Chapter 12.
The next morning an assistant accompanied Thor, Loki and Jane to the meeting room. The space was as cold and unwelcoming as the rest of the complex, and the lack of windows made the atmosphere almost unbearable.
Loki was surprised to see that Stark had been invited to the meeting. Far from standing up to greet them, the man lounged on his chair while browsing on his phone, only waving his hand towards the door as soon as it opened. At Tony's left and at some distance, a tall, dark skinned man stood with his hands behind his back, looking less than pleased to be there. Judging by his physique, his scars and the patch covering his missing left eye, he was a seasoned warrior, and his countenance betrayed a barely restrained fierceness: Director Fury, in the flesh. There was something deeply unpleasant about that man who, instead of offering his hand as was the custom in that country, just nodded and sat down, but still kept assessing Thor and Loki with a calculating eye.
There was a female agent standing at Fury's left: Maria Hill. She was tall, dark-haired and blue-eyed and, while she displayed the same trained, neutral mien as his coworker Coulson, there was something lacking in terms of warmth; although, when she saw Thor, her face softened into the same expression of admiration Loki had seen on many a female who gazed upon the thunder god's physique.
"Very well," Director Fury said once they were all seated. "You wanted to see me. Here I am."
"We are tired of waiting," Thor spoke. "My Realm is enduring a siege. We must return home, my warriors, my brother and myself, and we need your help."
"You see, that's the problem," Fury retorted, leaning over the table. "We build you a gate, an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Then what?"
"We leave Midgard and we go defend our home."
"Yeah, sure," Fury chuckled. "And what guarantees us that no other crazy alien will come over here? You think that what happened at Puente Antiguo won't repeat in other parts of the World?"
"That's very unlikely," Loki interrupted when he saw Thor's eyes flashing. "Laufey's troops must have noticed their king's absence by now, but the fact that they haven't sent reinforcements yet suggests that our Guardian could damage the Bifrost's controls, rendering it useless. But that will be only a momentary delay, and in the end other Realms will fall if Asgard is conquered."
"You don't seem to understand," agent Hill said. "We don't want to open the possibility of an outer invasion. We thank you for killing the Frost Giants, but we don't want to bring any more attention over us."
"What we want to do," Fury continued. "And what we have been doing during these months is studying what you call the Bifrost and designing a successful method of protecting Earth from yours, or any method of transportation."
"You can't be serious!" Jane exclaimed.
"I'm always serious, Miss Foster," Fury chided her. "We would be more than pleased to go for a walk, visit other worlds and sing peace in the universe with other civilizations, but it turns out that there are people out there who wish to conquer our planet and I'm not having it."
Loki chuckled, attracting Fury's attention.
"To what extent does your pride go?" he asked Fury, still smiling. "If you have been able to evolve from your hide tents and wooden cottages to your crystal skyscrapers, it was because Asgard has been keeping the peace between the Nine Realms during all this time. Had you studied the Bifrost, as you claim, you would know that you will never be able to shield yourself from it with your current technology and, even if you could, you would have to tap into powers which would vaporize your planet at a single miscalculation."
"Is that true?" Fury directed his eye towards Jane.
"If you had consulted me you would know," she answered. She was pale with anger. "I'm trying to understand it, not work against it."
"Okay then, for the sake of argument," Fury continued. "So, let's pretend that we build it. I've read the reports and we all know here that we would need so much energy the entire country would suffer a blackout."
"Actually," Stark raised his hand, still looking at his cell. "The arc reactor's technology could do that," he raised his eyes to the others. "In a few decades, of course."
"There is a source," Loki interrupted. "An ancient treasure from Asgard, hidden here by the Allfather."
"You don't mean…" Thor's voice trailed away.
"The Tesseract? Yes," Loki said. "And I happen to know where it was hidden."
Stark looked up from his cell, recognition on his shrewd eyes, but said nothing.
"Well," Fury sneered. "Someone got his hands on it some decades ago, but it was lost and now we don't know where to find it."
"Lost?" Thor's voice was low and steady, but he clenched his fists over the table. "How could you misplace it?"
"Look, protectors," Fury glared at him. "While you were playing high and mighty up there we have been dealing with some serious shit down here, like two worldwide wars, the last one involving a crazy asshole who wanted to enslave or wipe out almost the entire world population, and-"
"OUR TASK WAS TO PROTECT YOU FROM OUTER DANGERS, NOT FROM YOURSELVES!" Thor bellowed.
"And now we wish to protect you from an external menace, now that you have learned how to live more or less in peace," Loki added.
"And save your asses, while you are at it," Fury's constant derision was getting on their nerves.
"Saving our home is crucial, yes," Loki answered, more and more convinced that Fury didn't even want to consider their demands. "We have already explained our motivations."
"And I have already explained ours," Fury concluded. "This decision is a very delicate one, and we will need time to reach a consensus."
"That is well and good," Loki intervened. "But, what about our freedom? I hope you are aware that we remain under your agents' surveillance because we happen to agree with your formalities… for now. And think about the maintenance costs: Our friend Volstagg would eat like five of your heftier men, but now that he's under a great stress he eats like ten; and Thor…"
"I could take them in," Stark interrupted with his casual attitude.
"How's that so?" Fury asked.
"You wanted me as an advisor, right?" Stark addressed the Director with a trace of venom in his voice. Whatever their relationship was, it seemed tense at the best of times. "Now that I can't join your boy band because I'm not suitable, I'd like to do other things, like keeping these people under surveillance. Unlike you, I happen to like them."
"I'm sorry, Stark, but that' not possible," Fury turned to them. "You will remain here until further notice."
"Director," Loki spoke very quickly, for Thor was about to lose his temper again. "There must be another way to solve this situation. As I said, we remain here on our own volition but, even when we do not wish to bring any harm upon you, our patience is limited."
"C'mon, Fury," Stark prodded. "I have the safest of homes! JARVIS will take care of them."
"Director," Hill said quietly. "Mr. Stark is right. Our guests' demands are more than our superiors would allow us to keep."
Fury seemed to ponder the offer for some seconds, until at last, to Loki's relief, he agreed to have Stark taking them to one of his homes.
However, Thor seethed as they exited the room, but Loki's hand on his shoulder and a signal that they would speak in another place held his tongue.
Even so, Loki was very tempted to leave the thunder god trying to beat some sense into that man's head.
xxxxXX-0-XXxxxx
"What? We are trapped here?" Volstagg's voice had a ring very akin to panic.
"Mr. Stark has offered us his own dependencies," Loki said. "I'm sure he will provide for us for the moment."
"That's not enough!" Volstagg yelled, but Thor grabbed his arm and seemed to whisper something that silenced him, although he didn't look very convinced.
"Can we go home?" Darcy said.
"Unfortunately, no," Loki answered, but added quickly: "At least for the moment. They will inform us when we will be free to move around."
"Why are you suddenly taking charge of things?" Sif asked. She had barely uttered a word since the previous day. "Who's to say that you are not in league with them?"
"SIF!"
Thor's roar startled the human girls.
"My brother is the only one who knows how this new Midgard works," he continued with a softer voice. "He is to be our guide in this situation. I trust him with my life, as you should."
No one said a word. Sif nodded stiffly and exited the room, but Loki knew she was on the verge of tears. Any wound she would endure, except the ones delivered by Thor, but her hurt pride couldn't be compared to Loki's surprise at Thor's words.
"Shouldn't we…" Jane started, motioning for the door.
"It's no use," Fandral, shook his head. "She's better left alone when she's this upset. Tomorrow she will be fine."
That very afternoon they were all formally introduced to Tony Stark, who had brought his private jet to take them home. It had been agreed that they would travel to Stark's private island in the south, where there would be no risk of contact with civilians. They had been reticent at first, but their options were limited.
As they boarded the jet, Loki observed that Stark threw a murderous glance towards the SHIELD compound, specifically, where Fury's office would be. It had been a fleeting gesture, but it had been there.
xxxxXX-0-XXxxxx
The muffled rumbling of the jet's motors offered a comfortable background noise. Loki observed the interior, partly admiring it and partly committing every detail to memory for his future purchase.
Stark emerged from the pilot's cabin with a half-smile and clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "I know Fury told us to go to one of my islands and I really, REALLY wanted to do that, but you see," he started counting with his fingers. "One house is still having its roof repaired after a hurricane hit it, in another the kitchen exploded due to a gas leak, other was hit by a tsunami, okay, you get the picture. We are going to my ranch in Nevada. Sure, that one eyed conniving bastard will know in time, but it will give us a few hours. Now we talk, shall we?"
He sat down, not before opening a small fridge and offering everyone a drink.
"All right, the Tesseract," he said at last. "What if I told you that I know Fury might have it?"
Thor nearly choked on his beer.
"Why didn't you speak in the meeting?" he raised his voice.
"Because saying so might tip him off and put him on high alert," Stark took a sip from his glass, which could have been filled with vinegar, seeing the grimace he made. "My father studied the Tesseract. It's a long story, and it has to do with him helping found SHIELD, something I didn't know until recently. Okay, the thing is, that his personal notes mentioned it and the energy that it could produce. When I first read that notebook it I had no idea what it was all about, but I remembered the name the moment you said it," he pointed at Loki. "And I know Fury would never get his hands off something like that."
"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor asked.
"We still have to guess that," Stark raised his voice and seemed to speak to someone above him. "JARVIS?"
The same disembodied voice that Loki had heard inside Stark's experimental suit filled the plane.
"Sir?"
"I want you to search for my father's papers in the archives. Go to the last annotations from the last notebook and display them here."
In a few seconds they saw a projected image of a drawing of the Tesseract.
"Is this what you are looking for?"
"Yes," said Loki. The drawing from Tony's father was almost the same as the ones in Asgard's books.
"Right," Stark smiled. "When we land we will start working. In the meanwhile JARVIS can look for it in the SHIELD archives."
Those news seemed to lighten the mood, and from that moment on they started chatting more animatedly about what they could do once they landed. They seemed to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.