The Robbed That Smiles

Chapter 09:

Everything shook and warning alarms blared loudly through every section of the ship as the shockwave rumbled through. Rogers jumped, adrenaline racing through him - his experience as a soldier and an Avenger kicking in. Danger. The ship was in danger and so was anyone on it. He hurried back into the Arboretum.

"What the hell's going on?!"

He heard the uninjured soldier yelling at Fen, who was at what looked like a wall-mounted computer or control panel inputting a command.

"I'm talking to you, Tin-can!" The soldier grabbed the android roughly, sputtering and shouting obscenities at it while the alarms blared through the room. "Answer, you fucking…"

Rogers drew a sharp breath and hurried forward, subconsciously realizing what was about to happen when his fellow human tried ripping Fen's hand from the input pad. He managed to pull the soldier out of the android's defensive swing, the strength behind the blow enough to send them flying back a bit just from the whirlwind it caused.

"Stay there." Fen snapped, its robotic eyes glowing orange. "The ship is under attack and the security protocols must be activated. Otherwise the enemy could find the rift, endangering whatever spacetime is on the other side."

"I don't c…." The soldier started to snap back at the android, whatever modicum of discipline he still possessed tossed aside. Rogers stopped him from attacking Fen though, his thoughts clear enough to figure out what the android meant.

"Stop. Fen's trying to prevent whatever threat this is from entering our universe." Rogers barked at the soldier, repeating himself twice before the other man understood. Once the soldier did, he rounded on the Avenger.

"Universe?! What do you mean our…"

"This isn't our universe. It's a parallel one that…" Rogers faltered, not sure if or how he should explain things to the other man. "Look I'll explain later, right now we need to help defend this ship and the rift Fen's mentioned. Those we care about back on Earth could be in danger otherwise." He held his breath and tensed, waiting for his words to sink into the other soldier's head. Relief flooded through him when the other man reacted the way he hoped, no longer trying to attack the android but rather preparing to defend the ship alongside Rogers.

It was then that both men noticed the void-black spaceship through the window. Massive even at a distance and of a hue such that the only reason Rogers and the other soldier noticed it was because it blocked out view of the stars that were visible before. It was like a giant shadow had come to life and maliciously decided to blot out the view.

"All set. That should…" Said Fen, as the android finished inputting the security protocol command. It faltered mid-sentence and stared perplexed at the screen. Its perplexity confused Rogers as he'd felt something hum to life once the input was completed - whatever the protocol was, it had certainly kicked on.

"Is something wrong?" The soldier beside Rogers asked, just seconds before the Avenger. His attention split between the android and the ship that was cruising closer and closer. "Whatever that was doesn't seem to have worked."

"It did. The phase-cloak is running at a hundred percent." The android countered, still puzzling over what the computer screen was depicting - it was all written in computer code using an alien font, so neither human could decipher it. "The enemy will not be able to board or harm the ship."

"But? There's something you're not saying…Something that explains why the ship is still heading towards us…"

"Not towards us. Towards…" Fen whipped around to face Rogers and the soldier, its orange eyes roaming over each man, searching for something. "Did either of you happen to bring aboard any signal transmitting devices? Trackers? Communication device?"

"No." The soldier shook his head while Rogers pulled out his com device, grimacing. His gut and the way the android stared at him telling him that whatever was wrong, was connected to the com.

"It's broken. So I don't think…"

Fen stared at the device, eyes glowing an orange-ochre. "Have you used it since you got onboard?"

"I tried. But like I said, it's broken."

"No." Fen shook its head, disagreeing and its orange eyes were no longer glowing. "The receiver is impaired, but the transmitter is fine." The android's words caused Rogers' stomach to tighten, the Avenger understanding what Fen was driving at.

"...I led that ship here." Rogers muttered, taking a deep breath to settle his wringing gut. Beside him his fellow US soldier shrugged.

"So what? We're safe, right? The phase-whatnot you mentioned - that's still working, right?"

Fen faced the soldier, hesitating a moment before replying. "Yes. We are safe. The rift, however, is not. Not when the enemy now knows where to search."

"This enemy…" Rogers interjected before the other man could react. Between the gnawing dread in his stomach and his instinct as a soldier and Avenger, he knew. Knew what the enemy approaching them and the rift was. "It's the one who decimated this universe. The one who used the Infinity Stones." He stared into the android's eyes. "Isn't it?"

"..." Fen didn't respond for a few moments, its eyes staring back at the Avenger's. It appeared to be thinking deeply, to be deliberating over its words. Deciding what to reveal and what to not. "Yes." It replied, pausing for another few moments before elaborating. "Thanos was behind that."

"...and now this 'Thanos' is heading towards the rift leading into our universe." Rogers took a deep breath, settling his stomach and the new questions forming in his brain. Questions begat by the answers he'd received, but which were unimportant for the moment. "Alright. Can we stop him? Prevent him going through the rift?"

"No." Fen replied, calculating their chances in its android brain. "If you fight, you may delay him. Stopping him completely, however…is unlikely. Almost implausible." There was another pause and Rogers started to speak, to say they had to try and that there had to be some way to win, but Fen spoke over him. "It may be possible to delay him long enough to give Lokki time to execute her plan."

"Ah...Alright." Rogers replied; although tempted to ask more questions, especially as the android offered up much more information freely in the past handful of minutes than Lokki had in over a week, he refrained. The approaching ship was right outside theirs, just about ready to pass by. "Let's…"

"Her plan?" The soldier interrupted, his voice sharp and eyes reflecting distrust, confusion, and bewilderment. "Isn't Thor's brother, well, male? And...anyway, why…"

"It's complicated." Rogers replied to his fellow human, missing Fen's own perplexed stare at the soldier's question. The android for its part refrained from voicing its confusion, and instead turned back to the computer input pad. "...Let's do this."

"Then I will reverse the phase-cloak." Said Fen, going into the plan he'd formed. "And then activate the teleport to send you aboard the enemy's ship. Once on it, you can either fight the titan headon or sneakily sabotage the ship's engines. I highly recommend the latter." The android said this while already pressing keys on the input pad, not bothering to wait for Rogers or the other soldier to agree. It did stop before the final keystroke and turned to the two humans, speaking its next words as though it only just occurred to it. "By you I only mean one of you. I have to restore the phase-cloak quickly, so I will only be able to send one of you onto the other ship. To do otherwise will risk the safety of this ship and your fellow humans who are still recovering."

Rogers gaped for a second, having assumed the android meant to send both him and the other soldier. He recovered quickly though and shrugged, all discussion of which of them to send unnecessary. "Send me. I certainly will stand the best chance of…"

Before the Avenger got to the end of his sentence, Fen dropped the phase-cloak and then dived into activating the teleport. The android wasted no time, and soon sent the teleportee on his way.

~0~

"No. Absolutely not."

Munching on a platter of cut vegetables and fruit, Lokki listened to the argument Reyda was waging on her behalf. The Asgardian healer, though meek appearing and generally unthreatening, verbally raged against the Avengers after a few brought up the idea to interrogate the mischief goddess. Again. And not the benign sort of questioning Strange had subjected her to after discovering her pregnant condition.

"I absolutely forbid any sort of interrogation!" Reyda glared at Stark, standing between him and his way to Lokki. "It doesn't matter how 'safe' or careful you claim it'll be, you are not going to interrogate my patient!"

"I...it's not going to…" Stark grimaced, before glancing briefly over at Thor, tempted to insist the thunder god use his authority as leader of New Asgard to demand Reyda back down. That idea was shot down quickly when Thor shook his head.

"I agree with Lady Reyda." Thor leaned against the wall, his arms crossed. "You may question Lokki, but no using anything to compel her to answer. No technology or magic." He glanced from the inventor to Strange, the latter having started the talk of interrogation when he mentioned finding a few truth spells that would be relatively harmless to the frost giantess.

"Sure. Let's simply question the goddess of lies, without doing anything to insure she's telling the truth." Countered Stark, rolling his eyes; frustration filling his thoughts and feeding a quiet anger brewing in him. "Like that's going to work. Do I have to remind you that Rogers was teleported to who knows where and is currently MIA? Not to mention that no one's been able to get in touch with Banner or Wanda, which doesn't bode well after the message my attacker left."

"I know that. Do you think I don't want to find them?" Thor seethed, his temper beginning to flare up. "But how would interrogating sister Lokki help? She's not even from our universe!"

"Exactly." Stark countered. "So why did that mercenary attack her earlier? According to Lady Reyda, that man your brother killed went straight for Miss Lokki. Peculiar, as from what myself and Natasha have uncovered, that man was a hitman. And not a cheap one. Whatever his reason to join in Mordo's assault on the Sanctum, it wasn't his only objective."

"Sis was targeted?" Thor blinked, thinking for a moment before frowning. "That makes no sense. She's only been in our universe ten days now. No one…Who would have any reason to harm…"

"Someone from her universe with a vendetta, perhaps? Considering who she is, it's not difficult to imagine her riling someone up enough to follow her here or hire a hitman for revenge." Stark glanced over at Lokki, who calmly nibbled away at her fruit and veggie tray; The goddess unfazed by the conversation.

"Or perhaps someone who wants the Tesseract and knows Miss Lokki has it?" Interjected Strange, having been watching the frost giantess sit and eat while they argued. He hardly missed any of her amused reactions or intrigued glances, the mischief goddess seemingly content observing the Avengers.

"That's only your assumption." Thor countered. "Just because Morfield said the Tesseract was caught on radar, doesn't mean Loki - either of them - has it."

"Who else would then?" Stark queried, keeping his voice level despite the anger burbling through him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew his anger was overblown, unnatural - and he tried to curb it, same as he tried ignoring the phantom burning of his palm.

Before any of his fellow Avengers had returned to the tower, he'd managed to drop the cursed maul - using another of his Iron suits to 'disarm' him - and had secured it in his lab. The moment he did so the iron suit had frozen over, and a dull throbbing had flared up in the hand he'd been holding the weapon with. The anger had started later, shortly before Natasha had arrived.

"If it was secured on Asgard - who else would've had the opportunity and motive to take it?"

Thor's scowl grew harsher. "My brother doesn't have it. Nor would anyone else from Asgard have taken it."

"Ahem." The mischief goddess suddenly cleared her throat, drawing their attention. Leaning back in her chair, she waited as Stark and Natasha both gave her suspicious scowls, and Thor turned to her with a furrowed brow. Each of them expectant considering the timing of her interruption. Having just watched the mischief goddess finish the last morsels of fruit, Strange was the only one not surprised when Lokki, in quite the non-sequitur, simply motioned to her empty plate. "Would one of you fine specimens get me some more food? I'm still a bit hungry. And I'd hate to miss even a moment of this fantastic quibble."

"Y…" Stark scowled at the goddess, his face twitching from irritation and the phantom burning in the fleshy part of his palm flaring up. Lokki merely returned the stare, her sea-green gaze roaming over the Avenger before it shifted abruptly to Thor; the thunder god turning around.

"Lokki…." Thor shook his head, glowering at the goddess and speaking in a chatising way. "This isn't the time...can't you take things seriously for once?"

"Seriously?" The goddess blinked, her attention locked on Thor. Lokki's amused demeanor turned sour. "You think I'm not serious? Here you lot are, quibbling over whether to interrogate me or not, and with what method - since you're concerned about my pregnancy. Yet I request more food, as I'm literally eating for two and really could use it, and you think I'm...what? Joking?"

The thunder god blanched. "That isn't what I meant, sister. I…."

"Don't call me sister." Lokki snapped, her mouth pulled into a frown and her sea-green eyes shifted from subdued to livid. "You and your Loki are siblings. Not you and I. We…" Her glower darkened, a conflict waging wordlessly behind her eyes. She shook her head before turning towards the other Avengers, her glare locking on Stark.

The goddess leered down at the playboy inventor's hand, the one scorching him with its phantom burning. One look at her face, at the intense focus in her eyes, and there was no denying she knew. Or at least suspected something was up. Stark tensed and attempted to hide his hand, some subconscious thought telling him to do so.

"Miss Lokki, perhaps…"

The mischief goddess shrugged and sighed, both actions scoffingly done. Though there was an emotional glimmer in her eyes, nearly identical to that from her initial interrogation the day she arrived. Nostalgia mixed with concern. It shifted into indifference the next second.

"Milady, perhaps it'd be best to retire to your room?" Reyda suggested, after flashing a scathing look at the Avengers. Especially at Strange, who had done little, in the Asgardian lady's opinion, to defend against interrogating Lokki. "I'll make sure you get more to eat, and…"

"I'm with child. I'm not a child." Lokki rolled her eyes, refusing to budge from her chair.

"But, milady…"

"I'm fine." She pulled away when Reyda reached for her arm, the healer attempting to lead the frost giantess to her rooms. "And I can get my own food. I've gotten through fine for weeks without any of you." Lokki snapped and left her seat, heading towards the door.

Her countenance grew more livid when she was stopped by both a portal and a forcefield blocking her path. Both Stark and Strange having automatically reacted to her attempting to storm off. Behind her, Natasha and Thor had both hurried forwards, attempting to grab her. And the thunder god, though faster than the human woman, had somehow managed to trip over the chair Lokki had vacated.

The sheer overkill of it was amusing and Lokki stared at the barrier wordlessly for a moment, while behind her Thor grumbled as he pulled himself up. She was still livid and determined to leave, but she refrained. The bracers around her arms suppressing her magic prevented her from circumventing the Avengers, while the life growing inside her prevented her from fighting even if her magic wasn't suppressed.

Lokki stared down at the bracers, her arms crossed protectively over her stomach. Her thoughts shifted back to the attack on the Sanctum, on the Midgardian mercenary who'd tried harming her unborn child directly. The rage she'd felt as she'd squeezed the Midgardian's throat was vivid in her memory, as was the satisfaction of learning that he'd died. More than either were the moments leading up to it. The second the man swung at her - the second right before his fist scrapped across her abdomen, the result of her instinctively dodging, fear had filled her.

Absolute terror and horror at the thought of being helpless, unable to protect herself or her child.

She swallowed. 'It's fine...fine. He didn't send the mercenary...he couldn't have known my magic would be bound. Besides, he wouldn't…' The goddess scoffed and shook her head at her own thought. 'Who the fuck am I kidding? After what he did to...and what he threatened…'

"Miss Lokki?"

The frost giantess glanced up, unsurprised at Strange talking and placing his hand on her shoulder - she'd heard him approached. She'd also heard him tell off Stark, telling the inventor to forget about interrogating the goddess. That he would free her from the bracers rather than allow the other Avenger risk her pregnancy. Strange had further snapped that he knew Stark was hiding something from them, that there were some traces of mystical, magic energy all over the inventor. Especially the man's left arm.

"Miss…."

"What?" Lokki turned to the wizard, her piercing eyes subdued though her voice was not.

"Here." Strange held out a bag filled with dried fruit and nuts, a deluxe mixture that contained no added sugars or salt or flavorings. "Reyda informed me earlier of the particular diet you need for your pregnancy as a Jotunn. What you can and shouldn't have. With particular emphasis on what Earth foods are terrible for you and what are okay." The frost giantess glanced at the offered food and then back at him, suspicion in her eyes. He cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't spike it with truth potion or magic. I wouldn't risk or allow anything to risk the life growing inside you."

Her head tilted to the side, Lokki glanced again at the bag, still wary, but took it anyway, her voracious appetite demanding it. After she took it, she started to walk away, the path to the doorway no longer obstructed by either the forcefield or portal. Strange, however, grabbed her arm and held her back.

"I just said I'd won't allow anything to risk your pregnancy. That includes you rashly abandoning the security of the tower." The wizard drawled, meeting the Jotunn's smoldering look with a calm one of his own. "Agent Morfield and his superiors are after the Tesseract, of which I'm certain you have possession. Just as I'm sure it won't take them long to realize that you showed up in New York the same day as the Tesseract and connect the dots. Not to mention whoever hired the mercenary is likely to try again."

"Oh? Is this some scare tactic to get me to stay and not make a fuss?" Lokki gave a sardonic laugh and rolled her eyes, though she made no attempt to leave. Not even when Strange let her arm go. When no one made a move or attempted to say anything for a minute or so, the frost giantess sighed. "Fine. I'll stay." She muttered. "Norns know I could use the break." The goddess headed back to her chair, but paused midway through her third step. She glanced over at Stark, who had stalked off towards the computers after Strange shot down his plan to interrogate the frost giantess. Natasha had also backed off.

Lokki watched both of them, the defiance in her sea-colored irises shifting to nostalgia. After a moment of deliberating, she opened her mouth to speak and offer what information she could, not that it'd have helped much. Despite the Avengers' assumptions, she didn't recognize the name Morfield. Nor had she any idea who would send the mercenary for her - the only one who would, would not have made the mistake of sending an ordinary mortal.

As for the Tesseract...

"Um." Thor stopped Lokki, grabbing her arm and attention.

The goddess turned to him and scowled, annoyed, until she saw his face. The undercurrent of regret and perplexity in his expression halted whatever snarky comment Lokki had been about to snap at him.

"...Do you really not want me to call you 'sister'?" He asked, gazing into Lokki's face. His confusion grew when the goddess stepped back and slipped her arm out of his grip, neither action done with malice nor with the snarky attitude he'd expect from his brother, or in this case his brother's doppelganger. Instead the goddess just seemed uncomfortable.

Lokki grimaced, pulling her lips into an awkward smile. "I'd prefer if you didn't. It's weird hearing you refer to me that way since the Allfather unadopted m…" The goddess fell silent, shutting her mouth abruptly; her seagreen eyes growing wide. After a moment she shifted her gaze from Thor towards Strange, a rising sense of indignation filling her. Her anger shifted to confusion the next second, even more so when Strange continued conversing with Reyda and Stark, paying her little heed.

"'Unadopted'?" Thor grabbed Lokki's arm and held it firmly until her attention shifted back to him. Once it did he peered into the goddess' face, searching it with intrigue-filled eyes. "Father, did what? Cast you out?"

Lokki didn't immediately answer or react to the question, and simply stared at the other god.

Silence passed between them for a few seconds, before the mischief goddess muttered something and glanced back towards the chair Thor had tripped over. It was back to standing upright, not a peculiar state in itself, considering it could easily have been righted while she'd been distracted. But the albino-pale spider glaring at them from atop it waving its legs angrily, before its tiny self raced at them, was peculiar. "Silver-hair basilisk? Really? Didn't you already chide me for using that?"

"I don't know what you…" The other god frowned while shaking his head, his denial faltering when Lokki gave a malicious smirk. Seconds later the goddess raised her foot as though preparing to step on the tiny spider charging forward. The tiny thing oblivious to the danger. "Wait..wait!" He exclaimed, before dispelling the illusion just prior to the goddess' foot dropping.

Within seconds the spider racing forward in anger was transformed back into the thunder god, while the 'Thor' holding Lokki's arm shifted into Loki.

"What the...?"

"Huh?"

"Wh...how?"

Came the reactions of the other Avengers and Reyda, each of them having witnessed what had happened in varying amounts. Having seen most of what happened, Natasha frowned and crossed her arms, her glare locked on the goddess.

"Brother." Thor glared at the mischief god as he climbed to his feet, oblivious to what the goddess had been close to doing. "Why the hell…"

The mischief god grimaced and quickly backed up, holding his hands in front of him in a defensive manner. One that reflected his spoken response. "Wait...hold on. I…" Loki threw a look at his female counterpart, one that became scathing when he saw her shrug and quietly back away. The smug grin on her face was enough to rile the mischief god. Without hesitance and wearing a malicious smile of his own, he calmly said. "I was attempting to get answers from Selfie about how that wizard, Mordo, knew her. And why he attacked the Sanctum just to deliver a message for her."

As Loki spoke, his female double tensed and whipped back around; her smug demeanor completely vanished. Instead there was alarm and wariness, her sea-green irises gaining a wild, fearful glint.

"W…"

"Is that true, Miss Lokki?" Strange interrupted, brushing aside whatever Thor had been about to say, assuming it would be a gruff retort to his brother. The wizard scowled, his expression intent and livid. "Was Mordo's attack just window-dressing to hide delivering a message to you?" He approached the goddess, while magically assessing the suppression bracers around her forearms. Behind him, Stark and Natasha leaned forward and listened.

"You talked with him?" Lokki asked Loki, oblivious to everything else around them, the wildness within her eyes growing. "What did he say?" The mischief god simply cocked an eyebrow and remained silent, relishing his doppelganger's reaction. Moreso when Lokki repeated her question more forcefully. "What did he say?!"

"Milady, perhaps you should…." Reyda hurried forward and grabbed the frost giantess' arm, trying to lead her away somewhere she could calm down. If not to her room, then somewhere quiet.

"What. Did. He. Say?!" The goddess growled, enunciating her words crisply and with a vehement undertone; The wildness in her eyes full and vivid. Around her, Stark, Natasha, and Thor all flinched, the sheer fury in the mischief goddess' reaction reminding them of Loki during his assault on Earth.

Loki himself hardly reacted, not surprised by the intensity of his doppelganger's reaction. Over the past ten days, he had been around the frost giantess often enough to glean hints of her underlying fury. Even before noticing them, he had assumed Lokki was hiding her anger - the same simmering anger he'd hid for years along with his envy. The goddess was him from another universe, so he assumed she bore similar, if not the same, envy and anger.

Thus the vehemence in her reaction now didn't rattle him. What did was the fear commingling with her fury, merging into something akin to madness within her. A madness laid bare through the wildness in her eyes. It chilled him.

"What's so important about the wizard's message?" The mischief god asked, masking his own wariness at his doppelganger behind his illusion magic. Lokki ignored the question and simply moved to lunge at the god, only to be stopped by Strange and Reyda who held her back.

"Calm d…"

"I need to know what he said!" Lokki screeched, her fingernails digging into Strange's arm as she attempted to pry off his grip from her shoulder. She did nothing about Reyda who was gripping her other shoulder. Not until she felt the warmth of the healer's seidr, her anger lessening as the calming magic spread through her. Lokki blinked and turned towards Reyda, muttering after a moment. "Of course. You can cast that. Just like back when I…" The mischief goddess swallowed back the rest of her sentence, not that anyone beyond Strange or Reyda would've heard it, her voice having lowered an octave or so in volume.

"Milady, you really should rest now. Getting this worked up is…" Reyda glanced over her patient, paying close attention to her abdomen and any sign of the Jotunn's protective frost. There was none, which alarmed the healer more than when she first noticed Lokki's hyperactive frost. "You should rest."

"I…" Lokki stared at the Asgardian, her wild anger severely lessened. Replaced by reason.

"Hey," Stark interjected when Reyda started to lead the frost giantess away. "If you have only been in our universe little over a week, how would this wizard Mordo have a message for you? " He asked Lokki, who frowned but otherwise didn't answer.