through it. A few short moments later the they reappeared from the lab.

Huskarl Hartvigsen rejoined the formation while Huskarl Bielke came to the position of attention in front of his formadr. "My formadr, The room is clear of any other people, and secure with a single entrance. None of the equipment in the room seems active." He wasn't sure what to make of the contents of the room but knew that it wasn't his place to wonder. None of the contents seemed right to him, like a Healing Room that was wrong somehow. He didn't think he needed to give his formadr his opinion when she hadn't asked for it.

"Thank you, huskarl." Frigga moved to the front again then spoke to James. "We're ready to move."

Moving ahead, James led the way into Jay's lab. The bright white LED lights came on automatically as they entered. Like Anthony's workshop it had a concrete floor and ceiling, and concrete walls with Di Vinci-like designs and drawings taped to them. Immediately past the door, to the left was a wall for reinforced glass shelves which held small boxes, tubes, bottles of chemicals, and various other sundries. Large boxes of chemicals sat packed up in front of the shelves. On the left wall sat two large machine bases. Plugged into one of those bases was a glass cylinder bigger than a human, with metal docking caps on either side of the cylinder. Each cylinder was able to be opened up vertically into two halves. The cylinder was filled with a clear yellow liquid. Floating in the clear yellow liquid was a smoothed out, pink, crystalline human nervous system that was waiting for a body. In between the two metal bases was a substantial robotic arm that moved the cylinders safely from the metal bases to the extended horizontal metal cradle in the center of the room. The second cylinder laid down in the middle of the cradle and was opened, with the top half being set off to one side. A series of delicate arms came up around the sides of the cradle, each with little shaped extruders, nozzles, and small robotic fingers to guide the printing process. The cylinder in the cradle laid empty, having already had a mannequin printed in it. From the cradle, a heavy cord ran to the large control panel and even larger touch screen on the right side of the room. There was a pale white-blue glow coming from inside the control panel, from under the keyboard. At the far wall, across from the door, was a plain metal workbench with a vice and anvil attached. A forge sat on its left side. A small computer sat on the right side of the workbench. An unused computer brain sat on top of the workbench, with the brain-case sitting on the workbench near the wall. Next to it was a clear desk made of reinforced glass that came with reinforced glass cabinets on the wall above it and reinforced glass drawers down one side. The cabinets were filled with bottles of colored liquids. On the desk sat several capped test tubes in racks and a thin syringe sitting next to them. A small centrifuge sat off to the side. Other medical and chemistry equipment sat in the glass drawers. Next to the door to the room was a tool chest sitting on wheels that was light blue with silver accents.

Unfolding his seidr, James mounted a powerful Baldayn Immaculacy Weave. He wrapped it around the tool chest to their right. "It's ready for you, Little Hawk."

Holding his hand out towards his tool chest, Jay extended his silver fires towards his chest. Instead of melting the tool chest it struck it and purified the chest and all of its contents. A strange, indigo darkness hissing 'kill them all' came from the metal and dripped down onto the floor before it was burned up. "Oh! What was that?" It couldn't be!

"Thanos." James put a little extra power into his weave just to make sure that the tools were truly purified. From the tool chest to the rest of the room, he moved his Baldayn Immaculacy Weave around the room, purifying everything in his path. As the last little piece of equipment in the desk purified he broke down his spell and stowed his seidr back into his core.

"How did Thanos's seidr get down here? It couldn't take the elevator." It spooked Jay to see the seidr from Thanos in his tools, in his workshop.

"We're right under the medical lab and warehouse. It probably went through the floor. It's all purified, there's no need to worry about it now." James unfolded his seidr again and discreetly felt at the ceiling, only to find he was right. The seidr was leaking down from the warehouse into Jay's lab. He pushed the seidr back up into the empty warehouse, leaving it to be dealt with later. The last of Thanos' seidr pushed up through the floor so he stowed his seidr back into his core.

Twisting around some, Jay looked to Director Fury and spoke. "Director, it's all safe now," when he had the old spy's attention, he continued, "If you go over to the desk and look in the top drawer you should find a little pink business card with a QR code on it. Follow the instructions on the other side of the card and he'll talk to you." He extended his seidr to grip his toolbox and dismiss it to his interdimensional pocket.

"Who will?" The Director moved over to the glass desk and already thought he could see the card through the drawer.

"Oh. The man I buy my chemicals from. He's got everything." Jay nodded when Director Fury pulled the card out of the drawer. "He only talks to people with one of his clientele cards, you have to be referred to Mr. Burhan."

"You buy the chemicals for," Director Fury motioned to the advanced set up in the room, "all of this?"

Jay flushed in embarrassment again and he became very interested in his grandfather's vest. "No, technically a forty four year old Russian man named Arman Pavlov from Murmansk on the Barents Sea buys them for me and ships them here. He just happens to be, …me."

Surprise and disbelief widened Director Fury's eye. "You're Arman Pavlov?" he motioned to the room again, "This is what all the chemicals were for?!" Shield was tracking an Arman Pavlov who happened to be a forty four year old Russian man from Murmansk for the better part of a decade but were never able to catch up with him. He weas just too good online to catch him easily. One minute they had him, then he'd slip through their traps. He was also a freewheeling criminal who targeted other criminals like some underworld Robin Hood. However, they also thought he was buying up chemicals for some sort of an attack. Director Fury was glad to know SHIELD was wrong about that part. It occurred to him then that the people who the boy had taken money from were among the worst of the worst criminals. "Do your parents know what you've been doing?" He didn't want to be the one to spill the beans, not when he wanted to recruit Jay now more than ever for several jobs, but the boy was into some nasty business that no child needed to be near.

"No." Jay's voice was very small as he kept fidgeting with his Afi Odin's vest.

"Neither of them noticed you doing this?" Both Loki and Stark were unreasonably intelligent. He had a hard time believing neither saw what the kid was doing.

"The overrides kept me from telling mother, and she doesn't know about this section of the house to ask questions. I told father we had the chemicals in stock. After I bought them I didn't log their receipt in arrivals and just stocked them. Father orders all kinds of things on a whim for projects he wants to do and then never does, so he thought that he told me to order them then forgot about it." Fiery embarrassment was burning its way across his face. His hands felt a little tight as he played with the seam at the shoulder of his grandfather's vest.

"Were there no invoices with the packages, or did you dispose of them?" The Director was interested for a different reason. He wanted to know how to boy accomplished this, what lengths he went to, what skills he used.

"I had forged invoices waiting if he ever asked. He signs things digitally, it's not hard to create an amalgamation of the last five signatures and use it to accommodate for changes in the signature with age." Everyone was looking at him, they had to be. He felt smaller than he ever had, The lights were more glaring.

Both of Director Fury's eyebrows shot up at that. "You forged Stark's signature?!"

Overwhelming embarrassment flooded into the digital boy's thoughts. Jay's voice was almost a whisper when he answered again. "Sabotage is a legitimate tool of business when dealing with father, so is subterfuge." Jay cleared his throat, deciding to come clean so that things would hopefully not be so embarrassing in the future. He made the adjustments in his throat that he needed to resonate his voice through then spoke, "Phone calls aren't a problem either, for father or anyone else," Jay said in a perfect mimic of his father's voice and speaking patterns. Returning to his own voice brought a lament with it. "I thought that making these for father would mean that he'd stop testing things on himself. I wanted to do some good, but he wouldn't be stopped, and I didn't find another way to get him to stop before Uncle Rhodey found me."

There was a smooth sort of rumbling undertone to Prince Jay's voice as he spoke. It caught Sean's attention as he knew that he was the only one to hear it. Prince Jay wasn't just using his vocal cords to speak; he was speaking with or through seidr. Sean could hear the seidr itself in the boy's quiet voice. It wasn't normal either for a boy to be able to mimic anyone to that degree, or for him to be speaking through seidr. What struck him suddenly was that this didn't look odd to James. I suppose he knew about it already. It's still odd even if you know about it beforehand. The odd seemed to become the ordinary around James and Sean wondered if he should be more curious about that. Director Fury is right to look askance at this. What's going on here?

It's as though Anthony is in the room with us. Frey's eyes widened as Jay spoke in Anthony's voice and his stunned gaze met Odin's. There was no magic that Frey could feel the boy using, it was just Jay's own talent. It was an amazing talent to have but one that needed to be carefully used. Neither of them could be upset with Jay since he only used it to assist his father with the goal of making things safer. The fact that he seemed so embarrassed by what he'd done spoke volumes to both of them about how good a thing Jay thought this was to do.

Damn. He's not old enough to fully recruit. It would scar him to deal with the things we deal with. He's already scarred from what he's been through. "Damn." It was the Director's honest sentiment on the matter. It was a shame that the boy couldn't be fully recruited. The small side jobs that the old spy had in mind weren't anywhere near what the kid was capable of. Jay could be a soul in the machine and make that machine dance for him. SHIELD needed that.

A heavy sigh gusted out of Jay. "Are you mad at me?" Someone had to be mad at him over something that he'd done at some point. He knew it and was waiting for it.

A knowing smile touched Director Fury's lips. "Kid, sabotage and subterfuge are two of my best tools," when the boy looked to him surprised he continued, "If you were a few years older I'd hire you right here and now, put you through schooling and make you one of my agents." The boy looked at him disbelieving. "Downing drug cartels, breaking up human trafficking rings, stopping terrorist or chemical or nuclear attacks, dealing with the major terrorist organizations, and that's all before we get to meta-humans, magic, aliens, and plots to destroy the world. If you want to do good in the world SHIELD is a solid place to do it, but you're a little young for all of that right now. I'm not going to say that the recruitment offer is off the table, I'm just going to say that in a few years, when you're a little older, we'll finish this conversation."

None of the surprise Frigga felt passed over her face. Her grandson had immense talents and used them to help his parents while hiding himself. The hiding was ending, which pleased her, though she didn't think his trying to assist his parents was. Jay was a good lad and quite set on taking care of his family. She was glad that James had already blocked Jay from going to several of the places where criminals were found. That ending pleased her as well.

A hesitant smile brightened Jay's expression. "That would be a lot of lives saved." He considered it for a moment before he flared his seidr to his uncle, May I give Director Fury my electronic warfare suite? And a full accounting of my online activity as Arman Pavlov? He stopped then almost immediately flared his seidr again, It might help them to catch the criminals I took money from. May I please? There was an exuberant desire whispering through his seidr.

"That's what SHIELD aims to do, to save as many lives as we can. When you're older I'm sure that your talents could save many people's lives. We have educational programs that cover the laws we follow, the equipment we use, and I know you could teach the classes on hacking and navigating the dark web." Director Fury considered for a moment something that he hadn't considered. He put his hands on his hips. "You could actually teach those classes." The Director liked the sound of that. "You'd need to finish your other schooling as well…" His voice drifted off into silence as he considered a different path for the boy through SHIELD.

The request was a childish one, yet James considered it anyway. Jay's electronic warfare suite was good, better than the Asgardian version, but not quite as good as his own version. It was a child's version that Jay had. He expected Jay to realize it and begin upgrading in a few years. James already decided that he would help the boy upgrade when it came time. For the moment, he thought that maybe giving Jay's version over to SHIELD might not be such a terrible idea. It would certainly help bring the levels of terrorist activity down. Another moment of consideration passed before James decided to go ahead with it. "Director Fury, if you would pull out your memory cube, Jay has something he wants to give you. Before he does I want to stress something you already know; power comes with responsibility. Please continue to remember that."

A wide smile touched Jay's lips. "I can?!"

James nodded at his nephew. "Yes, you may."

This too sounded hopeful to the Director. Pulling his memory cube out of his pocket, Director Fury came closer to Jay and held it up. "What do you have?"

Impelling his seidr from his core, Jay write it into a Learning Spell that he drew his memories of his personal electronic warfare suite into as well as his online travels, then he wrote up a short, digital, instruction manual on the electronic warfare suite's functions and uses. He reached over with one finger to touch the memory cube and released the spell. The memory cube glowed pale white-blue for a moment before the color extinguished. "I transferred over my online interactions, all the people I dealt with and where and what I found. I also transferred my personal electronic warfare suite and instructions on how to use it. I don't know if father will let me work with you right now, and this isn't really a substitute for me, but it's based on the Asgardian electronic warfare suite! I made some changes to it so that it has all of father's obsessive protections, and a few of my own more specific defensive measures for the person using it, as well as the flexibility, and speed that I like," a toothy grin touched Jay's face and he sat up in his Afi Odin's grip, "I like going fast."

Instantly Frey flared his seidr to Odin, Director Fury is a Black Hand, but this is a tremendous amount of power, should we let this stand, brother?

There was uncertainty in Frey's seidr that Odin shared. His first instinct was to instantly forbid it, and remove it from the memory cube, but he stopped and thought on it first. Flaring his seidr back, Odin answered, James is well with it, and it would help to secure Midgard. Jay wants it too. We could let it stand but remove it later if needs be, brother.

A fair point, brother. We'll do that then, Frey was uncertain that such power belonged in the hands of mortals, but he'd already thought that the Midgardian Black Hands needed support. This probably would have been something his Shadowmaster, leader of his Black Hand Service, would have recommended to him. A good electronic warfare suite was one of the foundations of an effective Black Hand Service.

From his impelled seidr Jay wrote another Learning Spell, which drew his memories of his lab into it, and a Conjuration Spell. He released them to create a thick paperback booklet which showed how to break down and set up the lab, then it included his entire process on how to use the lab to create mannequins, then his notes on his creation of each of the mannequins as he was creating them. Then Jay impelled a larger amount of seidr from his core to condense down into a small construct that looked like a pale white-blue version of himself and was programmed with his mind. Its surface shimmered in the light, and he handed the book to his construct before calling his seidr back to his core. "Construct, awaken."

"I am one, drawn from you." The small construct answered its equally small master, taking the booklet from him.

"Construct, you are to assist SHIELD's movers to get to this lab and to use my seidr to help disassemble the lab. Director Fury will designate the person you will work with. When the work is done you will dissipate. Do you understand?"

"Director Fury will designate who I will work with. I will lead them to this lab and assist them to disassemble this lab for removal to SHIELD. I will dissipate when SHIELD's work in this lab is done."

"Go to Director Fury now and be good." Jay pointed to the Director then finished his instructions. "Everything in the lab can go to SHIELD. I don't want it anymore. It's yours now."

"Thank you, Jay. This will help us to save lives too." Director Fury looked down at the little unicolored bot in front of him and almost couldn't believe what he was just given. It seemed like James was doing it because Jay really wanted it. He wondered how Jay communicated it to James while they were silent. More magic, he thought. "Construct," he tried addressing it like Jay had, "I want you to go up and out to the front of the house. I'll text Agent Reeves to let him know that you're coming. Please give him the book you're holding and show him to this place, then tell him that he's to clean it out completely." The Director put his memory cube away and quickly shot off a text to the agent out front on his phone. Looking back to Jay he asked a quick question. "Is there anything else in this lab I should know?"

Shaking his head in the negative, Jay answered. "No, that's everything."

Looking to James, the Director motioned back to the door. "My agents will be down here shortly, why don't we move on?"

On one side, Frigga wasn't certain about handing Elder Realms technology to mortals. On the other side, this gift of power would help to secure Midgard, where her grandchildren lived. It was something that she was going to have to give thought to, to decide if she supported the decision or not.

A light smile touched Sean's face. Jay really was a sweet little boy who wanted to help when he could. Gifting SHIELD with the advanced electronic warfare suite was a major upgrade for them. It's value was astronomical. He wished that he'd had the electronic warfare suite when he was decrypting the files from Skuld. It would have made things so much easier on him. Future SHIELD personnel were going to have a better time of decrypting than he did. That made him happy to know. Out of an abundance of caution Sean looked at Director Fury and focused on the white seidr shimmering on his skin. What the young Satska Soledras saw there made him happy as well. The Director had the full intention to use what he was being given responsibly and not abuse the power he was bringing back to SHIELD. Sean pulled his focus back and smiled. This was a much better day than yesterday.

Turning and motioning to the door which was being held open by one of the guardsmen standing in it. "If everyone would make their way into the elevator, we can get down to the drone armory. Be aware, there are arc reactors active there." Everyone filed out, the guardsmen around Odin moving with him as one. The elevator took them down while the small construct used the seidr it possessed to float up to the open elevator door in the hallway off of the workshop. After a single floor of concrete, lit by wall mounted lights, the elevator entered a massive, perfectly square, open cavern made of concrete and melted stone. The smell of stale water and metal hung in the air. Little patches of moisture clung to the grey walls. The gentle humming of hundreds of thousands of arc reactors loudly buzzed in the air. Even the slightest sound that hit the reinforced walls bounced off to echo around the cavern dully. Brilliant pale blue lights rained down from the top of the cavern to reach down to the very bottom of it. What their light illuminated stunned everyone but James, Jay, and Sean. The three of them had seen this before.

Across the cavern, from one wall to the other, was a series of hanging bays for drone armors which resembled a black and grey version of the red and gold Ironman armor. Each bay was attached to a beam suspended horizontally. It had a three and a half decimeter in diameter arc reactor which was mounted in the bay on top of the beam, and another arc reactor of the same size mounted below the beam. Above the top arc reactor was a docking bracket which held the spaces for the drone armor's arms and shoulders so that its back interfaced with the arc reactors. A pole came vertically down from the bottom arc reactor. At the end of the pole a small platform came out horizontally which had the docking points for the feet of the armors. From the waist of the drone armors down the side of the right thigh was adhered an arc reactor powered repulsor rifle. The rifles were dark grey and black with white-blue panels peeking through. They were both sleek horizontally and boxy vertically at the same time, wide from side to side and top to bottom. On the left thigh was mounted a thin metal rectangle with rounded ends. A mounting bracket on the underside attached it to the left forearm so that it could unfold into a small shield. Rows upon rows of these beams with bays attached hung in the cavern, filling it. There were more than could be counted. "Welcome to the drone armory, remember to extend your seidr core." The feeling of the arc reactors chaffed powerfully against their cores. It felt more raw, less refined than the rose quartz generator. James looked over the army his younger brother built and frowned. He was going to put it to more peaceful uses.

An overwhelming amount of seidr came from the tightly controlled arc reactors. The close proximity to him had Sean feeling both energized and faint. Overall it felt a little like being near a deep ocean that was threatening to flow over him and maybe pull him down. A few deep breaths let him find his composure again. The sound of it was a maddeningly loud hum that he could almost feel in his bones. If left him discreetly running his hands over his arms and rubbing at his ears, trying to make it stop.

Once again, Frey noticed that Sean was having trouble with something, so he flared his seidr again, What bothers you?

The reactors are humming, I can feel it hitting my bones, it's so loud, Sean flared his seidr in answer.

Just as quickly as before Frey unfurled his seidr to come up with a solution for his lover. Firstly, he decided to place a simple layer of his own seidr over Sean's ears. His seidr had a strong effect on the younger man so he hoped it would work. After that, Frey formed a Urbein's Bones Charm and swiftly applied it to the young man's bones. The combat charm would hopefully protect Sean's bones from the overwhelming amount of seidr they were in the middle of. Frey flared his seidr again, Is that better? He almost didn't have to flare his seidr as he heard the quiet sigh of relief from Sean.

Yes, thank you, Sean flared his seidr to Frey, running his seidr over his lover's skin to thank him more fully for taking the sensations away from. His seidr angled back into his core in a moment. He was grateful to Frey for the weave and now charm. He would have vomited and been deafened without them.

Despite looking over the many-times-many drone armors, Odin noticed that Sean was struggling for a moment. He flared his seidr to Frey to ask about it, Is Sean well?

Another hot little frisson went through Frey at Sean caressing him so. His Elder Brother's flare drew him away from the growing heat in his thoughts. The heat was replaced to a certain extent by warm appreciation for Odin's concern, so he flared his seidr in return, The seidr in the arc reactors is bothering him. I set an Urbein's Bones on him.

A little smile touched Odin's face when he flared his seidr again, You're doing well as his protector, brother.

Thank you, brother, Frey furled his seidr back from flaring it out. It warmed him to have Odin's encouragement. For a moment it felt like his head was spinning, things were changing so fast. To him, there were two thousand years' worth of changes that needed to happen. That he was making those changes at all should have been enough to satisfy him, but it wasn't. He wanted to move faster while feeling vaguely like he was moving too fast. Too much speed, and too little speed vied for dominance in Frey's mind. Maybe I am moving too fast, but I can't move slower. His gaze traveled over Odin holding Jay and then Sean. I've seen the future now, and I won't give it up.

Several minutes later the elevator came to a stop to let everyone off onto a wide metal catwalk that led to a room mounted onto the wall of the cavern. When they were all off onto the catwalk, it closed its safety rail and went back up to pick up the SHIELD movers waiting for it. James motioned at the door to the tall room ahead of them to Frigga. "In that room is the drone workshop. There's no one else in it."

"I see." Frigga motioned for two of her huskarli to move forward. "Huskarli Sigmond, Tryggsen, clear the way."

He was at the front of the formation, so Huskarl Sigmond waited a moment for his fellow Huskarl before they moved towards the door of the newest room they were entering. Like the door for the last room this one opened automatically when they approached. As he entered with his drengrmate he wondered what horrors they were going to find. There had been too many things in this house that he didn't feel a Lord needed to be involved with. Truthfully, it was his opinion that; firstly this house needed to be destroyed, if for no other reason than to give the little boy with them some peace of mind; and secondly that his opinion didn't matter in this instance. All he could do was hope that Lord Frey would see to the boy and that by him fulfilling his duty that he would somehow assist them to set things right.

Surprisingly the room that Huskarl Tryggsen entered after Huskarl Sigmond was almost empty. It was a large, long rectangular room with widows peering out into the cavern around it and a ceiling that was several stories high. There was a singular door on the other end of the room. Nothing hung from the high ceiling. The only thing against the wall was a tall, wide, grey, metal cabinet going from the floor up the wall. Another control panel on a pole sat in front of but away from a dull purple mat on the floor which took up most of the room. It had a grid of small, cream lines on it. On the other side of the control panel, closer to it, was a green outline of a square on the floor. There was no power to the control panel so he couldn't tell what it did. Huskarl Tryggsen checked the other door while his drengrmate probed at the cabinet with his seidr. There was little enough outside of the other door.

"Tryggsen, come probe this. What do you find?" Huskarl Sigmond anchored back his seidr into his core while he waited for his drengrmate to probe the cabinet. What he found was disturbing him and he needed to know if he was mistaken. As he waited he probed gently at the cabinet itself, trying and failing to find a way to open it.

Actuating his seidr from his core, Huskarl Tryggsen probed carefully at the cabinet and couldn't find a latch to undo and open it. It felt like there was another of the drone armors in it when he started probing at the bottom of it. He almost told his drengrmate that it was just another drone when he probed at the top half of the drone. As soon as he touched it he could feel the seidr core in it. It felt to him like there was someone sleeping in the cabinet, yet he could find no other signs of life. Huskarl Tryggsen moved his seidr around from the seidr core it no longer felt like a person. His seidr transferred back to his core in surprise. His gaze instantly went to his drengrmate. Their gazes met through their helmets. Alarm tinged both of their thoughts. "This machine has a seidr core."

Nodding affirmatively, Huskarl Sigmond motioned to the door. "We need to inform the formadr immediately."

"There's only another walkway and another lift going down outside the other door, nothing else." Huskarl Tryggsen spoke as he walked with his drengrmate. Both the huskarli made for the door out to where their formadr waited for them. Huskarl Tryggsen went back to his place in the formation while Huskarl Sigmond came to the position of attention in front of his formadr.

"My formadr, the room is almost empty, it has two entrances. There's a walkway and another lift going down outside the other door. What concerns us is the very unusual cabinet in the room. It feels like it had a drone armor in it, but the armor also feels like it has a living seidr core sleeping in it. We found no way to open the cabinet to verify the contents. Should we break the cabinet to verify the contents, my formadr?" Huskarl Sigmond wasn't comfortable with the Lords and his Lady Formadr going into the room without verifying what was in that cabinet.

"James," Frigga turned to him, "do you know what waits in the cabinet?"

"It's a resting case for one of the Iron Flight. It's what I'm going to be demonstrating when we get into the control room. I can open the case cleanly for your men to view if you'd like." The good colonel liked the bearing and discipline of the Vanaheimr Royal Guardsmen. He also liked their style. Their uniforms were very snappy in his opinion.

"Iron Flight? I thought they were the Iron Legion? Is there a difference?"

"The first major difference is that the Iron Legion are ground bound troop while the Iron Flight are flight capable. The second major difference is that the Iron Legion was equipped with a single, basic auto-cast system on their left arm. The Iron Flight has a multifaceted auto-cast system which must be supported by an arc reactor. The third major difference is that the Iron Legion is combat effective without the auto-cast system. The Iron Flight is combat ineffective without that. The Iron Legion is Mark II. The Iron Flight is Mark III." What James' younger brother created was more dangerous with every iteration.

So they're combat effective without magic involved. Director Fury almost liked it better that what he was given didn't have magic involved in it. It was something that they could reproduce and maintain with what they had currently.

"Are they dangerous for Lord Odin to be near?" Drones that could fly sounded dangerous to Frigga, more so if they somehow had a seidr core in it.

"The demonstration is dangerous, but I can place everyone behind a Sun Shield Weave again to shield them from the dangers. So long as Lord Odin doesn't step on the testing mat while it's active then he should be perfectly safe. The mat is clearly marked on the floor."

Looking back to the Huskarl waiting for her she gave him her orders. "Huskarl Sigmond, return to the formation," then she turned to James, "Would you be willing to show me this drone before we bring Lord Odin to it?"

"Yes, ma'am. Let me lead the way." He led them to the door and motioned her through the door before him to be polite. The grey resting case was still sitting next to the wall. His seidr unfolded from his core to marshal in his hand and mount into a Resting Case Spell. Snapping released the spell towards the resting case. The spell hit the front panel of the resting case to turn that panel into two pieces of metal that were creased back to the sides. Revealing the Iron Flight drone interested Frigga, so James motioned to it, then to the windows. "This is a representative of the Iron Flight, the same drones as are in the drone armory and the roof."

Flaring her seidr out to feel at the drone became Frigga unraveling more of her seidr to probe deeply at it. It was when she reached the chest of the drone that she discovered what disturbed her huskarli. This thing did indeed have a living seidr core that felt like it was slumbering at the heart of an unliving machine. Her own seidr recoiled then raveled back to her core. "What manner of machine is this?"

"One with an auto-cast system. Do you want to see it at work?" A slightly proud grin touched James' face. Despite the fact that it was for weapons, he was still proud of the ingenuity his younger brother displayed with this invention.

"Yes," Frigga dragged her gaze away from the machine and over to James, "I would."

Stepping over to the control panel, James motioned for her to come over to him as he tapped the power button on the panel. The darkened control panel lit up with white light on its black background. It lit up the purple mat as well, which Frigga hurried to get off. She came to stand next to him with a worried look on her face. "There's nothing to be nervous over. The mat just provides a place to test new features of the Iron Flight." After Frigga came to stand by him he looked down at the floor. She wasn't standing fully in the green outline yet, so he pointed to the floor. "You should be in the green square to be safe." Quickly, she stepped inside the green outline. From the console he was able to activate The Sun Shield Weave around the green square. It was with hope that James turned on the auto-cast system under the mat; hope that she wouldn't find this to be some heretical abomination in need of destroying. To that end he focused his soul song of stillness, with the undertones of hope, through his body to bolster it as much as he could. On the control panel he selected 'scenario 3'. The auto-cast system activated a Conjuration Spell to pattern out grass fast growing over soil on the mat. Pebbles and medium stones dotted the grass, with flowers and mushrooms growing around them. A shallow pool of water and a single tree were the final things created on the mat.

Surprise washed over Frigga's mind, widening her eyes some. "James, did you cast a Conjuration Spell?"

"No, it was the auto-cast system. A machine based magic casting system," James could see how worried she was, so he offered her some knowledge, "Why don't you let me show you want it can do?"

Incredulity told Frigga to not believe what she'd seen, what she was looking at. It couldn't be denied though that a woodland clearing had come into being right before her. "I think I'd like that."

Outside The Bounds Of Time

Vanaheim Royal Palace Guest Chambers

"Are you ready to go, Anthony?" James' smooth, deep, baritone voice called out from across the large room.

Little droplets of black rot dripped slowly off of Anthony's arm. It was a from a patch of skin on his forearm and was stinging him with a tingling burn. As much as he concentrated on it, he couldn't make it stop oozing out of him.

"Hey, Anthony, are you ready to go?" Worry tinged James' thoughts as he walked up on his younger brother and noticed the black rot dripping off of him. Gently he gripped Anthony's wrist and turned over his arm so that he could see where the black rot was coming from. Their gazes met for a second, there was worry in Anthony's expression. James looked down at the patch of black rot and switched his song to the soul song of blessings which he swirled around his younger brother's arm to clean and heal it. It was such a small patch that he didn't need to purify anything, only apply some healing. "Why don't you take a nap?"

"I can keep working!" Deep down inside Anthony wanted to finish the projects he was working on because he knew that when they were done he could see his family again; his wife, children, brothers, parents, everyone.

Putting a hand on his younger brother's shoulder to reassure him, James spoke calmly. "Take a nap. We have the time to get things done, so let's take our time."

It was only a small obstacle, but it was enough to bring tears to Anthony's eyes. His gaze traveled down to the floor, his voice dwindling away to near nothing. "I can work." All he wanted was so see his family again, anything else was just slowing him down and keeping him from what he wanted.

"We have the time to take, so we're going to take that time." James stressed the point while putting his other hand on his younger brother's other shoulder, so that he could turn Anthony to look at him. He hurt to see Anthony hurting but wasn't going to stop. This was part of the way back to the righteous path for Anthony. In this pain was Anthony shedding the negative emotions that were sickening him. "Just an hour, ok?"

Wiping his eyes dry, Anthony breathed out a small sigh. "Ok." He turned and went to the bed, collapsing onto it listlessly. In an instant he was asleep.

"Is there aught I can bring you to assist his recovery?" Lady Sjofn looked over the firehawk, who looked wounded to not be able to continue upgrading Vanaheim's power flow. It was his family that he truly wanted to see. His talks with James as they were working told her of his desire to see those he loved most. As a sister in an ancient sisterhood, she could understand wanting to see those who were loved above all others.

There was one thing that would lift his younger brother's spirits, but he didn't want to send Lady Sjofn to get some.

The hesitation on James face told Lady Sjofn what she needed to know; that there was something but that he considered it beneath her to go and retrieve. The care, respect, and restraint he showed in what he asked her to do was wholly unexpected but appreciated as well. James showed her respect for her capabilities and standing instead of asking her to do everything for him. Between sloth and respect, she expected one and received the other. It made her more accepting of doing the occasional small task for him. "If there is aught, please tell me."

After another moment of consideration, he decided to talk to her about it, to respect her opinion, and maybe she would want some herself. "There's a little place on Midgard, in America, in New York state, in New York City called Ray's Pizzeria. They make a pretty mean pepperoni pizza that Anthony loves."

23May2023 – Afternoon

The Malibu California Mansion Of Anthony Edward Stark

There were several odd things happening in the room in front of them. They could feel the seidr as it was spent, though they couldn't tell who was spending that seidr. Frey's gaze went back and forth between the door to the room and Odin. When his gaze landed on Jay he saw that this was normal. Odin noticed the same thing.

After several minutes of bizarre feelings, Odin asked Jay about it. "Jay, is that James casting magics?" It didn't feel like it, but he couldn't be sure either. The feeling of the use of seidr stopped abruptly.

"Oh no, that's the auto-cast system. Father invented it, and he tests it and the Iron Flight here. Uncle Rhodey knows how the system works. It feels like he's using it for something." Jay looked towards the door to the room.

Curiosity entered Director Fury's thoughts as he watched the Kings worry over what was happening in the room. It was something that could be felt, but not by him. It was another reminder to him that he needed Loki to unlock him so that he and SHIELD could see what they were missing.

Opening the door for Frigga, James followed her out and back to the group who were waiting for them.

A very serious expression sat on Frigga's face. Flaring her seidr to Odin then Frey, she told them both, Pay close attention. This is one of Stark's Great Works. Her seidr raveled back to her ore as she addressed her troops. "Drengr, when we enter the room ahead will we escort the Lord to the green square on the floor by the control panel. While the demonstration is active the Lord will not leave this green square," she flared her seidr to her frequently-curious brother then, You won't either, then raveled it back, "Everyone stays in the green square until the system is completely powered down."

"Yes, my formadr!" Hirdmen Vilulf answered for the entire drengr. Flaring his seidr to the rest of the drengr in turn he reminded them, Be ready for anything.

"If everyone could make their way into the drone workshop and to the green square on the floor, I'll demonstrate the auto-cast system and the Iron Flight." James motioned to the door into the testing and control room.

Quickly and quietly the group made their way into the room, being guided over to the green square by the drengr around them. The Royal Guardsmen followed their formadr who returned to the place where she was standing just a few moments ago. "Drengr, you will form a line around the Lords on the inside the green line. Everyone else will stand at the center of the square. Truthspeaker, Director, please stay with the Lords," she met her grandson's gaze, "Prince Jay, please stay with Lord Odin."

"Yes ma'am, I will!" His grandmother seemed worried by the auto-cast system, and Jay didn't want to worry her further by pointing out things in the scenario and being near the mat.

Nodding once to Jay, she smiled lightly "Good." Turning back to the green line, and to James, she spoke again. "We're ready."

There was a faint light from inside the closed resting case by the wall that Sean could see. It looked like a seidr core but didn't feel like one. This was something different. The resting case stood next to a purple mat on the floor with a grid of lines drawn in orange seidr. Dozens of runes were branded onto the mat in orderly rows lining up with the grid lines. There were offensive runes that he recognized and others that he didn't know what they were. What is this thing? There was more arc reactors under the mat that didn't feel like seidr cores to Sean. They were powerful, whatever they were used for. From the mat to the green outline, there were runes there too. Then to the windows his gaze traveled. There was a Rune of Shield etched into the window and imbued with a tremendous amount of power. He wasn't sure what cataclysmic event could break the glass now, but bullets, lasers, and conventional explosives weren't it.