Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or DC

Loki Season 2 was one of the better projects Marvel made in that phase of its universe, the ending too I felt fit Loki's character progression.

This chapter includes some more canon changes. Now please let it be noted this is not me 'fixing' canon, if you like what Marvel has done good on you, I'm trying to tell a story using some established canon and at least trying to make the revelations work within this universe.

Hope everyone enjoys


Universal Collisions: Secret Crisis

Chapter 14: Sons of gods

The skies of Corban flashed with lightning and fire, Loki and the Multiversal refugees looked up at the display in awe and fear. Loki looked up at first and remarked how much he had missed watching his brother fight. But through the clouds of blood and waves of enemies, Loki saw something quite different in his brother.

"Are you my uncle Loki?" the little girl asked.

Loki looked at her oddly, his focus on the battle distracted when he saw the little girl. Having lived amongst a powerful witch and walked amongst even more powerful artefacts, Loki recognised the smell. This girl wasn't a mere mortal, in fact it might have been a struggle to call her a girl too. There was something else, something far too eerie to ignore about the girl, something only someone like him could pick up on.

"I am indeed, pray tell what tales has my brother told of me?" Loki asked, putting on his practiced grin.

"That you were the saddest waste of potential he had ever met," she said.

Loki knew his brother, knew his sentimentality, so perhaps that was what Thor thought of him.

'Or perhaps,' Loki looked up at the sky again and saw the lightning flash. 'Perhaps someone is playing a trick on me,' he thought bitterly.

Many hundreds of years ago, Jotunheim

Loki gripped his sides, laughing with Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral as Thor came up the rocky hill behind them. As well as carrying his axe Jarnbjorn, the young god of thunder was also wearing a rather striking white dress.

"I'm glad you all found it so amusing," Thor seethed.

"I don't know brother, you made for quite a ravishing bride," Loki said.

"I can't believe the idiots actually fell for it," Fandral said.

"I can't believe you cut the ceremony short, the giants may have little in the taste of women and wine but their food certainly looked divine," Volstagg said.

"Only because of the portion sizes," Hogun added.

"It worked though didn't it, we recovered the norn stones," Loki tossed the bag of pebbles up and down.

"Aye, and the giants will never forget the wrath of the mighty Thor," Thor said, holding his axe up high.

"More like the fabulous Thor," Loki said and the warrior's three burst into laughter.

Their laughter came just as the bifrost opened, the five Asgardian warriors walked through the portal back towards the golden city. But their smiles of amusement and yearning for celebration was cut short when they saw the figure standing beside Heimdall, the most feared being in all of Asgard, whose power and wrath rivalled even the great devourer.

"Mum," Thor and Loki yelped.

"Is that one of my dresses?" she asked, gesturing to Thor's garb.

Of course Odin never found out, because at the time he was too busy sleeping. As the king of Asgard and All-Father snored, his wife held her two mewling boys by their ears and dragged them back to the palace.

"Not only did you ruin a perfectly fine silk dress, you also bullied Heimdall into opening a portal to Jotunheim, risked breaking our treaty with them and risked your own lives in the process, now I understand the call for adventure all too well my dears, but as princes of Asgard you have responsibilities," Frigga explained.

"What responsibilities mother, to revel in food and wine, to dance and sing and enjoy peace?" Loki asked.

"I would have no problem with that," Thor grinned.

"Whilst others out there suffer, ignored by their gods," Loki said and a more solemn look crossed Thor's face.

"Oh my boys," Frigga shook her head, grabbing both their shoulders.

"What is it mother?" Thor asked.

"I'm just remembering when you were both children, oh Loki, you would sit in your bedroom playing with your toys," she said.

"HA! That fits," Thor slapped Loki's shoulder, the trickster rubbing his arm and shooting an annoyed look.

"You'd imagine all these scenarios, heroes saving people, and then Thor came in, kicked all your toys away and encouraged you to come out and play with the other children," Frigga explained.

"They kept their distance though," Loki muttered.

"But you were never alone, your brother was right there with you, I see you both now, young men, still with thousands of years left of your lives to make mistakes. You know, you're both very different than your father was," Frigga smiled and winked as Loki and Thor widened their eyes.

"Father was worse than us?" Thor asked.

"Oh the arrogance of that man, even today," she chuckled.

"Says the woman who refers to herself as the wisest person in Asgard," Loki muttered and again Thor smacked his arm.

"I think it is wisdom my boys, to see the best in both of you, you'll both bring out the best in one another I'm sure, because you're more than just the sons of Odin," Frigga explained.

That smile remained in Loki's mind, remained there for hundreds of years since.

"You did look oh so good in that dress though brother," he jibed, whilst suppressing a tear, knowing he would disappoint.


The sky flashed in the present, Loki looked up at that sky as a great fire raged alongside the lightning. Suddenly, something crashed into the ground and that ground shook. The demons gathered, flying around the refugees and then they struck. Their hands passed through ethereal energy, the refugees had been a construct. Loki slid his sword through one of the demons, tossing it into others. As he did, he grabbed the staff weapon the parademon used and began wielding it like a spear. One Parademon was pierced in the heart, another clobbered around the head. Loki slammed the staff into the ground and swung around on it, kicking another Parademon back.

'Finally,' his melee assault was only temporary; as he fought he studied the weapon too.

Upon finding the trigger, a mechanism across the staff, he rotated it and unleashed a beam of light from the weapon. It crashed through two of the Parademons. There was a rush of air and Loki felt Thor fly past him, hammer in hand, clashing with his own opponent. He wasn't human, but possessed the humanoid features. His skin was a dark purple colour; the hair that stuck out of his black and gold helmet was wild and white. He was Thor's equal in muscle, arms, thighs, abs, hands and feet exposed through the plates of black and gold armour he wore, armour that had red jewels decorating his gauntlets, chest plate, belt and the forehead of his helmet. The alien warlord delivered a flurry of punches to Thor's face, each one powerful enough to unleash a miniature shockwave. Strong, unrelenting, his eyes began to burn before he unleashed a beam, hitting Thor's chest plate.

"You have us at a disadvantage," Loki said.

"Grayven, son of Darkseid, that is all that any of us need know," the man with the glowing eyes said.

He was about to fire at Loki when something else came down from the sky. A man landed on top of Grayven, hitting him with a golden club. The blow had weight and strength to it, Loki nearly fell as the ground shook again. He looked to the new arrival, who stood tall over Grayven, hefting the club onto his shoulder. A muscle head like Thor, his 'armour' left some of that muscle as exposed as Grayven was, brown straps and green plates across the chest, gold and green skirt armour with old green boots styled after Greek sandals. There it was the design that inspired the ancient Greeks, the Olympians.

"Oh great," Loki muttered.

His brother did idolise Zeus, never really heeding Frigga's words of caution and Odin's rants about the man's arrogance and infidelities. There was little sun on the planet, yet light came through the clouds and shined off of the gold crown/helmet the brown haired man wore.

"Hercules, son of Zeus," he declared, smiling in a way that reminded Loki of his brother.

Or rather, who his brother used to be.


Earth 2149

The planet no longer belonged to the living; it was dominated by the dead. What was left of the Nova Corps cordoned off the planet, establishing a galaxy wide barrier in order to keep people from fleeing.

"Please, we just want to leave this place," said Riri Williams, the girl stood inside a ship she had designed with Wakandan tech.

For Niko Minoru, Gertrude Yorkes and Chase Stein, there was really no choice but to Runaway, which was the story of their lives really. Their friends on Earth had become like everyone else on the planet, dead, or close to it. The only hope they had was to escape, taking the opportunity Riri and the Skrull G'iah offered. The daughter of Talos, she looked at the Nova Centurion, Roman Dey.

"Lift the barrier, we were able to get out," she said.

Dey lowered his head, turning away and looking to the screens of the other captains judging the situation.

"They've got balls I'll give them that, I say let them through," Stakar Ogord of the Ravagers said.

Cosmic energy surrounded the man, alongside his battle suit it provided him with air and propulsion to fly through space. He looked at the ship from the other side of the golden barrier with respect in his eyes. A respect Dey would usually have, but Xander had suffered, he had suffered. He thought of his people, his family, slaughtered by Thanos, his daughter unworthy of being adopted by the mad Titan.

"We'll trust the standards of a thief of course," a voice scoffed over the radio.

She stood with the smug superiority most of her race had before the Devastator destroyed their Supreme Intelligence. Wearing black robes that Dey once would have mocked as churchlike, Dar-Benn was anything but forgiving.

"Keep the barrier closed, shoot them down if they attempt to break through," she slammed the staff of her hammer against the ground with her declaration.

"This barrier was formed to keep the disease spreading Nova, for all we know these primitive dullards could be carrying it on their clothes, best to dispose of them now," but even the Kree's smugness was eclipsed by that of the High-Evolutionary.

The man (if Dey could have called him that) stood on a stool just so he would look tall for his declaration, the face that matched his grotesque nature was covered by a mask of flesh. He spoke in a condescending manner, finger raised like a parent scolding a child.

"They have come a long way from the cavemen your people and mine experimented on…whoever you are," the red and silver garbed survivor of Titan and Eternal Eros jibbed, casting his sympathies for planet Earth.

A vast pressure was suddenly cast over the ships, and an even greater shadow was cast over Dey in judgement.

"Earth is a danger, but it has also been a source, of power, of heroes, keep in mind Roman Dey as you cast judgement, it is not just the virus that is imprisoned on that world," the voice seemed to echo through Dey's mind, something he found even more terrifying than the great Celestial Arishem looking over the world.

For a moment Dey thought he saw another being, watching him come to his decision. The Celestial was right; it was more than just a virus being contained on Earth.

In a way Thanos had gotten his wish, from America the Quantum virus Hank Pym unleashed when he tried to save his wife spread out across continents. Victims had not just an urge to consume, but to multiply, drawing more into the collective. Governments tried to maintain order, but broke down, as Thanos's intent for most planets he came to was achieved. Half of Earth's population became the undead, more fell to the conflict for resources, for shelter, or just because the people left were driven mad by the world they now inhabited. Earth had become a wasteland where greenery died, roads crumbled and gangs ruled whilst avoiding the zombie horde.

One such shelter, built into a small mountain had fresh blood stains on the walls, the bodies were long gone but there was still old sofas, gasoline tanks connected to computer displays and ventilation equipment. Coolant units were also there for food, UV lamps for seeds and a rack where rifle shells had been scattered with weapons retrofitted with mundane materials. There was a crackle of thunder as Flash arrived, carrying Aeon and Luthor with him. The speed force's cancelation of physics stopped and Barry shoved the heavy Lex Luthor forward.

"Nice, your own little man cave of the apocalypse, how many people did you have to kill for this place?" the speedster asked.

"Believe it or not he was worse than me," Luthor smirked, pointing over his shoulder at a glass tube.

Sven's eyes widened, seeing a deformed Hulk clone with cybernetic implants. If he was alive he would have been just barely functional, his legs weren't large enough to support the huge muscular mass his right side had become.

"The guy who owned it had an enlarged cranium, arrogant enough to call himself Leader," Lex said.

"Jealous you didn't think of it first?" Flash asked.

"Of course I am," Lex grinned.

"How are you here?" Sven asked, rubbing his side, where his absent arm should be.

"I teamed up with another version of myself…"

"Oh let me guess, he betrayed you and sent you here," Barry said.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure that out," Lex huffed.

"You don't have a way to get out of here?" Sven asked.

"Young man I have been dodging zombies and mad max cosplayers, and of course through this I have composed a brilliant idea to get myself out of this, all it requires is an adequate power source, which I have already located," Lex explained.

"Except if you were as awesome as you said, you would have had it by now," Sven said.

"He's got you dead to rights there Lex," Barry grinned.

"Oh please, Mr Allen your bravado may be enough to overcome that inferior version of me but I am a far superior mind, and charm if I don't say so myself," Lex smiled looking at himself in the reflection of one of the screens.

"Who the heck is Mr Allen?" Flash asked.

"Again oh please, your counterpart on my world makes it abundantly obvious, removing his mask for anyone with a sob story, plus considering the bone head move my Earth's Supergirl made by revealing her identity, it didn't take long to deduce the identities of every friend she had in Central and Star City. But alas that little creepy shit counterpart of mine from your disorganised world ended the plans I had for your League's counterpart on my Earth," Lex explained.

"Again, you're making pretty clear you're intentions, why the heck would we help you?" Sven asked.

"You're obviously eager to prove how better you are than me, as 'people' that is, since your lot thinks morality and decency is the measure of a person," Lex said, smirking as he looked between Flash and Aeon.

In the end Aeon sighed, leaning against the gun work bench.

"You're right," he said, touching the Socom with a silencer made from an aerosol can. "We do want to think of ourselves as better people, we want to be better, to do better, to be good and just and right, I can only imagine what kind of world we're in now, a world without hope," he suddenly pointed the pistol at Lex, who stood unafraid, for a moment.

"I'm tired…" Sven began, voice wavering. "Not of being good, but of people like you…who take advantage, who just take, and take and take!" he snarled, his voice beginning to echo as his finger lingered over the trigger.

He spotted it, one bead of sweat from Lex's head, his lip twitching in a micro expression of anger and outrage. How dare this young man oppose him, try to embarrass him, and in that moment Sven got the full measure of what kind of man Lex was, every betrayal to expect, and everything he needed to do in order to oppose Lex's plans no matter how much they might have benefitted him.

"Tell me, what do…you have to do to get us someplace else?" Sven asked.

Lex pushed a button on his gauntlet, turning on the screens behind him. His grin made Sven's hand shake as he put the pistol back on the bench. Blueprints and maps were suddenly displayed on the screen, designs Sven recognised from news articles and fan sites on Tony Stark.

"I believe you call it an Arc reactor," Lex said.


Legion of Doom headquarters

Clark sat on a chair, adjusting the boot of his suit, mulling over everything. His supposed 'cousin' retreated to part of the hall with Kate Kane, Bruce's supposed cousin. He kept an internal body clock, Kendra mourned, the Ms Marvel girl tried to ignore her trauma, whilst everyone else waited and dealt with what was going on around them in their own ways. In a place where numerous otherworldly and outright insane villainous variations of different vehicles had been based, Shang-Chi looked at these designs, thinking of how much Katy would love to drive a Porsche based on a bald guy's green and purple armour.

"Are you okay?" Shang turned towards Jefferson Pierce.

Black Lightning had grown comfortable enough to take off his goggles, standing in front of the martial artist with his arms crossed.

"Honestly, I'm fine, and that's the problem, I keep thinking how I shouldn't be okay with this," Shang said.

"I figured you for military, or some kind of fighter considering the scars and shape of your knuckles," Black Lightning said.

"I park cars for a living," Shang said and Jefferson looked at him sceptically.

"This wasn't the life I expected to be living; honestly, I was trying to get away from even a fraction of the insanity this kind of life was. I wanted something as mundane as parking cars and greeting hotel guests, minimum wage, but safe, ordinary," the young man explained and Jefferson nodded his head.

"I kept trying to get away, but this life, it pulls you back, my marriage fell apart because of it. But despite this, we still found one another, the children I feared would become a part of this life still became a part of it," Jefferson said.

"You didn't encourage them?" Shang asked.

"I tried to stop them, my oldest was moving toward it before she even found out who I was."

"My father…he kept me out of it, until my mother died, and then he pushed me, trained me, subjected me to whatever brutal method of training I needed to go through and I went through it gladly. I would have burned the world just to please him, I killed to please him," Shang rubbed his head, letting out a deep breath. "After that I realised that, I couldn't be who he said I should be, I didn't want these rings of his," he looked at the bands on his arms.

"Maybe that's what makes you worthy of using them, more worthy than he was," Jefferson said.

Shang shook his head, burying his face in his hands.

"Hey, there's something I tell my students, my kids and myself, questions we should be asking ourselves, what's your name?" Jefferson asked.

"Call me Shaun."

"Okay Shaun, whose life is this?"

Shang looked at the man, who motioned to him; eyes alight with encouragement and certainty.

"Think about it, you need to think about your life, who it belongs to in this moment, but try and try not to think about your dad, about your team, who else is left after that?" he asked.

"My friends Katy and her family, my mother's family," Shang answered, though his voice was filled with uncertainty.

"Good, it's good to have people in your life, but there is the emphasis, whose life is it?"

"My life," Shang realised.

"Exactly, and what are you going to do with that life?" Jefferson asked.

"I suppose the only thing I can do, live it," Shang said.

"By any means necessary, because the future is right here, in every choice that you make, whether it's being part of a team, or just taking another person's car to park, you make the choice everyday to live life the way you dictate, not the way he dictated," Jefferson explained.

"And you, are you living your life the way you dictate?" Shang asked.

Jefferson looked at him for a moment, taken aback by what he said.

"My aunt, she once said to me that we are a product of all who have come before us, our parents, not just them, but all that we have experienced in life, good or bad, what we choose to ignore or accept, it all influences us, we can deny that or embrace that and use it to move forward," the young man explained and the teacher smiled.

Smiled as he had been taught something, whilst Shang himself also considered something too. He considered where his future was, who his life truly belonged to, and what he was going to do with it.

Peter kept his mask on, a contrast to Kamala who had her mask off. The girl was sitting on the floor, holding her domino mask with one hand with the other resting on her knee. He recognised a teen hero, as did another in the room, mulling over the very same equations and plans that Peter was. Batman cast a shadow over Kamala, who looked nervously up at him.

"Hi," she said.

"Was that your first time seeing someone die?" he asked.

Peter's eyes narrowed slightly at the League's vigilante.

"Well there was the time one of the red daggers…that's a vigilante group in my world," she clarified and Batman nodded. "He killed one of the Clandestines, who are Djinns from the Noor dimension, then another Clandestine killed him and I kind of didn't have time to really process that when I got sent into the past, I found my way back just in time to stop the Clandestines, who were trying to open a portal to the Noor dimension except it ended up vaporising them and…I saw a lot of death in a small amount of time, it was all so quick and my mom and dad were there for me afterwards," Kamala explained.

She swallowed, lowering her head and taking a deep breath.

"My uncle," Peter said. "He died because of a choice I made, and I forgot just how much of a hero he really was. I fell so in love with the concept of being Iron man's student that I forgot that I had already met one of the greatest men out there, and I even forgot the lesson he was trying to teach me, and in the end I lost…"

"Ducktales!"

The two teen heroes looked at the supposedly dark and brooding vigilante in shock.

"Ducktales," he said again, his expression was clear and without doubt.

"Woohoo!" Peter whispered.

"That…actually worked," Kamala remarked.

"How though?"

"Distraction, reduces stress, you watched something terrible happen, but it isn't over yet, focus on what you can do and then get back to those who can support you," Batman explained.

"What if it's better for us to stay away from those who can support us?" Peter asked.

"Then it's probably better for you to do that, question is can you really keep doing this without them in your life?"

'Giving people something to think about Bruce,' Clark inwardly smirked at his friend's way of helping the two kids.

He looked to the Avengers's leader, sitting, his cowl off and looking at the goggles in his hand.

"There's not much we can do other than rest," Superman said, walking as opposed to flying to Sam's side.

"Rest and think," Sam retorted.

"And I'm guessing your thoughts are pretty negative considering what's happened," Clark said.

"I'm supposed to be the guy keeping people together," Sam sighed.

"Social worker?"

"On the side, I mostly talked to soldiers suffering from trauma, but what can you say to the woman who has just lost the love of her life?" Sam motioned to Kendra.

"I'm sensing you have a bit of trauma yourself, and it's to do with that costume you're wearing right?" Clark asked.

"When 'Steve' made me Captain America, I gave up the shield, and then when it seemed abundantly clear that the world needed a Captain America who wasn't under government control, I took up the shield again. Only it turns out, I was just under 'their' control; it was never because the world needed Captain America," Sam explained.

Clark sat beside the Avenger, keeping the smile on his face.

"I don't think you believe that yourself Sam, you know outside of this," he pointed at the shield on his chest. "I'm a journalist, and something I've learned throughout my career is that the best lies are based on truth, seeing the man you are I have no doubt that Rogers would have chosen you to take up the mantle, because he believed more than anything that Captain America, in fact any kind of hero didn't need to be a soldier first, but a good man!"

Sam smiled and shook his head.

"I did it for my nephews, saw them playing with that fake shield and I thought, 'Captain America is for everyone,' but Captain America isn't me, it was always Steve," Sam said.

"But right now you're the best they've got!"

Sam and Clark yelped slightly, the latter rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration at Bruce's reappearing act.

"He does that," Clark said.

"My counterpart is working on it, and no doubt the people left behind in your world will also realise at this point that they've been deceived, we need to keep our options open too and look at other potential methods," Bruce explained.

Kara watched the exchange from a distance, her arms crossed over her chest and biting her lip.

"What's wrong?" she yelped softly, turning to Batwoman. "Don't tell me you're feeling sorry for yourself," she said.

"What Sinestro said does bother me, but it's everything else, our world, this darkness, everything that Oliver sacrificed," Kara explained.

"We've had it bad before Kara, something tells me Oliver won't show up to lead the way, but that doesn't mean we aren't alone in this, we've got big brains on our world and presumably these Avengers and this League has the same," Batwoman explained.

"The marks of destiny are their objectives, yet we weren't their priority, for a moment I thought former paragons could be it but a little girl, and what will they do to her…"

"Danvers stop, don't keep thinking about everything that can go wrong, focus on what you can do, which is getting your head back in the space to fight. We're both rusty," Kate Kane huffed as she removed her cowl.

"What are you doing?"

"Not a lot of point hiding, different face now remember, I can tell by the jaw lines that both these Batmen aren't doppelgangers of my cousin, I wonder if a Kate Kane even exists in their world," Kate said.

"He says yes," Clark called over to them and Kate shook her head as Kara smiled.

Kate put her mask back on and walked over to the leaders with Kara.

"I thought I would get used to seeing a different face on my cousin," she said.

"I'm still getting used to the concept of another Kryptonian survivor," Clark said.

"A whole colony survived on my world, my cousin and his wife are raising their children there," Kara said.

"So you basically have an entire planet of people with your powers?" Sam asked.

"Before you suggest bringing them into this Wilson, keep in mind some of these people have no combat experience at all, and can't practice restraint," Bruce explained.

"We lose our abilities under a red sun," Kara said.

"Thanks for telling them our weakness cousin," Clark smiled as Kara blushed.

Batwoman looked over Batman's shoulder, seeing he was looking at a watch.

"Presumably the mechanism would be working regardless of how time was passing here," she mused and he nodded.

"It could potentially affect us biologically as well, a whole century might be going by and we wouldn't be affected, though this could also be outside of space and time," he explained.

"We haven't lost hope yet," Clark said.

"No we haven't," Sam finally smiled, looking around the room.

He realised that they still had team mates missing.


Steve continued his advance through the corridors, peeking out of the corners for the patrols. He retreated into a small room when a group of bulky looking Skrulls came by.

"All this effort for one meagre human," one of them said.

"Don't forget what Danvers did on Talos's ship," said another.

"Yeah well she was powered by an infinity stone, she may have been a small thing, but she could punch through a flarking wall, from what I understand this guy just runs well and throws stuff, how much of a threat is that?" the Skrull asked.

Steve answered, jumping out of his hiding place and slamming his knee into the face of one of the guards. He flipped, kicking the Skrull that had been more cautious. Using the butt of his stolen rifle, Steve delivered a series of strikes to the knees and jaw of the Skrull that underestimated him. Steve followed up with a punch that brought the Skrull to the ground. Picking up their weapons, Steve brushed back his hair and sighed in relief.

"That much," he said.

He was about to move when he saw something on the floor. It was tiny, and walking, he could even hear the patter of feet. Suddenly, the purple, black and silver object grew until it was just a foot or so underneath Steve. The suit was like Lang's, but it was clearly a younger girl, who raised her hands as Steve reached for his rifle.

"Hey, hey it's cool, it's cool, oh my god, wow, Cap," she folded the helmet back, revealing a dark haired girl with awe in her eyes.

"Who are you?" Steve demanded.

"I'm Cassie Lang sir," she said.

"Cassie Lang, no, you definitely aren't her, you look too different," Steve aimed the rifle at her and she stepped back.

"No, no, I'm really Cassie Lang I swear, a couple of years have gone by since you were taken, we had no idea that the Skrulls had replaced you but Sam, he's done brilliantly," Cassie explained.

Steve though did not lower the weapon, the barrel thrummed and he took an aggressive step forward. Cassie shrunk, jumping defensively, but not in Steve's eyes. He swatted her back, slamming her against the wall.

"You Skrulls are imaginative I'll give you that, I certainly would have picked Sam if I didn't already think Falcon was enough to keep the Avengers going, if the Avengers were even needed at all," Steve explained.

He was about to shoot when he heard something. The sound as slightly distorted, due to size and the fact that Cassie was wearing a helmet. But when she grew to full size, and folded back her helmet, Steve saw that she was crying.

"Okay, maybe I am a Skrull, I don't know, would any of us even know? All I know is that I had a ridiculous birthday celebration with a god awful cake, with a man I thought was my dad. But he wasn't, my real dad and a woman I love like a second mom is either dead, or stuck in the Quantum realm, and I couldn't find them, I couldn't see what the Skrulls had done and I don't know if it's because I'm part of it or, or I'm as much of a screw up as my mom always told me my dad was," Cassie explained.

The tears ran down her face and she sat on the floor rubbing her eyes. Steve kept the gun raised for a moment, looking her over. Then the part of him Erskine believed in took hold and he lowered the rifle slightly. He couldn't see a Skrull, only a young girl filled with self doubt and lost. Captain America stood over her and finally lowered his gun.

"I don't know if you're just playing a really good game, or if you really are Scott Lang's daughter, but your father, your real father, he came to Germany with me because Sam asked him, not me, I didn't even know he existed and I was doubtful about bringing others into our mess. But your dad answered the call, he came, he fought, he risked his life by taking a chance on being able to grow instead of shrink, and when he was imprisoned, and we got him out, he wanted to stay so that he could take a plea bargain, for you," as he spoke, he began to relax more, offering the girl his hand.

A hand she took, the grief in her eyes replaced with respect and awe. Finally, she understood why her father respected Captain America so much.

"You're wearing that suit Ant-woman," he said.

"Actually, I'm not so sure on Ant-woman, I've been brain storming ideas, Stinger, Kate thought of Stature," she nervously put her hands behind her back, fidgeting as Steve chuckled.

"Thank you Stature, all right then, give me an update on the situation, whilst we run," Steve said.

Again he offered her his hand; Cassie flipped down the visor of her helmet and shrunk, stepping off of Steve's hand and onto his shoulder. She held tight as Steve ran, and told him of their little Secret Crisis.


Korban

Hercules, it had to be Odin damned Hercules.

'Sorry father,' Loki thought, shielding his face from the rubble that was thrown across the region.

Thor rose, lighting crackling through his hammer as he threw it at Grayven. The son of an unknown god only turned his head slightly, firing fierce red beams from his eyes that struck Mjolnir. The mixture of lighting, and what Loki dubbed 'omega energy' surged across the planet. Loki felt the ground beneath him rise; he jumped to dodge the torrent of clashing energy. His vision passed to Hercules, hiding for a moment behind his shield before he charged forward. The man's boots seemed to emanate an aura, resembling wings, some sort of gift given to him by Hermes. His enhanced speed put him between the clashing energies, and with his aegis, marked with the lion he was famous to having slain, deflected both. Red beams slammed into Thor's chest, whilst lightning struck Grayven.

"HO, my thirteenth labour, a mission of omnipotence passed onto me by the great god council, I know not who you are, but you stand in the way of the righteous fury of the Olympians," Hercules pointed his club at Grayven before looking to Thor. "If you would stand in my way, then I will strike you down as well," he span the club between his fingers and suddenly threw his shield.

The shield flew towards Grayven, who grabbed it, the force of the catch sending him sliding back whilst Hercules ran at Thor.

"You pursue me for Zeus, the coward who would not aid me," Thor said.

He swung Mjolnir, Hercules ducked however and thrust the club into Thor's stomach, pushing him back slightly. Hercules dodged another swing from Thor's hammer and delivered a punch to his face. Thor followed up with a head butt, one Hercules repaid. They grabbed the handles of each other's weapons, dragging their feet against the ground. Loki watched the display of muscular strength and rolled his eyes, despite his open mockery though he was focused, analysing everything as if he was watching a magic trick and determining what the con was. Thor and Hercules, Grayven, son of a god Loki had never heard of, a star child, all of these things colliding together because of a grand crisis. A crisis that was not simply limited to any two universes or any two Multiverses. The star child, what was she? Why was she? She had the look of an Asgardian, the features of Thor when he was but a child…

"Nay, nay, that's not fair," he remembered complaining.

"Oh yes it is, crown prince remember," the little boy Thor was, spoilt and proud puffed his chest out.

"That's not a reason for you to play the hero, I always have to play the villain," Loki complained.

The prince held up his pretend hammer, wearing his feathered helm proudly as he made whooshing sounds.

"You are good at it brother," he said.

For Loki it was as if he was there in that moment, forced to see himself as a boy, again and again being forced to be the villain of a story.

"Valkyrie are a corps for women Thor, you can't be a Valkyrie," he complained as a teen.

"I could be the first male Valkyrie you know," teenage Thor huffed.

"I do know one way you could be a Valkyrie brother," Loki smirked, watching his younger self swish his hands with magic.

It was a simple illusion, a projection to make the teenage Thor look like an adult woman.

"Hmmm, I do make for a very attractive woman," he said.

Loki smiled fondly as the time changed, his smirk became as mischievous as it was the day he played his greatest prank on Thor.

"Loki, where is your brother?" Frigga asked.

"Oh he went out," Loki said.

"Ribbit!"

Frigga looked at the frog hopping over to her feet, and then towards Loki.

"You didn't…" she frowned, before clapping her hands "Well done, I doubted you could perform such a spell, your father though he had faith!"

"There may be a problem changing him back though," Loki mused.

"RIBBIT!" the frog remarked in shock.

"Ooh, nice feathers," it was that day, that day Thor was supposed to become king.

Loki wondered if Odin ever really intended to give Thor the throne anyway. Such was the nature of their father, to always have some secret or plan.

"You really don't want to start this again do you…cow?" it had been Thor's best attempt at an insult.

"I was being sincere."

"You are incapable of sincerity."

It would be the last warm moment, the last moment they would actually seem like brothers. At least for Loki, there was another Loki who had a good moment with his brother.

"Loki I thought the world of you, I thought we would be fighting side by side forever, but you were always going to follow your own path," that moment on Sakaar.

The moment that Loki made a choice, the moment this Loki wanted to experience. He had seen his death, seen that he was responsible for his mother's death and he had witnessed, through the TVA variations of his life and Thor's. None of it though compared to the experience of their past, of growing up as Thor's brother.

A brother he knew better than he knew himself.

Returning to the present (he wondered for a moment if he had indeed perhaps travelled through time again) and seeing the son of Zeus crash to the ground, Thor brought Stormbreaker and Mjolnir back to his hands. Drayven was floating, walking really on the air, looking down at the battle with his arms crossed. Hercules rose, deflecting the strike of Stormbreaker with his shield. He knocked the axe-hammer out of Thor's hand, delivering a punch that broke the son of Odin's jaw. Immediately setting his mouth back into place, Thor blocked Hercules's next blow with Mjolnir itself. The sound of hardened demi-god fist striking metal reverberated through the field. Hercules struck again, punching Thor, striking his chin, then his stomach.

"You came, disrupted the council when it convened over Gor, you attacked MY FATHER!" Hercules roared in anger.

"Your father was a coward," Thor retorted.

"LIES!" Hercules yelled.

Thor slammed Mjolnir into Hercules's cheek, and then brought it into his ribs. Knocking Hercules to the ground, lightning flared around Thor. He stomped on Hercules's stomach, then on his face, nearly burying it into the ground. Hercules stood a final time, attempting to punch Thor again. But Thor knocked him back with an electrical blast.

"Lies indeed," Loki mused.

"Brother, late for battle I see," Thor said, looking at Loki with a smile.

Loki had seen it, the great depression of his brother, the great weight gain, the travels with the Guardians contemplating existence whilst others fought and the callous destruction worthy of a prince of Asgard, if he was a child. The great sorrow of a warrior, portrayed as a joke, mischief, a lie.

On the Skrull ship, Steve and Cassie found their path easier than they expected. They were intruders but there was a greater need on the ship. It was almost as if a great victory was to be celebrated.

"I wanted to see it, the mark of destiny," a guard said before Cassie punched him, knocking him into the wall and darting to the next guard in her ant size.

She grew to full size as Steve struck a guard with the butt of his rifle.

"That door, could you go into the circuitry and open it?" Steve asked.

Cassie nodded, her helmet flipping around her head as she shrunk again. She ran amongst the wires and photonic signals, severing some of the chords until the door sparked and opened for Steve. He shielded his eyes from the light that came out of the room. An engine whirled, tubes sending energy throughout the ship. They had come upon some kind of battery room, electricity surged against a field projected by other machines. Steve walked closer to the field, letting his eyes adjust to the light. He heard Cassie gasp behind him, her own eyes shielded by the visor of her helmet. She saw what was inside the field before he did, a person, missing his right arm and his eye, but still very familiar.

"No," Steve muttered.


"I shouldn't have stayed away," Loki said, walking up behind the one who had beaten Hercules.

"This was my fight," he said, his clothes shifting.

The shirt and trousers of the TVA faded, turning into Asgardian leather and gold plates. Nothing as majestic as what he wore when he invaded Earth. It was something lighter, no coat or cloak, akin to what that kid version of himself wore but with sharper horns on his head dress.

"For I am a god too, god of mischief, mischief and lies!"

A gold sword slid through 'Thor's' chest, slid through his back by Loki. Green blood that spread across the floor, leaving Thor's faced shocked and confused.

"Which means I know how to spot a deception," Loki ripped the blade free with a kick to 'Thor's' back.

As he knocked the man back, Loki grabbed the hammer, another giveaway, he could never be worthy of the hammer.

"I know my brother, which is how I know…" Thor began, lifting 'Mjolnir' over his head. "YOU ARE NOT THOR!" he yelled, bringing the hammer down on his opponent's head.

Green blood and matter gushed onto the floor. The headless body fell, pink skin turned green and the electricity over their heads died out. Loki held the fake hammer, it was an electrical battery capable of ionising the atmosphere, it looked cracked but the truth is when it broke off each individual pieces was its own independent piece of machinery controlled by the hammer. Stark long wanted to claim there was advanced technology behind Asgardian weaponry, this would have made the man's belief true.

It and the sword Kid Loki gave him would suffice as Loki looked up at Grayven. The son of Darkseid smirked, before he fell back into a portal of some kind. Loki narrowed his eyes, looking over his shoulder.

"Daddy?" the girl, the enigma whispered.

"Damn," Loki said.

Purple energy appeared in her glaring eyes, before twin beams erupted from them.

Next Chapter 15: Extraction


I kind of disliked a lot of things in Avengers Endgame, it got a lot of things right and I understand certain paths taken so here it goes:

Fat Thor: Yes you've got to handicap Thor, and weight gain from depression is a real thing, hell laughing at depression is a way of coping, I didn't appreciate Thor getting turned into a joke but at that point every Marvel character's been treated as a joke. Thor Ragnarok worked and was a hit, except the same approach tried to be taken for Thor Love and Thunder and it didn't work.

In this chapter, this is the moment I see Loki accepting his 'prince of Asgard role' and the reality he is the god of mischief, by unveiling a mischief.

The moment between the characters in the Legion hall was a favourite of mine to write. I just imagined which characters would get on, your two icons (Cap and Kal) the teens and the brooding Bat whose surprisingly good with kids, Shang and Black Lightning was a dynamic because they can both make one another think on their ways of looking at their identities and experiences.

Next time, Steve uncovers those replaced by the Skrulls and the Secret Invaders begin the process of extracting the mark.