Last time...

"Ah, I see I'm not too late then." Snape stated, as he walked up to the party with Salazar. "The Weasleys and your shield brethren have joined the Malfoys. I believe Black and Lupin are in the throng of onlookers as well. Salazar decided to come with me instead of waiting."

"I've never been good at waiting either, as much as I've had to learn the patience for it." Hera remarked to Salazar, nodding in understanding, and made a gesture with her hand; expanding the table just a touch to accommodate the new arrivals. "Now, where was I?"

"Have you told them about your new status?" Salazar inquired, choosing to sit on her left.

"I haven't even told them about my old ones yet." Hera huffed, though her slight grin took away any sharpness her voice might have given to the statement.

"Status?" Pepper repeated, curious.

"I knew I'd end up telling this story a lot." Hera muttered under her breath, even as Snape began distributing the necklaces he kept on his person at all times now. "Really, Professor?"

"Considering the words you just spoke, are you really going to question me on this?" Snape reminded her. Looking to the others, he continued. "Keep these on you until you learn to shield your mind. Mr. Rhodes already has one."

"Alright, alright. I get it. Worst kept secret, and all that." Hera sighed, shaking her head fondly at the memory that statement brought up. "At this rate, I might as well just make a worldwide announcement that I was Loki in my last life, that his soul was sent back in time to become me, and that I recently ascended to godhood in my own right by accepting Magic's decree."

For a moment, it was quiet as the three muggles processed what she'd said, and then it happened.

"WHAT?!"

Chapter 118

"Perhaps you shouldn't have told them all at once." Salazar noted, after he'd silenced the lot of them. "They don't seem to be taking it well."

"The condensed version probably wasn't the best idea ever, no." Hera agreed, before her voice became stern. "You and I need to have a conversation about casting magic on muggles without their consent."

"They're muggles." Salazar countered; as if that proved his point. "What're they going to do?"

"It's not a matter of what they will or won't do. It's about respecting another persons autonomy, Salazar." Hera argued, arching an eyebrow as she glared at him. "Did you like having things done to you that you didn't consent to?"

Salazar glared at her, but shook his head no.

"Then undo the spell." She demanded. He seemed hesitant, his eyes darting to the other patrons, and Hera realized his concern. "There's a privacy ward up, and we're just slightly blurred enough that no one can read our lips. If anyone approaches this table, I will be alerted. Now, please, undo the spell, Salazar."

The reluctance did not seem to leave him, but he did undo the spell.

"Now, before you lot start in on me, Salazar has something he would like to say." Hera stated, then turned back to him. "Well?"

"You can't possibly be serious." Salazar objected, absolutely horrified.

Hera, unable to resist, shifted into Sirius before replying. "Actually, I can be Sirius. See?"

"You're impossible." He grumbled, blushing in embarrassment. "You really expect me to-"

"Yes, I do." Hera informed him, shifting back to herself instead of staying as Sirius in order to continue the conversation. "Please?"

Salazar sighed, face still red in embarrassment, unable to make eye contact with any of them. "My apologies for the use of magic on your persons without your permission, though I will not apologize for my reasons for doing so. You were about to make a scene, denying that Hera could be what she is, and I did not realize she had precautions already in place."

"Hey." Hera murmured softly, placing her hand on his shoulder, to which he responded by turning to face her. "That can't have been easy. I appreciate that you were willing to defend me, even when it wasn't necessary."

He only gave her a look of confusion, though something in his posture relaxed.

"Now that the dramatics are out of the way, perhaps you should explain what you meant before they implode." Snape reasoned, gesturing to Pepper and Happy, both of whom were gaping at her.

"Er…Right." Hera mumbled, fidgeting a bit. "To us, the term god can mean one of two things; divinity and power level."

"So…when you say you are a god…" Pepper trailed off, looking uncertain how to continue.

"I'm talking about the later definition, yes." Hera confirmed. "Technically, I am what was once called an Account, but no one recognizes the term anymore. I still haven't figured out how I do. I've not read or heard about it in either lifetime."

"We should probably order now." Snape reminded them, before his lips give a minute up-tick. "Wouldn't want to be late, would you? There are an awful lot of people who want to see what a god of magic can do."

"Ugh, don't remind me."

Once food was ordered, and the privacy wards back up, they all looked at her expectantly.

"Rhodey, I feel as if I should apologize. I've left this off till the last possible moment, and now they're finding out when you do." Hera sighed.

"There's no need." Rhodey waved off her concern with ease. "Besides, I knew you'd tell me eventually, though I'll admit that I wasn't quite expecting something like this. I can believe the Loki bit, and I have so many questions about that, but I haven't the foggiest what an Account is."

"I should probably start there." Hera agreed, before launching into it. "An Account holds a domain, or several. They account for the domain given to them, teach and inspire others, that sort of thing."

"So…like a guide or a teacher's aid?" Happy hazarded to guess.

"Exactly so," Hera nodded. "but inspiration can easily turn to worship, and to be worshipped is…seductive in a way few things can be. It's a powerful feeling, one the earliest of the Accounts lost themselves to, and one they did not try to curtail in later additions to their number."

"Is that what happened to who you were?" Pepper asked, regarding her with confusion and curiosity both.

"…Not entirely, though I imagine it didn't help. What happened to him is a much longer story than I have the time to tell here." Hera answered after thoughtful consideration. "In any case, that is what I mean when I say I am a god."

"Of what exactly?" Rhodey inquired. "I know a lot of the myths because of Tony, but I'm not familiar with the titles associated with him. I do remember some really messed up stories though."

"Lies spread by Sif and the Warriors Three, and I would thank you not to believe them." Hera warned, pinning him with a glare. "Fen and Jör are my familiars, as they would have been his had Oðin not done what he did, and Sleipnir was constructed in an effort to appease the cretin in the hopes that he wouldn't go after anything else Loki held dear."

"Glad those aren't true. They gave me the creeps." Rhodey proclaimed emphatically. Hera eyed him for a moment, before ending her glare at him. "So…titles?"

"You're as bad as Tony, I swear." Hera insisted with a fond sigh. "Alright then, full title it is. I believe the full title is as follows; god of Magic; of Mischief, Chaos, and Stories; of Lies and Hard Truths; of the Spark; Protector of Children. I'm also Princess of the Goblin Nation, thanks to a bit of idiocy on Thor's part and my refusal to wait to be rescued, which is how I found Fenrir. I think Frigga made me an unofficial Princess of Ásgarðr too. I'm also quite possibly a Princess of Jötunheimr as well, but I haven't been there yet, so I doubt it. Does that cover it all?"

"What about fire?"

"I really need to figure out who mistranslated that, and then wring their neck." Hera grumbled. "He wasn't a god of fire, and neither am I. It's an element of chaos, which is our domain, but that's it. He was remarkably resistant to it though, until he was weakened enough for it to affect him, and then he could be hurt by it just like anyone else."

"Looks like the foods here." Salazar noted, seeing the staff bringing things their way.

"Thank Merlin for that!"

"Wait. Merlin's real?"

While most of the tests had involved one on one interaction with the proctor assigned, and had had to be done away from prying eyes, there was one that did not. They'd grilled her about every piece of magic she knew in order to set up the field. Granted, while she knew a lot of magic they did not, that didn't mean she knew all of what magic could do. She was simply more open to the possibilities than they had allowed themselves to be. Just the questioning had taken days, because she had had to prove their incorrect assumptions several times before they would relent; not that she'd told them every bit of magic she knew, of course.

What she had not known at the time was that there were people behind a hidden screen that had been watching the interrogation as well. A mix of Unspeakables and delegates from around the world watched with much interest, grading her on tests she hadn't even known they were giving her at the time. That she was a god of Magic did not stop them from putting her through the ringer, and in fact the tests had probably been made more gruelling because of it. The break for lunch had been stressful, but it had still a breath of much needed fresh air, and now Tony and the others were in the crowd of onlookers as well. Now that the final test was upon her, she was curious to see what they'd done with the information given to them.

"Nervous?" One of the proctors asked quietly, having waited behind after the others had gone on ahead to observe the test. Her hesitant smile must have given her away, because they brought out a vial. "Here. It's a calming draught."

"Isn't that against the rules?" Hera inquired, surprised. She hadn't read that it was, but then one never knew with these sorts of things.

"Not to my knowledge." The man replied, handing her the vial. "Don't worry. It'll all be over soon."

Something was off, but she couldn't quite place what. As there was nothing wrong with the smell of the potion, she took it without a thought. Her nerves would burn through a good bit of it, but it would still provide clarity of focus…or that's what she'd thought. Upon taking the potion however, her eyesight had quickly faded to nothing, and she smelled the vial again. There were few potions that were odourless before drinking, but fewer that left a smell once the vial had been drained, and it was one of those she was dealing with now.

"Something wrong?"

"My eyesight." She informed him, her heart beginning to race. "It's gone."

"Oh. Is that all?" The Proctor questioned, sounding disappointed even as their voice began to change. "Pity. I had hoped it would kill you. I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way then."

"…What?"

She didn't have time to say more. An unknown force knocked into her, sending her flying into what felt like a stone wall seconds later. If she hadn't already had an experience like that, she wouldn't have known, but now she recognized the sound of falling rubble settling around her. Her breath came in short gasps, as she was unable to take a full breath without a piercing pain in her lungs. Disoriented, she couldn't help but twitch and cringe away from the vibrating lines she could almost see around her, belatedly realizing that this was what Matt had described when his sight had been first taken from him; what he 'saw' when he wasn't around magic.

…

"Something's wrong." Severus warned them, discretely looking around the stadium and arena.

"I'll say." Stark commented, his quipped humour not hiding the worry in his voice. "She hit that wall hard enough to shatter the stone."

"No, look. Her eyes." Severus corrected, handing the man the omnioculars he'd been holding. "They've gone white."

"Someone had to have gotten to her before the test." Salazar realized. "What do we do?"

"…I might have an idea."

…

~Potter?~

"…Professor!" Hera gasped, still trying to get her bearings. "I can't…I can't breathe…I can't see…How does Matt…How does Matt do this?…"

~Time your breaths. Concentrate on the thrum of vibrations around you and they will solidify into something you can recognize. I suggest you hurry. Whoever blinded you will be coming through those doors at any moment. Now focus!~

Hera tried focussing on her breathing, and found that as she calmed herself down the vibrations almost solidified around her into more cohesive shapes. Snape must have spent time questioning Matt on the potions effects thus far. She had no idea how he would know that stuff otherwise. Even so, there was something different about what she was seeing verses what Matt had described to her. She could see the wisps of magic in the air, and if she concentrated hard enough she could see how it followed the shapes that vibrated into something almost like opacity.

Getting up proved to be more challenging than anticipated, but she managed to push herself up at least part of the way, though her arms shook with the effort. It was just in time for whoever she'd brassed off to walk through what had to be the now broken and unhinged doors. The person was almost too bright to see, but as things settled around them, Hera noted the purple glow that seemed to define the edges of the one that had attacked her. A cold feeling settled in her gut even as anger raged within her. This may have been just a test before, but now it was about keeping the crowd around her safe, and she wasn't sure she'd be enough.

"I have got to stop doing that." Hera grunted under her breath, as another wave of pain went through her. Keeping her attention on the figure, she pulled herself the rest of the way out of the rubble. "Come to die then, Mr. Nott? You don't have much time left, you know."

It could be no one else.

"You should have died the day you dared try to take my mark from me!"

She couldn't see him, not in the way she could see before, but that was all the confirmation Hera needed.

"I offered you a way out, a choice, a chance to be with your son without the worry of your magic being drained from you or being forced to offer up your child like a lamb to the slaughter." Hera reminded him. "It's not my fault you forsook your son and chose a fate worse than death. That's on you."

"I'll die now either way. Might as well make you suffer before I go." Nott Sr. snarled.

It was odd to know that and not see it, and she still couldn't look directly at where he was; the power stone putting out more waves of magic than she'd ever tried to see at once.

"It doesn't have to be this way. You can still come back from this." Hera tried, even though she knew it wouldn't work. "You'll die, yes, but you can still make things right with your son. Don't throw that chance away."

She was barely able to shield herself from the blast of power he sent her way, and for a time there was no more talking.

…

The rumbling of the stone around him was his first note that something had gone wrong in the time he'd been away, and he rolled his eyes at the thought that he could have ever been fooled by her 'It wasn't me, I'm innocent' act. However, he was soon shocked by what he discovered. A grizzled looking man was attacking the girl in what looked to be an arena. There were even people in the stands; one in particular he'd never expected to see alive again. Tony Stark sat in the stands, watching with worry etched into his every feature.

"Professor!" The girl shouted, suddenly there. "Professor, you've got to-" She startled upon seeing him. "Oh! When did Strange get here? Are we friends now?"

The surprised glare the rather dour looking fellow in black leveled at him was all the answer she needed, because she waved her hand dismissively and moved on.

"Doesn't matter. He can help." She insisted, turning her attention to him. "We've got to get everyone out of here. The building isn't going to be able to take the stress of two infinity stones fighting each other. I'm keeping things contained for now, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

"How are you even doing this?" He demanded, gesturing from her to the arena.

The precariousness of the situation decided to make itself known once more as a long groan sounded with the rumble of the stone around them.

"Less chatting, more evacuating." The girl snapped, and made shooing motions with her hands. "Now get going."

…and promptly disappeared…

"Alright, I'll go get Madam Bones and see if she can help me wrangle the Minister." A rather regal looking blond man declared. "Stark?"

"Nope. I'm staying." The man in question replied, stubborn and resolute.

"Very well." The regal blond nodded as though expecting such a reply. "Narcissa and I will help with the evacuation, and then we'll return."

"You really shouldn't." Stephen felt the need to point out. The man barely paid him more than a passing glance before he was gone. "Stark, you need to get out of here."

"Sure thing, Shakespeare in the park." Stark sassed, arching an eyebrow at him. "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"*

"There's no reason for you to be here." Stephen insisted more urgently. There were bits of stone falling from the ceiling now, and dust along with it.

"No reason?" Stark repeated, his face twisted in anger as he pointed down to the arena. "That's my sister down there trying to hold off the force of one of the building blocks of the universe, and you view that as no reason for me to be here?"

"Your…your sister?" Stephen repeated, eyes wide in shock; which must have been enough to assuage Stark, because his anger dissipated as worry returned. Stephen looked down to where the girl was.

"What're you about to do?" Stark demanded.

"I have questions that need answering, and I can't question her if she's dead." Stephen stated, not wishing to reveal his reasons for what he was about to do.

When he stepped through the portal, he realized he'd arrived just in time to be faced with a blast of the Power stone with no time to recover. He was not expecting one of the strongest magical shields he'd ever encountered to encompass him. The girl stood in front of him, where she had most certainly not been before, with her back facing him as she concentrated on the shield; staff in hand. When she chanced a look back at him, he could see bits of blood and the beginnings of bruises, but most importantly he could see how scared she was; though her fully white eyes did unnerve him a bit. This wasn't a fight she could win, not on her own.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She demanded, a mixture of anger and worry in her voice. "I told you to help them evacuate!"

"If you hadn't noticed, I don't take orders from you." Stephen reminded her, which just made her snort in derision.

"No, you're too busy being the TVA's bitch boy." She sneered in his direction, before giving her full attention back to her current predicament. "Well? Get on with it then. My back is turned and everything. You're not going to get a better shot than the one you have now."

"You're not going to be able to deal with him like this for long." Stephen stated, taking in the situation, ignoring her earlier comments. "Which of the infinity stones do you have?"

"Soul." She admitted quickly. "You have the Time stone, but it's…shielded somehow. The magic of it looks a bit like my special time turner."

"Time turner?"

He wasn't expecting her to slam the staff into the stone, but it stayed upright when she turned to him.

"It'll maintain the shield on its own for a bit, but we have to make this quick." The girl informed him, turning around as she felt at her neck and pulled out a necklace he recognized. "This is a time turner. Now, how can it help us?"

"That's not…I don't know what a time turner is, but that is the Eye of Agamoto." Stephen corrected, indignant. "It's the casing for the Time stone. How did you get it?"

"You're really going to grill me about this now?" The girl demanded, her voice reaching shrill pitches at his rather ridiculous need to get his answers at that exact moment. "I don't care what it's called or how I got it! Can it help us or not?!"

The floor beneath them began to groan.

"It can, but you're not going to like how." He informed her. "It's how I defended the world from Dormammu."

"Dorma…" She barely managed, going a sickly sort of pale at the name. "Someone was crazy enough to summon Dormammu into this dimension?"

"They were in my timeline," Stephen revealed. "so I went to meet with him in the Dark dimension to bargain."

"He'd have killed you…How did you…" She declared, before coming to the realization he had all those years ago. "The one thing that dimension is…"

"…is outside of time. Yes, I know." Steven acknowledged. "We won't have to go there for this, but it's the only way I can think of that we have a shot of ending this without killing everyone else."

He knew the exact moment she realized what he meant. Her face fell, and she chanced a look back to the stands where he knew Stark to be. He wasn't sure what she could see with her eyes being as they were, though he knew she could see magic in a way he didn't understand. The choice seemed to weigh on her as it had him, but then she stood straighter, her face the very picture of resolute. Her choice made, she would not yield, and he wondered what else he had been wrong about…or if he would even get the chance to find out.

"…Very well." She decided. "Show me how. Don't ask questions. Just do it."

Quickly, Stephen guided her through the steps, wary of the staff sinking ever so slightly into the ground as he did so…and the cracks that were cutting through the stone floor around them.

"I think I've got it." She announced. "I've just got to send a message, and then we can see this through."

"You'd better make it quick or we really will only have one shot at this."

…

~Professor…I don't know if my friends will have listened and have evacuated with the others, but you have to get Tony out of there…If this doesn't work…Get him out of there, Professor~

*Avengers Quote. I couldn't resist. I mean, the man's wearing a red cape and everything. There's no way Tony Stark lets that slide without comment ^_^