The Aquapolian Initiative (Avengers)

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Thirteen



“I actually wanted to talk with you about something,” Kat said. Donna instantly stopped typing on her keys, tilting her head towards Kat in an interested fashion. “I wanted to ask you a favor…”

“Go on…” Donna said, sitting up straighter in her seat. Kat’s first impression of the legal secretary had been wrong. She seemed a lot more genuinely friendly than Kat had thought beforehand. Of course, this could be something to do with Kat being one of Harvey’s clients…

“I...um…” Donna knew about the Initiative, so Kat wouldn’t have to dance around who Loki really was. “I’ve started going out with this guy…and he’s not from around here…He doesn’t really have any clothes to blend in here on Earth…”

“Oh my, God…” Donna’s eyes widened. “Is it Thor?”

Kat didn’t know why everyone was jumping to the conclusion first that she was going out with Thor. True, the immortal of lightning was good-looking, but he was too much a…warrior. Kat couldn’t really deal with someone who didn’t really have much between their ears. Thor meant well…but as Mike said, Loki seemed to have gotten all of the brains in that family.

“No, no,” she shook her head. “Not Thor. His brother…”

“Thor has a brother?” Donna knitted her eyebrows. “Another one? Other than the one who attacked Earth…?”

“No…just the one,” Kat sighed as Donna gave her a mischievous smile. Kat was not used to discussing such things with other women. She had virtually no girl friends growing up, and the ones she had acquired in college were not ones to go on and on about boys.

“So you like the bad boys…” Donna studied her. “I thought so. What’s his name?”

“Well, his alias is Grayson Strauss, but his real name is Loki.”

“So we’re to call him Grayson.” She shook her head. “Lucky you, with an immortal boyfriend.” She stopped, fixing Kat with a serious gaze. “Do you know if Thor is seeing anyone?”

“Not really…I don’t remember much…Anyway, listen, I don’t know anything about clothes…I was hoping that maybe you could give me your opinion?” Kat asked, her voice taking on a slightly pleading tone. She didn’t know where else to turn if Donna refused to help her.

“And you’ve come to me for help? I’m flattered. Of course, you made the right decision. First, I’m going to have to see this new man of yours.”

“Great, he’s here now talking with Mike.”

As they made their way back to where Mike and Loki were, Kat wondered if this was a good idea. They finally rounded a corner to where they could see the two of them talking. Donna turned to Kat, raising her eyebrows. “Wow…”

“Wait until he starts talking.”

They finally stepped up as Mike finished saying what he was saying. “You must be Grayson,” Donna said, holding out her hand for him to shake. “Donna Paulson. I’m Harvey Spector’s legal secretary.”

“Grayson Strauss,” Loki said, shaking her hand. Kat shot him a look that told him Donna knew who he really was.

Donna turned back to Kat. “I would be delighted to help you. I have tomorrow afternoon off. Meet me here at noon.” She turned and walked back to her desk.

Mike gave Kat a confused look. “What is this all about?”

“Donna’s going to help me pick out some clothes for him,” Kat explained.

“Why didn’t you just ask me for help?”

“Seriously?” Kat raised an eyebrow, making her way back to the elevators, Loki following after her.

“May God have mercy on your soul,” Mike told him in a serious voice before leaving for the legal library.

------------

The next morning, Kat found Barton standing in the kitchen, waiting for his coffee to finish brewing. “Morning, Kat.”

“Morning, Barton.” Kat paused. “Listen, I need to talk to you about something.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. A situation…has come up.” Barton leaned back against one of the cabinets, his grey gaze fixed on her. It could be unsettling at times, as many enemies of SHIELD had learned during his days of running covert ops for them. She wondered how many people had last seen that grey gaze during his years as an assassin…”This may seem a little out of the blue…I think Thor could explain it better than me…and maybe we shouldn’t mention anything to Dad just yet, but…I’m going out with Loki now.”

Few things, if anything surprised Agent Barton. This, however, made him stare disbelievingly at her. “Say that again?” He asked, shifting from foot to foot and shaking his head as if he didn’t hear her right.

“I’m going out with Loki now.”

“Kat…” He said slowly. “You’ve known the guy for only a few days.” No mention of the fact that he was their former enemy or how dangerous he was. What was up with everyone she was breaking the news to? At least Barton hadn’t said anything about Thor…

“Apparently…we were really close during my immortal life.” She ran her hand across the smooth glass surface of the countertop. Like every other room in Stark Tower, the kitchen was mainly modern metal and glass. Although it seemed cold to others, Kat always thought the lines were nice and clean. Perhaps the engineer was coming out in her…

“So you decided it was a good idea to go out with him now?” Barton shook his head slowly. “Stark is going to kill us…”

Kat raised an eyebrow. What did Stark have to do with any of this? “What are you talking about?” From the look on his face, Kat wondered if she was going to like what her mentor was about to say.

“He told me, Cap, and Thor to make sure you weren’t left alone in a room with Loki while he was gone.”

Kat stared at him, not believing a word he said…until anger started rising in her. Stark had an overprotective streak in him. She had seen it once or twice during the Initiative. It was just another outward sign that he really cared about her…but it got annoying when she knew she could protect herself. “Then how in the world was I able to sit in the library with him for hours at a time?”

“Well, I knew that you wanted to spend time alone with him to scope him out, see if this Shadowfication story is true and that he’s really on our side now. It sounds like to me now that Thor was planning this out secretly. We both covered for ourselves by telling Cap that the other was with you…” He shrugged. “Or sometimes Banner or Mike. You know Cap would have agreed with Stark about not leaving you alone with Loki. Stark’s going to be furious when he finds out…”

“I’ll take care of Dad. I just need your opinion on how you think this will affect the team,” Kat said. Barton had worked in covert ops since he was a few years younger than Kat and Mike were. Although Cap had more experience leading teams, his anger would probably cloud his judgment…and, to be honest, her great-uncle didn’t know her as well as Barton did.

“Well, since he’s an immortal, your feelings for him can’t jeopardize the team if his life is in danger.” Barton shrugged. “I trust you, Kat. I know you’ll make the right decisions for the team. If you think this is a good idea, go for it.”

Kat paused, unsure of what Barton was saying. She had had this worry for the past few days. During the Initiative, she hadn’t had time to doubt herself when placed as leader of the Avengers, but now…she had the least experience of all of them…WAS she a good leader.

“Kat…this is what Coulson and I trained you for all of these years. Remember that. Now…” Barton sighed. “Why don’t we go ahead and get telling Cap out of the way?”

“What do you need to tell me?”

They turned to see Cap standing in the doorway.

“Kat has something she needs to tell you,” Barton said. Kat glared at him.

“Is something wrong?” Cap asked.

“I just thought I needed to inform you that I’m dating Loki now,” she said.

Cap gave her a confused look. “What? Is this some kind of a joke?”

“Nope!”

They turned to see Mike step into the kitchen, heading for the coffeemaker. “It’s no joke. They really are going out.”

“Am I the last to hear of this?” Cap asked.

“No, I think Stark’s going to be the last…When are you going to tell him, by the way?” Mike asked Kat.

“When he gets back.”

“How in the world did this happen?” Cap asked angrily. “You were never alone with him…” Realization dawned on him as he turned his gaze to Barton. “Stark told us to watch her.”

“Kat’s not helpless. Believe me, this isn’t the worst case scenario here…”

“No, it’s not. What if he had killed her?”

“What if who had killed who?”

Banner stepped into the kitchen, looking around at everyone. “Some team meeting I wasn’t informed about?”

“Kat’s going out with Loki now,” Mike said without hesitation. Kat hit him on the shoulder. “Okay…ow.”

“I didn’t hit you that hard.”

“You don’t really know how strong you are, do you?”

Banner shook his head. “And things get even more interesting here at Stark Tower.”

A few minutes later, everyone had cleared out of the kitchen except for Cap and Kat. Cap crossed his arms in front of his chest and scowled at Kat. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m not doing this for a motive…”

“Kat, this man almost killed you.”

“That wasn’t him.” Cap stared at her as she continued. “He’s a completely different person now, Cap. All you have to do is spend five minutes around him to see that. I don’t think he’s acting.” She stared down at her coffee cup. “I can sense the true nature of people sometimes. Maybe it’s due to my angelic nature…I don’t know.” She looked up and fixed him with her gaze. “But I do know that he’s changed. And I’m not someone who just starts going out with someone on a whim. You can ask Mike.” Without another word, Kat stalked out of the kitchen, leaving Cap to his own thoughts.

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“I’m just saying, I think we should get uniforms.” A taxicab horn blared, nearly drowning out Mike’s voice as they walked down the bustling New York street towards the law offices of Pearson-Hardman. Mike and Loki were engaged in conversation, walking in front of Kat as she observed from behind, marveling at how well the two got along. They were so different and from two completely different realms, yet here they were, discussing the Avengers and other random topics. Kat wouldn’t miss this for the world, though she realized, once Stark came back, throwing Mike Ross, Loki Laufeyson, and Tony Stark in a room together would not play out so well for her, given her friend’s and her dad’s penchant for teasing her. She had a feeling her new (well, to this millennium) boyfriend would join in as well.

“I don’t think Stark would be one to wear a uniform, though I do believe Barton would jump at the chance to rip that SHIELD symbol off of his uniform given the chance,” Loki argued. Mike nodded, agreeing, as the immortal went on. “If we do end up getting a uniform, it would need to be a completely new symbol, one for the Avengers.”

“What about just an A for Avengers?” Kat proposed innocently, though she hadn’t really intended to join the conversation. Both men stopped and stared at her, as if it had been the most stupid thing they had ever heard. Before either of them could speak, she continued, “We don’t have much in common, I guess…except for most of us being Aquapolian…it can stand for Aquapolian, too. And Asgard!”

She breathed a silent sigh of relief when Mike nodded. “When you put it that way, a simple A would sum up the entire team.” Loki nodded his agreement and they continued on, Kat raising her eyes skyward and thanking God for that close encounter. She hated it when she misspoke sometimes, especially around Stark. He could make even Stephen Hawking feel like an idiot.

“I think we should put it up to a vote when Stark gets back,” Mike said as they stepped into the lobby of the office building, waving his security pass as Loki and Kat dug their own temporary passes out of their pockets. Because her father’s case was such a high profile one, Kat had been given her own pass, while Donna had issued Loki one in case of an emergency or if he needed to stop by to see Mike for anything.

“If you want to pass that vote without Stark arguing against it, we should hold it before he gets back. Tony Stark will not wear a uniform. Ever,” Loki said as they stepped out of the elevator. They had not made it four steps before Harvey appeared around the corner, sighing when he saw Kat and Loki.

“Didn’t I tell you not to bring your girlfriend to the office?” Harvey asked Mike.

Mike winced and stepped forward to where only Harvey could hear him. “See that six foot tall immortal guy behind her? That’s her boyfriend. Not to mention she’s your client.”

“Secondary client,” Harvey corrected him. “Now, do you have the birth and marriage certificates?” Mike gave Kat and Loki a slight wave before following Harvey, filling him in on how Barton was able to get his hands on the documents, leaving out the complete details, of course. SHIELD had eyes and ears everywhere.

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Fourteen



Kat and Loki had to wait in the legal library for a few hours before Donna got off of work. She had been called in for a meeting with Harvey and Mike, obviously something to do with the Stark case. Mike filled her in on it every day after work. It had taken Barton some hard digging to find the Starks’ wedding certificate and Kat’s birth certificate in SHIELD’s files without raising any red flags.

Finally, Donna came down to the library to meet up with them. Kat had tried to stop him, but Loki had succeeded in pulling several books off of the shelves, completely wrapped up in one as Kat and Donna talked.

“So, he’s the reader of the family,” Donna said. “You two go together well.” She was having so much more fun with this situation since Mike had told her Loki was Kat’s first boyfriend. Kat had made a mental note to pay her friend back in kind later. “Now, we’re going to start with the haircut first, then go on to finding some clothes for him.”

“That is, if we can drag him away from these books.” Donna raised an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, they may look boring to a normal person, but Loki isn’t exactly…normal.”

“I heard that,” he said without even raising his head. “Isn’t it a saying that being normal is overrated?”

“True story. You think you can put that book down for a few hours?” Loki looked up at her and smiled. Donna shot her a look and raised her eyebrows. She had noticed something Kat had known for a while. The immortal was extremely good looking when he smiled…especially when it was aimed at Kat. It unnerved her sometimes, but in a good way, she guessed.

“I don’t think anyone would notice if you walked out with it anyway,” Donna said as they walked towards the elevators. “Though this is a library, you can’t check things out unless you work here. Or…are related to an extremely high-paying client.”

“Yes, I’m sure everyone here is scrambling to do well on Stark’s case,” Loki said, his eyes on Kat. “At least, that is what I can tell from what information Mike gives me.”

Kat raised an eyebrow. “Mike gives you information? Since when did the two of you get on such friendly speaking terms?”

Loki shrugged as if to say that he had no clue how it happened. They had arrived in front of a barbershop that Donna said was where Harvey got his hair cut. “Just go on in and we’ll pay for you after you’re finished,” Donna said.

Loki turned to Kat. “You said you wanted it the same length as it was when we first met?” Kat nodded, and he turned and entered the shop.

“This is going to be interesting,” Kat said, turning around to gaze out at the city streets. Her phone suddenly started ringing, and she picked it up.

“Kat?” It was Stark.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Listen, I’ve got bad news.”

Kat sighed. “What is it?”

“I’m going to have to stay in Tokyo for another week.”

“Another entire week?”

“Yeah, I know it sucks. Spector wanted me to come in and help work on our alternate story right after I returned, but it looks like we’re going to have to put that off…again. Did Barton get the files yet?”

“It took him a lot of digging, but he managed to get them safely to Mike before SHIELD could raise any red flags.” The case involving Stark’s will was the least of her problems right now. Her mind was focused on what lay ahead with Loki and the future threat of an invading demon army…plus the fact that SHIELD could, at any time, do something…she didn’t know what. If what Loki said was true…if SHIELD really HAD killed Coulson, dark times lay ahead.

“Good, good. Listen, Kat, I’m going to call you later today…I’ve got to go.” A short click and they were disconnected. Something about Stark’s voice told Kat that what he wanted to talk about was serious.

“That Stark?” Donna asked as Kat shoved her phone back in her pocket.

“Yeah, he’s going to be stuck in Tokyo for another week.”

Donna winced. “Harvey is not going to like that. I’ll be right back.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and stepped away, lifting it to her ear. Kat watched her go, then turned back to see Loki stepping from the shop.

The sight of the immortal as he had once been abated all doubts she had about her choice to be by his side once again. It was such an aberrant idea for her…to fall head over heels for a man like this…if asked, she would have never admitted she believed in love at first sight. That belief was put in abeyance immediately in her mind.

“Is this what you wanted?” Loki asked.

“Um…yes…” Kat said as Donna clicked her phone off and stepped up, nodding in approval and shooting Kat and impressed look before going inside the shop to pay the barber. Kat’s eyes met Loki’s, and she quickly looked away, blushing.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I…you look…great.”

He smiled as Donna stepped back out of the shop. “Okay, let’s go! We’ve still got more work to do.”

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Kat sat outside on her balcony that night, enjoying the cool October air. She heard Loki step out onto his balcony to her right. “How do I look?” He was dressed in the normal clothes Donna had picked out earlier that day.

“You look good,” she smiled. “Much more normal…not that…not that you looked abnormal…” The rest of the day, Kat had been abstemious, with not much of an appetite, uneasy about the day’s events. Loki unnerved her now in a way she couldn’t quite put a finger on. His adulterated self had never thrown her off. He had been an enemy: plain and simple. But now…the aggregation of facts further confused her. She had been in love with him thousands of years ago. Was she now getting her feelings for him back? He had endured the entire day with great alacrity, not minding Donna bossing him around. Kat knew he wanted to do everything he could do please her…past and present amalgamated into one huge mess in her mind. The only thing that would ameliorate her problem would be to sit down and talk with Loki face-to-face.

Loki tilted his head to one side, studying her intently with that blue-green gaze that always captured her attention. “Is something wrong? You’ve been acting this way since I cut my hair.” True worry flooded into his gaze. Kat felt touched that he was so concerned about her. It was different from the concern Mike and Stark showed her...

But, he was right…images had flooded her mind so quickly when he had emerged from the shop, as if seeing him the way he looked when they first met had triggered all sorts of memories that she couldn’t see clearly or decipher. The mystery unnerved her, and an entirely new wave of emotions threatened her now. She was so caught off guard by her response to him now. Just by sitting across the room from him, she had urges to go to his side, sit beside him, hold his hand while walking. And now, with them alone together on their separate balconies…

The space between the balconies was not that great, and he seemed to have had the same thought. Instead of forcing her to lean over (being only a little over five feet, Kat was on the short side), he came to her, drawing her face closer to his. She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing away after only a few moments. He smiled as she looked down, avoiding his eyes. “You seem to be remembering more every day.”

“I guess so,” she said, pulling away from him and leaning back on her own balcony.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He turned to head back into his apartment.

“Good night,” she called after him, stepping back into her apartment and closing the door behind him. She leaned up against the door, letting out a sigh of relief.

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A taxi flew past as Kat and Loki made their way across the street. They had been walking around New York all day, not really doing much of anything except talking, though Loki now seemed to refuse to tell Kat anything of her previous life, telling her that she would soon remember it.

“I’m just saying that it may trigger some more memories,” Kat argued.

“You really do not like being kept in the dark about this, do you?”

“A few months ago, I found out that my entire background of my mortal life has been a fabricated lie by SHIELD. Forgive me if I want to know more about my past life…” Kat trailed off, looking around her and stopping short. Loki kept on walking for a few seconds before he realized she had stopped.

“Is something wrong?”

“Um…” She backed up a bit. “This is a pretty rough area of town. I’m not very familiar with New York. Maybe we should head back a different way?”

He looked around, then turned back to her, holding his hand out for her to take. “I won’t let anything happen to you. It will be fine.”

She nodded, silently taking his hand. They walked along in silence for a few moments before both of them stopped and froze at the same time, looking around.

“It seems as if you’re in the wrong neighborhood.”

Both of them turned to see a man in his late thirties, dressed in a black uniform similar to SHIELD’s. He stepped into the glow of a streetlight, revealing light red hair and deep black eyes. Loki stepped in front of her protectively. “What are you doing here?” He asked.

“He wishes to speak with you.” The man looked at Kat. “Alone. I can look after your little girlfriend if you wish.”

“I don’t think so,” Loki said, taking her by the arm and turning away from the man. “Keep walking. If he attacks, I’ll hold him off. Don’t look back. If you have to, call for backup from my brother and fly to Stark Tower.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” They looked up to see that the man had materialized in front of them silently. He had a gun held in his hands, pointed straight at them. “As I said, I’ll look after her while you speak to him.”

“And if I refuse?”

The man smiled. “I think she can deal with having her mortal life cut short…”

Everything happened so fast, Kat had no time to react. She could hear the gun go off, causing her to cover her ears. At the same time, Loki surged forward, grabbing the man by his arm and twisting it until Kat could hear several bones break. It had just taken a flick of the immortal’s wrist to do this…but the attacker didn’t seem to be in much pain. The gun had clattered to the ground at his feet, forgotten completely as he withdrew a knife from his coat and slashed out at Loki, coming within an inch of the immortal’s face as he stepped backwards. The man was almost as fast as Loki, which shocked Kat.

Before she could think to run or attack or do anything, another loud crack filled her ears, and the man dropped to the ground, his neck lying at an impossible angle. Kat told herself not to scream, but she was too shaken up to do much else then stand there, her arms wrapped around herself. Loki stepped forward, using the side of his boot to turn the man’s head to the side, getting a good look at his eyes. “A demon…” he said, his voice low, but loud enough for Kat to hear.

A demon. So he had been right…Kat shuddered. This one…if she had been alone, would have easily killed her. Loki stepped forward, placing his hands on her shoulders, his green gaze worried once again. “Are you okay?” He asked in a soft voice.

She nodded, unable to say much as he drew her close, her face pressed against his chest. He was at least a foot taller than her, able to rest his chin on the top of her head easily. Kat felt safe and secure for all of three seconds until she wrapped her arms around his stomach, then drew back, her left hand wet with blood.

“Loki…” She lifted his coat away from the shirt underneath. The bullet wound was bleeding so badly, it had soaked all the way through his coat. A mortal would have passed out by then. Loki didn’t seem fazed much as he drew her hand away from the wound.
“I’m fine…” He said in a low voice, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and leading her back in the direction they had come from. While his body was already healing, he had still lost enough blood to make himself a little bit weak, though he was obviously trying to hide this from Kat. He stumbled once or twice as they made their way for Stark Tower, Kat punching Banner’s number into her cell phone.

“Hello?”

“Banner, Loki’s been shot. We’re just a few blocks from the tower…” By now, Kat was partially supporting him, which was difficult because of their height difference. “He says it’s not bad…”

“I’m fine…” Loki groaned, leaning against her slightly. He was still standing upright…but Kat could feel that he was weakening with every few steps they took.

“How much blood has he lost?” Banner asked.

“A…a ton…”

Cap and Barton met them in the lobby, Cap taking over the job of supporting Loki for Kat.

While Kat, Barton, and Cap waited in the room outside of the infirmary for Banner to give them an update on Loki’s condition, Barton asked, “So, what happened?”

“This demon cornered us as we were walking home. He threatened to kill me if Loki wouldn’t come with him to talk with someone.”

“Who?” Cap asked.

“He didn’t say, but I have a feeling it was someone important…I wonder…if it was the Demon King?”

Cap crossed his arms in front of his chest. “This isn’t good. Especially if Loki’s been injured badly. We’ll be knocked down one immortal in fighting shape…”

Banner stepped out of the sliding doors, his glasses in his hand. Everyone turned to him expectantly. He paused before saying, “He’s lost a lot of blood, but he should be good by tomorrow. A normal person would have died, and if Kat had been shot…well, yeah, she would have died.”

“He saved my life…” Kat whispered to herself, fixing Cap with a meaningful look. He looked away.

“I’m going to keep him here for a few more hours, then send him up to his own apartment to stay the night.” Banner turned to Kat. “He’ll be fine, Kat. Why don’t you catch some sleep?”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Fifteen



That night, Kat lay in her bed, wide awake. She couldn’t get to sleep, the demon’s face swimming in her mind’s eye, where she saw it every time she closed her eyes. A knock at her door broke through her thoughts. She was surprised to see Loki when she opened the door. “May I come in?”

“Yes, of course.” He stepped into the apartment shutting the door behind him. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better now. I should be fully healed by the morning.”

“Thank you.”

He frowned. “For what?”

“For saving my life.”

“Aya…” He stepped closer to her. “Do you really think I would let any harm come to you?”

She frowned. “Aya?”

“I’m sorry…I used to call you that…I forgot…”

“Why Aya?”

“It means angel of chaos in Aquapolian. You asked me to call you that instead of Quamachi.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Angel of chaos?”

“YOU asked me to call you that.” He smiled.

There was a pause before she asked, “Would you mind staying here tonight?”

“No…” He studied her. “Is anything wrong?”

“I just…I’m still trying to get over what happened today.”

“You should get some sleep then,” he said, sitting down on the couch.

“Yeah…so should you.” She turned to go into her room, then turned back around. “Um…you don’t have to stay on the couch.”
Loki studied her, not sure if he heard right. “Are you sure?”

Kat nodded. “Yeah. Please…”

He took the side of the bed closest to the door with her on the opposite side, facing the closet. This time, she fell asleep quickly. When she woke up the next day, she was surprised to see that she had turned over in the night and wrapped her arms around his arm closest to her. He woke up at the same time, and she sheepishly pulled away from him. “Um…sorry…”

“It’s fine…” He said, sitting up.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better. Much better.”

She stepped out of the apartment first after she dressed, making her way to the kitchen where Mike was getting some coffee. He handed the carafe to her, looking at her over his cup. “Did Loki stay over at your apartment last night?” He happened to ask just as Cap stepped in. Cap frowned as she stared into her coffee.

“Maybe…” She muttered, fleeing from the kitchen before Cap could say anything. Mike laughed, but immediately shut up when Cap shot him a glare.

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“We need to boost security around here just in case,” Barton said. “If demons start to attack this place…”

“Perhaps I should speak with Adam. He’ll continue to attack until…” Loki started.

“No. He’ll probably kill you on sight for abandoning the cause,” Thor said.

“We haven’t seen a demon around here…” Kat said. “Adam’s strategizing…”

“When Stark gets back, he may be able to program security to pick up a demon’s signature,” Cap said.

“When is he getting back?” Banner asked.

“Not for another week…” Kat answered.

“Then we’ll just have to keep an eye out…” Mike said.

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A few nights later, Kat lay curled up beside Loki. He had started sleeping beside her since the night the demon attacked her. At around one in the morning, a loud ringing noise filled the room, waking both of them up. She groaned, leaning over to grab her phone off of the table on her side of the bed. “Hello?” She said groggily.

“Hey, Kat,” Stark said. “Sorry to wake you up.”

“No…it’s fine. What’s up?”

“I’m actually about to jump on a jet home. The meeting ended early, just wanted to let you know before I show up randomly tomorrow.”

“That’s great!”

“Okay, I’ve got to run now. See you in the morning.” There was a pause before he said, almost as a hesitant afterthought. “Love you, sweetie.”

She was taken aback by this, but answered instantly, “Love you, Dad.” After hanging up, she sat staring at her phone for a few moments.

“Is something wrong?” Loki asked.

“No…nothing…” she said, putting her phone back on the table. “Dad’s coming home early.” She smiled. He slipped his hand through hers, sitting up beside her.

“Good,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.

“I need to tell him as soon as he gets back.”

“Tell him what?”

She fixed him with her Aquapolian blue gaze. “Tell him about us.”

“He’s going to put up a fight.”

“Are you scared?”

Loki smiled. “No, however I know how protective he is of you…”

“Yeah…” She nodded. “I’ll try to talk to him. I think he’ll warm up to the fact more after learning how you saved my life…if you show him you’re just as protective of me…”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she rested her head on his shoulder.

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The next morning, Kat woke up before Loki did, slipping into the kitchen and fixing two cups of coffee. Cap came in, a worried look on his face. “Kat…”

“I know you’re worried about me and Loki. You don’t have to be.”

“I know, but Kat…”

“And him living with me. I know you’re old-fashioned…there’s nothing going on…”

“I know…”

“I don’t know why I care so much, but…I guess I’m just worried about how Dad’s going to take this…”

“Kat, I don’t have a problem with you being with Loki anymore.” She put down her cup, staring at him. “What happened the other night…I started observing the two of you together. He cares a lot about you. There’s no way someone could pretend to feel that way about someone.” He smiled. “I actually think I’ll give you hell if you break up with him.”

She laughed, stepping down from the main kitchen and lifting one of the cups to her mouth as he stepped past her to grab some coffee himself. The news was playing on the TV screen on the other end of the kitchen area. A news alert story caught her eye, stopping her cold.

“We’ve received reports that a private jet traveling from Tokyo to New York has gone down over the Pacific. Reports say that the jet belonged to Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark, who was in Tokyo on business for the past week before heading home early this week. Sources confirm that Mr. Stark was on board the jet, but search and rescue crews believe that there is a low possibility that anyone on board survived.”

There was a pause in the room until Cap said, “I’ll go wake the others.” He rushed out of the room as Kat stared at the screen, completely frozen in shock.

Cap ran to all of the apartments, banging on the doors and trying to phone Mike at the same time. Only Loki and Banner were in the apartments. “Turn on the news NOW!” Cap snapped at Banner, turning to Loki. “Go to the kitchen, Kat’s in there.” He rushed to the elevator, punching the button furiously as he re-dialed Mike’s number. Loki wasted no time getting to the kitchen, where he found Kat, standing only a few inches away from the TV screen. Two ceramic mugs lay shattered behind her, coffee and blood spread around them. Her feet were bloody as well. He stepped around the shards of the mugs, putting a hand on her shoulder, listening to a few lines of the repeated news story.

“Aya…” He whispered. “Your feet.” She didn’t reply as he lifted her up, racing into the common room. “Banner!”

------------

Mike, Harvey, and Donna stared at the TV screen in Jessica Pearson’s office, none of them believing what they were hearing or seeing. The silence was broken by Mike’s phone going off. “Hello?”

“Mike, we need you here now,” Cap said.

“Okay,” he glanced over at Harvey.

“Go to Stark Tower now. Gather any information you can,” Harvey told Mike.

He nodded. “I’m on my way,” he said, rushing out the door.

------------

Kat sat on one of the beds in the infirmary, staring down at her hands. Banner retrieved some gauze and bandages from a drawer nearby, handing them to Loki. “Just wrap it really tightly. I don’t want the bleeding to start up badly again.” He glanced over at Kat and lowered his voice. “Stay by her. She’s in shock right now. She’s going to take a while to recover.” He left the room as Loki sat down across from Kat, lifting one of her feet into his lap as he wrapped it up, his eyes staying on her as he worked.

Finally, when he finished wrapping up both feet, he stood up and sat beside her, taking one of her hands in his. A few more moments passed before she burst into tears. “What if he’s dead?” She sobbed. “What if he didn’t have his suit with him?”

He wrapped his arms around her, placing his chin on her head. “You know he always carried the mobile suit with him. It’s going to take more than a plane crash to kill Tony Stark.” She sobbed some more into his chest.

------------

“I’ve reached some of my contacts…ones that were loyal to Coulson. They’re heading out to the crash sight. It was within twenty miles of California, so they’ll be searching the shore as well,” Barton said.

“We have to make sure they find him before SHIELD does,” Cap said.

“Should we go out there?” Mike asked.

“No, that would just lead to trouble between us and any SHIELD agents out there. We stay here and keep an eye on the situation.”

“If he’s still alive...” Thor began.

“Barton’s right. If he’s still alive and has the suit, his chances of survival will be better if we stay here.”

Everyone turned to see Kat and Loki standing in hallway between the common room and the elevator.

“Then we’ll stay here,” Cap said. “And keep a sharp eye out to see if any demons decide to attack at this time.”

------------

For the next few days, everyone stayed in the common room unless they were on guard duty or asleep. When either Kat or Loki were not on duty at night, they slept together in her apartment. After the first crying spell in the infirmary, she would wake up randomly throughout the night, sobbing from nightmares about demons and Stark ending up truly dead. Loki was there to comfort her, holding her until she fell asleep.

One night, Barton was standing in the common room, watching the news, when he got a phone call. “Hello?”

“Barton?”

“Lawson. How’s it going?”

“You’re going to need to get to the airport in the next few hours.”

In Kat’s apartment, Kat and Loki were fast asleep until Kat’s phone rang, loudly waking them up. She scooped up her phone. “Hello?”

“Hi, sweetie.”

Her heart stopped. “Dad?”

“Yeah, I’m standing here at the airport in San Francisco. I’ll be home in a few hours.”

“…How…?” She breathed.

“Guess that prototype saved my life. I wasn’t able to stop the plane from sinking…I black out for a few seconds before I could activate the suit.”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Sixteen



“Thank God,” Kat said.

“I’m about to head back now. I’ll see you soon, sweetie.” Stark ended the call. She sprang out of bed, fully waking Loki up.

“What is it?” He asked.

“He’s alive!”

“Who…?” He asked groggily.

“Dad! He’s alive!”

------------

“I’ll take one of the cars out to the airport. I’m going to need two more people to come with me,” Barton said after everyone had gathered in the common room. “It’s crucial that we get to Stark before SHIELD does.”

“I’ll go,” Kat said.

“I will as well,” Loki volunteered.

“The rest of you, stay on alert. We may need reinforcements. We’ll stay in constant contact, okay?”

------------

Barton sped towards the airport, Loki in the passengers seat beside him and Kat sitting right behind him. “Kat, you get out first, greet him when he gets off the plane. Keep it short. Loki, you get out of the car and keep a close eye on them, then signal when it’s time to go or if we spot any SHIELD agents in the area. If we have to split up, I’ll go with Stark, you two stick together. Head back for Stark Tower and call in reinforcements if you need to.”

He pulled onto the airstrip of the airport. It was a tiny one, only big enough for a few planes at once. She could see Stark’s plane already on the strip. Barton braked to a stop, and Kat slipped out, making her way for the opening door of the plane. Stark was walking down the steps as she approached, flanked by two SHIELD agents. Kat froze until she realized these were the agents on Barton’s side. Instead of stepping fully off of the plane, one turned to her, nodded, and both of them retreated back into the aircraft. Stark turned to her, and she ran to him, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his chest.

“They’re going to have to try harder to kill me,” Stark said as he held her close.

She pulled away. “Do you really think SHIELD was behind this?”

“Kat, when it comes to SHIELD, I don’t think. I know.” He looked past her to where the car was, Loki standing beside it, keeping an eye on them.

Barton gazed ahead, still in the driver’s seat. Flashing lights shone in the distance. He turned toward Loki. “We’re leaving. NOW!” Loki signaled to Kat, and she grabbed Stark’s arm.

“What’s going on?” He asked.

“We need to get out of here before they try to finish the job,” she said as they raced for the car, Stark sliding into the backseat beside her.

“Okay, everyone, buckle up!” Barton said, as he spun the car around. “This is going to be a bumpy ride!” Without waiting to check that everyone had fastened their seat belts, he made a sharp turn to the right, causing Stark, who had ignored Barton’s warning, choosing instead to grip one of the handles above the car door on his side of the back seat, to slide sideways into Kat. Barton stepped on the gas pedal, pushing Stark further back in the seat.

“I swear to God, if you get thrown out of this car because you failed to put on your seatbelt…” Kat growled at Stark. Barton and Loki shot each other a look that said they were glad it wasn’t them getting chewed out by her as Stark silently buckled himself into his seat, a slightly unnerved look on his face. Though she was the shortest of the group and did not look tough at all, Kat had a way of intimidating anyone, even Thor. The effect was thoroughly carried out by her blue eyes, which seemed to spark dangerously whenever she was mad.

They raced down the road that led from the small airport back towards Manhattan, Barton careening around other cars in the road expertly. He had received this kind of driving training not under SHIELD, but under Group X, the assassination organization he had worked for previously. Assassins had to be able to make quick exits, especially if they were out in the field alone. Sirens screamed in the distance, but Barton ignored them, driving even faster. If the police caught them, they would eventually end up in SHIELD custody. The only safe place for them now was Stark Tower.

The SHIELD vehicles were now closing in on them like predators stalking their prey. A gunshot shattered Barton’s side-view mirror, coming inches within the agent’s face. He withdrew a handgun from his belt, rolled down the window, and expertly shot out two vehicles’ tires while still maintaining a steady hand at the wheel. “Anyone else want a shot at them? This next part’s going to be tricky.” He handed the gun over to Loki, who inspected it for only a few seconds before rolling down his own window and aiming at another car. “Don’t shoot to kill unless you have to,” Barton said as several more gunshots sounded out from behind them. Two more vehicles screeched and careened into each others as their tires blew out, this time on the passenger’s side of the car.

Stark looked back as they quickly left the SHIELD cars behind, their passengers jumping out of the vehicles and yelling into their radios. “Nice shot. They have guns on Asgard?”

“No, they don’t. I just have better eyesight than most mortals. It makes it easier to see what I’m aiming at,” Loki explained as another volley of shots rang out from behind them. The back windshield collapsed, glass falling in showers to the road behind them.

“GET DOWN NOW!” Barton yelled at Kat and Stark. This time, she didn’t protest when Stark unfastened his seatbelt, both of them ducking behind the two front seats, Stark with his hand on Kat’s back and his body positioned closer to the back in order to protect her from any wayward bullets.

“Did they bring the entire organization?” She could hear Loki ask from the front seat as he scanned the roads around them. It seemed as if all of the vehicles on the road now belonged to SHIELD.

“Just about. I have to hand it to them, they don’t give up on a mission easily. Probably pissed off that Stark survived a certain-death situation. Have to fix this problem before someone else gets wind of it…” Barton commented as he swerved, swearing.

“What’s going on?” Kat asked, trying to raise her head to see what Barton was cursing at. Stark forced her to lie low as he raised his head to get a better look.

“A roadblock? For one person? I’m flattered,” he said, his eyes on the line of SHIELD cars in front of them. “Just to let you know, Barton, this car isn’t going to be able to plow through all of those vehicles…and it looks like we’ve got company on both sides.” He ducked back down, shooting Kat a smile. “I knew I should have started working on that flying car prototype I thought about years ago.”

“Who needs a prototype when this car can fly?” Kat said, her eyes shining. Before Stark could ask her what she meant, the road underneath them started to rise up, forming a sort of ramp over the roadblock. Barton tried to keep his eyes on what was ahead, but he couldn’t help staring in awe as the road on either side of them started to twist, forming a tunnel too narrow for any car to ride beside them. The tunnel rippled like a wave down the road, completely crushing any SHIELD vehicle in its path. The car landed back on the road with a jolt, and Barton was able to steer it cleanly down the road, leaving the SHIELD cars behind as they raced through the tunnel.

Kat and Stark slide back onto their seats, Stark staring at the tunnel rippling outside of his window. “Are you doing this?” He asked Kat, impressed. Barton and Loki didn’t seem as surprised, Loki knowing exactly what her powers entailed and Barton having trained with her in controlling the elements for years.

“Yeah, but we only have a short amount of time before the tunnel has to collapse back. I don’t want to injure any bystanders…” She said, her eye on the tunnel, keeping it rippling as they sped along.

“Okay, well listen to the following sentence because not many people get to hear it… I’m impressed.” Stark didn’t have long to admire the tunnel, however. It was already starting to collapse around them…and it seemed as if the SHIELD agents had refused to give up in their pursuit. Barton tried to ease the car into a faster pace, but a loud shot rang out, causing the car to spin around. It careened into a guardrail at the side of the road, but didn’t stop there.

With a loud screeching noise, the car broke through the barrier and tumbled down the slope into a wooded area. Flipping sideways several times, it finally crashed into the treeline. Kat blacked out for a few seconds, her head swimming. She could feel herself reaching across to grab Stark’s arm. “Kat!” His voice sounded far away. “Kat, are you okay?” Then she was being pulled out of the car by Barton, Stark following after them. Blood was running down Stark’s face and Barton’s shoulder looked as if it had been wrenched painfully.

“Come on!” Barton yelled, sound still so far away to her ears. Stark grabbed her arm, wrenching her towards the trees. An explosion sounded from behind them. She turned. The car was in flames…and she hadn’t seen Loki yet.

“LOKI!” She screamed, wrenching her arm from Stark’s grasp. She could vaguely hear him shouting her name, but she wasn’t listening. “LOKI!” She stumbled towards the wreck, her eyes searching everywhere. Someone grabbed her from behind, spinning her away from the flames and back towards where Barton and Stark stood. She realized distantly that it was Loki who was steering her towards them, but she was still too in shock to realize anything.

When they were standing across from Stark and Barton, Stark stepped beside her, tilting her head up so that she was looking directly at him. “Are you okay?” Kat had never seen him like this before. He was literally shaking, even though she had gotten away a lot less injured than he had. She nodded as Barton started to talk.

“Everyone take a few moments to compose yourselves…” He said calmly. Stark stepped back from Kat, taking a deep breath. Sirens sounded in the distance. “Okay, here’s our plan,” Barton said, turning to Stark. “You come with me. Kat goes with Loki. We split up and head back to Stark Tower by two different routes.” Stark was about to say something, obviously about the way they were splitting up, but Barton interrupted him. “We don’t have time to argue. They’ll be on us in a few minutes. We have to start back on foot now.” The sirens were growing closer. Barton started in one direction, Stark hesitantly following after him. Kat spun around, and she and Loki bolted in the opposite direction.

------------

Barton and Stark made it back to Stark Tower first, jumping in the elevator to get to the top floor as quickly as possible. As soon as it was certain that they were out of danger, Stark turned to Barton. “What part of ‘don’t leave Kat alone with Loki’ did you not understand?”

Barton shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable. “We decided we could trust him.”

“Really? Trust him enough to gamble with my daughter’s life?”

“He saved her life a few days ago.”

“What?” Stark frowned, confused. “I didn’t hear anything about that…”

“A demon attacked them while they were walking back home from somewhere a few nights ago…threatened to kill Kat. Loki killed him instead.”

Stark was quiet for a few moments, thinking this over. “They were walking home alone?”

Barton sighed. “Listen…about that…” A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed as Barton tried to decide how exactly he was going to phrase the next sentence out of his mouth. It was harder with no one else around…Barton had faced up against mercenaries, assassins, all sorts of covert agents, yet he still felt facing the Starks when they were angry was the scariest thing he would ever do.

What unnerved him the most was that Stark was completely silent. Barton usually walked around Stark Tower wishing the billionaire would just shut up for five seconds, but now that he had, Barton could literally feel the tension in the air. He knew that, while Stark took almost nothing seriously, when it came to Kat, he was more dangerous than Thor.

“Thor might be able to explain this better than I ever would…it’s got something to do with Kat’s immortal past and all…” That was actually a good idea, Barton thought. Let Thor explain to Stark that his daughter was dating Loki…

“What?” Stark’s voice had gotten dangerously low. Barton unconsciously backed away from him a few inches. Yeah, much more scary than mercenaries. Barton suddenly wished Stark had been knocked unconscious in that car crash…Then again, it would be interesting to see what Stark’s reaction was…

“Kat is going out with Loki now.”

For all of a few seconds, Barton was convinced that that day was the day he died. All of those years running black ops in Russia and China…and he would die at the hands of Tony Stark.

Then Stark burst out laughing and he realized the billionaire thought it was a joke. “That…that’s a good one, Barton.” Barton hesitantly started to laugh as well, realizing that he would have thought the same thing a few months previously. Stark doubled over and both Avengers were laughing so hard, Barton thought one or both of them would pass out. This was his chance.

“You know what the funniest thing is?” He said, trying to keep his composure as he continued on. “It’s true!”

For a few seconds, Barton didn’t know whether his plan had worked or not. He had accidently put on his serious face…Stark was staring at him as if he couldn’t believe his ears. Well, now Barton was dead. “Wait…what?”

“Kat…and Loki…are going out now…And it started back when they were immortals…well, when Kat was an immortal…”

“So, let me get this straight…” Stark said, his voice getting dangerously low again. “I tell each and every one of you that I don’t want Kat alone in a room with Loki for her safety…and apparently, not only do you completely ignore that…but…when in hell did it seem a good idea to you to let her start dating him?!

“Um…” Barton was saved at the last moment by the elevator door swinging open onto the top floor, where the rest of the Avengers were waiting. Before Barton could issue another “um,” Stark stormed out of the elevator and into the common area. Barton could see everyone else turning to watch them come in, and the look on everyone’s face told him that they knew Stark was pissed.

“Seriously, what the hell, guys?” Even Cap seemed a bit intimidated by Stark and Thor looked like he wanted to disappear into the floor. Mike stepped silently behind Thor while Banner tried to make himself as small as possible sitting on the couch. “You!” He pointed straight at Cap. “I thought you would have had complete control over this situation!”

Cap raised his hands as if to say it wasn’t his fault. “Can anyone explain to me exactly what happened?” Stark asked, spinning around to address all of them. Each and every one of them pointed at Thor simultaneously. Mike stepped out from behind him sitting on a chair nearby.

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Seventeen



Everyone seemed to simultaneously hold their breath as they waited for Stark to say something. Thor, for as big and strong as he was, looked as if he were facing a firing squad. “I…they…” he started, stuttering over his words. “…years ago, they were together…” he tried to shrug, as if to say it wasn’t a big deal. “I didn’t think it wrong that…”

“Yes, this was all before your brother became a murdering psychopath,” Stark said. Before Thor could protest, he cut him off. “And just because someone else was controlling him…What if the Demon King takes over his mind again?”

“He can’t. Not as long as he is close to her.”

If it were possible for silence to grow even quieter…No one had heard this before, not even the Avengers who had been there the entire time. This seemed to shut Stark up just long enough for the elevator doors to swing open and Kat and Loki to step in the room. It was obvious to everyone that Kat knew what they were talking about. Before they could lapse into a long and awkward silence, she turned to Barton. “Have you received any word from your contacts within SHIELD yet?”

A big sigh of relief swept over everyone in the room except for Stark, who decided to stew over his own thoughts. Barton looked the most relieved of everyone as he spoke, “SHIELD isn’t releasing any orders to go after you. They lost track of you for now…they’ll be regrouping and deciding whether or not they want to pull another maneuver like that.”

“So what should we do now?” Mike asked.

“We need to figure out exactly why SHIELD is after Stark,” Cap said. Barton nodded in agreement.

“I wonder if it has anything to do with the Tesseract…” Kat turned to Thor and Loki. “We discovered that it’s some sort of computer.”

“There were ancient legends that only two beings would be unable to unlock the Tesseract’s secrets,” Loki said. “One of which being the Chosen One…” He glanced over at Stark. “If Stark is the second being…perhaps SHIELD does not want the Tesseract’s secrets unlocked.”

Everyone thought about this for a few moments before Barton spoke up. “I have a friend who is a former SHIELD agent.” He paused, glancing at Mike and Kat. “He may be able to help us…you two actually know him. After he retired from SHIELD, he started teaching high school chemistry.”

Mike laughed. “No way, Mr. White?”

Barton nodded. “He and Coulson used to be partners on missions in the late eighties and nineties. That was around the time SHIELD came into possession of the Tesseract. The only thing is…we would have to get Kat and Mike down to speak with him. He doesn’t like being approached for this kind of stuff.”

“We can’t go down alone,” Kat said.

“You won’t. I’ll do down with you, and we’ll take one of the immortals.”

“We should go as soon as possible.”

“And we’ll keep in constant communication,” Cap spoke up. “So that SHIELD doesn’t swoop in and catch you while you’re gone.”

“Are you good with going in two days?” Barton asked. “Think you can get out of work, Mike?”

“If I get a note from Stark saying I’m doing something for the case, Harvey won’t mind.”

“Speaking of Harvey,” Stark said, his mood lightening up just a bit. “That database of Aquapolians we found. Harvey was in it.”

“Do you think we should invite him to join?” Mike asked half-jokingly. “I don’t think he’d be up for that.”

“We can always try and see if he develops powers,” Barton pointed out. Everyone remained silent as they thought on this. They decided to wait to make the decision later.

------------

The walls of the corridor threatened to close her in…it felt as if Kat was trapped underground, her claustrophobia threatening to drown her. That day’s events had her nearly suffocating from the turmoil of emotions that swam in her head. The early morning phone call from her father, who turned out to be alive and well, had brought extreme joy to her heart. The perilous ride back from the airport had sent an adrenaline rush through her body, combined with terror and shock (which she was still suffering slightly from hours later) brought on by the car crash. Finally, though not one of the other Avengers had said anything to her about it, she knew that Stark had not reacted well to the fact that she was now dating Loki. She had hoped to pull him aside that night, after things had settled down, and tell him everything. Kat was starting to get the hang of speaking to her father, and she knew that his top concern would be her safety.

Footsteps sounded behind her, and she turned around as Stark stopped, his hands in the pocket of his coat as he studied her for a few moments. She started to talk, but he cut her off. “When were you going to tell me?” He looked hurt by the fact that she hadn’t confided in him earlier. She was surprised to see this emotion on his face.

“I…I was going to tell you when you got home…” She started to fight back tears. “I’m sorry…I wanted to talk to you face-to-face…and then…” She sobbed. “And then…I wasn’t so sure if you were even coming home.” She burst into tears, covering her eyes with her hands so that she couldn’t see his face. A few moments later, she could feel him wrap his arms around her and place his chin on her head as she sobbed into his shoulder.

“I just want to make sure you’re safe,” he said after a few moments. “Barton told me about what happened a few days ago.” He sighed. “Kat…I can’t claim to know everything about you, it’s just that…you don’t seem like the sort of person to rush into decisions like this.” He paused. “Although I guess I should ask Thor more about this.”

She stepped back, her eyes on the floor. “I just…don’t know how to explain this.”

He put his hand up to stop her. “No need. You seem just as confused as I am. That’s why I’m surprised about…this…happening. However, if you were going to pick between the two immortals on the team, I’m not surprised you picked Loki.”

She smiled. “I guess I have more in common with him than I do with Thor. It’s hard talking to him sometimes…”

Stark snorted. “That’s the understatement of the millennium. Conversations with him are like talking to a brick wall that asks questions every three seconds.”

Kat rolled her eyes. “Dad, he’s not stupid, he’s just…”

“Slow?”

“Well, compared to Loki many people can be seen as slow. I meant to say that Thor just doesn’t know as much about Earth and is eager to learn. He means well, but I…”

“Prefer the brother who has his nose in a book all the time? I thought so…”

She raised an eyebrow, inwardly extremely glad that the conversation had turned from tense back to the usual teasing that occurred between the two of them on a daily basis. Usually, she found it annoying, but now it was an extreme sense of relief to her. “What do you mean you thought so?”

“I just meant that you’re a nerd, so…” Stark said.

“So says the man who built a flying suit,” Kat pointed out.

“And now you know where you got your nerdiness from.”

There was a pause in the conversation until she asked, “What are we going to do now?”

“You and me?”

“The entire team. But yes…” She took a deep breath. “We do need to figure out why SHIELD wants you dead.”

“I think it has something to do with that registry of Aquapolian descendants.”

“I would think SHIELD would want access to it…”

“That’s what we’re going to find out from White, hopefully.”

She frowned. “It’s going to take a lot of convincing for him to tell us what he knows.”

“If he wants protection, we can provide it.”

“We can barely provide enough protection for the group members we have now,” she said bitterly.

He shrugged. “Well, then, if he wants money, that’s not a problem.”

She shook her head. “No. He’s more likely to ask protection for his family. If he’s a former SHIELD member, there’s a high chance he and his family are being monitored. This is a huge risk we’re asking him to take.”

“But it’s a huge risk that has to be taken. Being kept in the dark about anything SHIELD does is dangerous for us.”

She nodded. “Why is it that I’m more afraid of what SHIELD will do than what an army of demons will do?”

“Because no demon could match what the council of SHIELD does on a daily basis.”

-----------

A few hours later, Loki stepped out of the library and into the common room. Everyone had cleared out except for Stark, who was staring at a computer screen intently. Loki hadn’t spoken to Kat since they had returned from the airport, but he knew from how the rest of the Avengers were acting that Stark was not pleased with him at all. No matter to him. He knew from the start that there were bound to be members of the team who wouldn’t be happy about him fighting by their side. The only difference was that Kat cared a lot about what her father thought…at least about this. If Kat cared, Loki would care. It was as simple as that.

Loki was debating whether or not to go ahead and get the confrontation over with when Stark looked up from his computer, not exactly surprised to see him there. Both of them knew this conversation was inevitable, so they might as well have it now.

“When did it start?”

This question caught Loki slightly off guard. He had expected a snide remark or yelling. Instead, Stark merely seemed curious, as if this were a scientific problem he was trying to sort out, gathering variables and evidence to solve it. “It started originally three thousand years ago. Ay…Kat” He corrected himself. “Was invited to stay on Asgard for a few centuries to tutor the grandchildren of a higher lord. That was when we met.”

“And then you decide that now…” Stark stopped, starting his sentence over again. “She doesn’t even remember anything from her immortal life.”

“Her mind still holds the memories of her past life. They are just not…unlocked for her to completely see yet. She may not know this, but the motivation behind most of her actions comes from these unlocked memories from her past.”

“Which would explain why she decides to start going out with an immortal like three days after she meets him.” Stark seemed relieved now that he knew the truth behind what confused him earlier.

“And why she can’t stand the thought of losing you, though she doesn’t know exactly why yet.”

Stark frowned, remembering Kat’s words during the Initiative. “Do me a favor and don’t get yourself killed out here…” He muttered thoughtfully, thinking about the way she had burst into tears earlier that day. “So…why is that?”

“There are four sets of immortals. Those who live in heaven and hell, the angels and demons, and those who live on Earth and in Asgard. Earth has no native immortals of its own. Asgardian immortals are born from other Asgardian immortals, as are angels and demons. Kat is an angel, created to stand watch over and protect the Earth. But she has no immortal parents…and for thousands of years, she has been the only immortal to walk on this Earth.” He paused. “You are the only father she will ever know. After she dies, she will wake to walk the Earth once more…but even as an angel, she is barred from heaven to continue her job of protecting this Earth…”

Loki did not have to say a word more. Terrible realization dawned on Stark. The only comfort in death for him was the fact that he would see Caroline again and Kat some time after. But now…he realized that not only would he never see her again after his death, but Kat would never meet her mother.

As Stark struggled to come to terms with this new revelation, Loki continued. “And now you know why she cares more for your safety than her own. And how it’s possible for her…feelings to return after so many years.”

There was a heavy silence for a few moments as Loki realized just how much his words had impacted Stark. He knew he needed to end the conversation and leave Stark to his thoughts as soon as possible, but before he could say any last words, Stark stepped forward, his gaze meeting the immortal’s. It was so strange to Loki how a mortal could possess so much power in one glance, but then again, Stark was no ordinary mortal. Besides being the father of the Chosen One, there was something else…some kind of power hidden within him that had proved Loki’s words during their first meeting wrong. Tony Stark would not just be remembered throughout immortal time as the Chosen One’s father or as Iron Man. He would be remembered for something more, though Loki knew not what.

“You can stay by her side…but you have to stay true to your end of the deal.”

Loki raised an eyebrow. “Which is…?

“I want you to act as her bodyguard during her mortal life. I can’t be everywhere. I can’t protect her all the time. And I won’t be there for her after I die. She needs someone by her side for eternity. And that someone will be you. I want you to watch after her from this day on. And if you don’t, I swear to God, I’ll find a way to come back from the dead and kick your ***.” He held out his hand. “Understood?”

A slow smile spread across Loki’s face. “Understood.” They shook hands, a sense of surprising relief flowing through the immortal. “It’s strange…” He said. “It did not turn out well the last time someone tried to control Kat and my relationship…it ended up with her being banished from Asgard and my being Shadowficated.”

“Then why take this deal now?”

“Because I have more respect for you than I will ever have for Odin.” With those words spoken, Loki turned and left the common room, effectively leaving Stark speechless and alone with his own thoughts.

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Eighteen



Fuzzy with sleep, Kat woke up slightly, still not used to the sensation of sleeping beside someone…or, in this case, within the arms of someone. Loki was sound asleep, his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close to his chest. She could hear his heartbeat through the thin black shirt he wore to bed…could feel his chest rise and fall.

It was strange sometimes…when one thinks about immortals, one doesn’t often think about the fact that they were essentially the same inside. They had fears, hopes, dreams, regrets. They slept, ate, ran, read…The only difference was the fact that they lived extremely long lives.

She shifted her head up slightly, being careful not to wake him. He seemed so content…had fallen asleep with a smile on his face. Something inside her felt extremely happy that she was with him once again. She no longer questioned it, just let it be.

Loki took a deep breath in his sleep, hugging her closer…a little too tightly. Sometimes, he forgot that she was a mortal…the first time he had held her too tightly in his sleep, she had nearly suffocated before she could wake him up. He had woken in a panic, so concerned that he had nearly killed her. She couldn’t help but laugh. She would never had thought it before, but this side of the immortal of mischief was…cute. God, she never would have thought that when they first met. He had been a monster then, but now…He had been so confused, that she had to apologize and stop him from leaving the bed right then and there.

This time, however, he woke up before any damage could be done. Noticing that she was awake, he released her. “I’m sorry…” He smiled. “How long have you been awake?”

“Just a few minutes,” she said, thinking about what was ahead of her that day. Harvey had heard that she and Mike were going out of town in a few days, so had jumped ahead and scheduled a meeting with the head partners of Pearson-Hardman so that they could get some insight into the Stark case as well. The next step would be to get the council of Stark Industries in and talk to them as well, since Stark’s will-changing would be taking some of their shares away from them once he died.

She groaned. “I don’t want to go into Pearson-Hardman today...” She buried her head in his chest again, wishing that she could just stay in bed curled up beside him for the rest of the day.

He laughed and pushed her away again gently. “Would you like for me to come with you today?”

“Dad’s having to drive over from another meeting across town, so, yeah, you can walk me there…it’s going to last a while, though, so…”

“There’s a bookstore around the corner. I believe it’s the one I found you in…” He smiled. Kat groaned and buried her face in her hands, unable to stand how his smile combined with his voice made her feel. He pulled her hands away from her face and kissed her lightly.

On cue, her phone started screaming from the bedside table. “If that’s Dad, I swear to God…” Kat said, snatching her phone up and answering it. “Hello?”

“Hey, you up yet, or are you still sleeping like the dead?” Of course. Stark.

“That was one time.”

“I really panicked, Kat. I don’t panic much, but…”

“Really…”

“I really thought, ‘wow, this is the first time we’ve lived together in twenty-one years, and she went and died on me in the middle of the night.’”

“Uh, huh…”

“No, seriously…”

She sighed. “What is it?”

“Just calling you to make sure you know about our meeting in two hours. Make sure your boyfriend gets you over to Pearson-Hardman on time.”

Kat rolled her eyes. “You’re taking this a lot less…annoyingly than I thought you would…”

“Winter is coming, Kat…”

“Oh, God, how long have you been waiting to use that?”

“No, seriously, it’s coming…”

“If you don’t have anything important to say, I’m going to hang up the phone.”

“Nope. Just make sure you…”

“Dress nicely?”

“And the boyfriend…”

“The boyfriend’s not going to be there…” She glanced over at Loki, and he raised an eyebrow at her. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Good. Love you, sweetie.”

“Love you, Dad.” As the connection cut off, Kat thought about how it was still weird that Stark ended all their phone conversations that way. He wasn’t someone to show those kind of emotions much, but now…Kat was understanding more and more the pain he had felt over the past few decades…and now she understood exactly why he acted the way he did around her.

“The boyfriend?” Loki asked, giving her a confused look.

“Get used to it. He’s probably going to call you that for a while. If it gets annoying, just ask Cap how he deals with being called Uncle Steve all the time.”

------------

Kat was the first to arrive to the meeting with Pearson-Hardman, and immediately became nervous. Harvey was there in the meeting room, but Mike wasn’t. She had not had much one-on-one interaction time with Harvey, so she wasn’t quite sure what to say as she stepped into the conference room.

“Unfortunately, Mike’s stuck in the stacks today making up for the fact that he’s going on a field trip tomorrow,” Harvey said as she stepped into the room. He gestured towards the table. “Go ahead and have a seat on this side. You and Stark will be sitting here.”

After Kat sat, she waited for a few moments to ask, “Am I extremely early or something?”

Harvey shrugged. “A few minutes. Jessica and Hardman will be here on time. Personally, I think Stark’s going to be late, don’t you?”

She laughed. “Yeah, Dad has his own schedule.”

“The man has his own time zone. Damn, he’s probably rich enough to buy his own time zone.”

“He always does think the world revolved around him. He’ll probably move the Greenwhich time zone to his own so that the whole world is on his schedule.”

Harvey laughed. “True story.” Kat felt a little better then. Harvey seemed to be a hard guy to get along with, but really, he was a lot like Stark…just less annoying. Besides, Mike got along with him famously.

The door opened and in walked whom Kat assumed were Jessica Pearson and Daniel Hardman. Jessica was tall, stunning in a blue dress, much taller than Kat and even taller than Harvey. Kat wondered if every woman at the firm dressed like Donna and Jessica.

Something about Hardman struck her as familiar. He seemed to be in his late fifties with grey and white hair and a beard. His eyes were dark…black it seemed. Something unsettled her about him for a few moments until Harvey started talking.

“May I introduce Katharine Stark, or Kat, as she likes to go by,” he said.

“Hello, Kat, Jessica Pearson.” Kat shook hands with the older woman and turned as Hardman stepped forward.

He smiled slowly, reaching out to shake her hand. Kat was shocked by the power with which he gripped her hand. “Daniel Hardman. I must say it was a shock to many of us to learn that Stark had a daughter. With as much as he is in the public eye, one wouldn’t expect to find out that such important details were secret for so long.”

“Well...it was surprising to me, too, when I first found out,” she said as they all took their seats around the table.

“And, hopefully, we’ll soon learn more about you and your father’s past,” Jessica said, shooting Harvey a look.

“Soon, very soon,” he promised, tapping the water glass in front of him. Kat froze as she stared at the impression his finger made on the cup. Ice crystals swirled from around the fingerprint he had left. She wondered if anyone else in the room had noticed. She caught Hardman glancing at Harvey’s cup, but he didn’t seem to notice much.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Jessica glanced at her watch. “He’s late.”

“Fashionably,” Harvey pointed out.

Kat squirmed in her seat. “I just talked to him a few hours ago. He should be here by now.”

“And…you STILL haven’t gotten used to being on Tony Stark Standard Time,” Harvey said, making her smile. He seemed a lot more accessible now. She couldn’t help but wonder, however, if he knew…if he knew what he was. Did he know he was an Aquapolian? Surely, he couldn’t have missed the fact that he had these powers…

“Tony Stark Standard Time says it’s two o’clock right now, and I’m not late.”

Kat smiled as her father stepped into the conference room. This was one of the few times she got to see Stark and Harvey in the same room. The way they carried themselves was eerily similar. She wondered if the world would explode if they stayed in the same space for long…

After introductions were made, Stark sat in the chair beside hers. “What was it about making sure he got me here on time?” Kat asked, raising an eyebrow.

“YOU here on time, not me,” Stark pointed out. He turned to Jessica and Hardman. “You’ve probably seen her boyfriend around. Really tall guy, black hair, British accent.” Kat hit him on the arm, smiling at Jessica and Hardman at the same time. The two partners glanced at each other, while Harvey smiled.

The meeting centered around exactly why Stark and Kat had been separated for so long. Beforehand, Harvey and Stark had come up with an alternate storyline, the story most people would be told about them. With the threat from SHIELD still looming, it would be safer…Stark’s plane crash was brought up several times throughout the meeting. Of course, it had unnerved everyone involved for several reasons. Now…it was even more important that they had Stark’s will fixed.

Afterward, while Harvey, Jessica, and Pearson were holding a meeting by themselves, Kat and Stark were left behind in the conference room. “Well, that went well,” Stark said. They had stepped to the floor to ceiling windows on the other side of the room that gave an excellent view of New York. “Now we just have to sell this story…”

“You don’t seem particularly happy about it,” she commented. Although he had kept a straight face during the meeting, Kat knew he wasn’t happy about lying about their past.

“Neither do you.”

“It’s necessary, though…we need to keep a low profile with this…well…” She shrugged. “As low a profile as we can.”

“No, I meant you don’t particularly seem happy about any of this.”

She paused. “I…I had hoped you would have put this off for another few months, maybe a year…”

“That plane crash told me that I might not have another year.”

“Exactly,” Kat mumbled, her eyes fixed on the skyline around them. She didn’t want to see the expression on Stark’s face as she continued. She had told him the first day she had moved into Stark Tower how she felt about this. Why had he not gotten the point? “I don’t want to think about what happens after you die. I mean…we’ve only had less than two months together after all this time.”

When Stark didn’t reply after a few minutes, Kat turned to see what his reaction was. He was staring at her, not really in shock, but with a pained expression in his eyes. She realized she had touched on an old wound. Of course, Stark would care about the fact that they had only had a few months time together. After all, he had really been the only one of the two of them who had suffered all of those years. Kat had been unaware all of her life about being separated from a father she had believed was dead.

“I’m sorry,” she said, ducking her head. “I know that…”

“It’s okay.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Kat, this is the first time in my entire life that I have had the opportunity to actually give you something…SHIELD prevented me from changing my will to include you in it years ago…almost as if you didn’t exist…and now…well, I want to be able to say to someone that I have a daughter. That I’m leaving Stark Industries with her in the future. SHIELD can never tell me again that I have to keep you a secret…and they can never separate us. Not after what happened…”

“’Stay by his side. Don’t let anyone separate the two of you. And never trust SHIELD,’” Kat murmured, reciting Coulson’s dying words. “He knew something…he knew something that we don’t about SHIELD.” She shivered. “Why do I feel like Coulson was onto something darker than anything the Demon King could come up with?”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Stark said. “You’ve got a field trip to go on.”

------------

Mike and Kat’s old school was situated in the suburbs of Washington D.C., a small private school with only around four hundred students from kindergarten up through high school. Barton stopped his car a few blocks away and let Kat and Mike out first. “We’ll be there in a few minutes,” he said before they turned and walked away.

“So, how much information do you think Mr. White is going to give us?” Mike asked as they approached the school.

“I don’t know. He’s always been nice…but with this kind of stuff…you never think about how people would act in these kind of situations when you never affiliated them with organizations like SHIELD.”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Nineteen



The halls were deserted as Kat and Mike made their way to the front office. The lady manning the front desk didn’t look familiar to either of them. They glanced at each other as Kat stepped forward to talk to her.

“May I help you?” The lady asked.

“Yes…I’m Kat Coulson and this is Mike Ross. We’re alumni here to visit one of our teachers.” She gave the lady her biggest winning, innocent smile. “We just came by to check in and make sure if it’s okay for us to walk around during the school day.”

The lady looked from Mike to Kat and back again. “Just wait a few seconds and let me find you in the system.” She punched a few buttons on her keyboard, comparing their class pictures to their faces, nodding when both of them were approved. “May I ask which teacher you are here to visit?” She questioned as she handed both of them their day passes.

Mike glanced at Kat, a hesitant expression on his face. While Barton had made sure that none of the vehicles belonging to Stark Industries had GPS units that SHIELD could trace through, there was a high possibility that their old school was being watched, ESPECIALLY if White was a former SHIELD agent. The school and his home would be monitored twenty-four hours a day. And now that Kat and Mike were in the system…SHIELD would be suspicious. However, they had no other choice. If they had approached him at home, his family would be in danger. This was a more public arena. Even SHIELD would have to hesitate before sending agents in to deal with the situation.

Kat cleared her throat. “Mr. White.” She smiled. “He was our chemistry teacher our junior and senior years. We meant to keep in touch with him since we graduated, but we’ve both been so busy…we both have a break from school and work, so we decided to come and catch up with him.” Innocent enough excuse, right?

The lady smiled. “Well, you came at the right time. His planning period just started. Welcome back.” Kat and Mike breathed a smile of relief and bade the woman good-bye before they stepped back out into the hallway.

------------

“There’s a security camera over there by the window,” Barton cursed. He and Loki were standing across the street from the side of the building that housed the chemistry laboratory supply room. Barton had driven Kat back and forth to school for years, so even if someone saw him in the area, they wouldn’t think it was suspicious. He turned to Loki. “Think you can do anything about it?”

Loki shrugged. “The security camera won’t even see us,” he said. Barton nodded and they made their way across the street towards the school, walking casually and glancing around to make sure they didn’t seem suspicious to any passerby. Luckily, no one was in the area as Barton forced the lock up on the window and slid it open. Both of them slipped inside, unnoticed.

------------

White was standing at his desk, flipping through some papers when he heard the knock on the door. “Come in!” He called out, not looking up from the tests he was grading. The door swung open and he looked up, his face going from confused to a smile in a few seconds. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the dynamic duo. I haven’t seen you two in a while. How is school going?”

“I’m taking the semester off,” Kat confessed. “Some things have come up, so I’m trying to take it easy for a few months before heading back.” She wondered if White knew what had gone down in New York. Whether or not Coulson had contacted him and told him before the agent died. Barton had mentioned that White and Coulson had been good friends, had entered SHIELD together and grown through the ranks together.

White nodded. “Yeah, Tech can be pretty stressful, I hear. Taking a semester off was probably the best choice.” So he had most likely heard what had happened…but still wasn’t saying it outright. This tipped them off to not explicitly say anything about the Initiative. White turned to Mike. “So…I heard someone got accepted into an associate position at one of the best law firms in New York.”

“Yes, sir,” Mike nodded enthusiastically. “I’m working with one of the best closers in New York, Harvey Spector.” Kat thought she saw a slight frown flicker across White’s face when he heard Harvey’s name, but his smile returned so fast, she wondered if she had just imagined that.

“A law associate at 21,” White whistled. “You must have flown through law school.” His smiled told Kat that he knew the truth behind Mike’s education. They all smiled conspiratorially. White had always been their favorite teacher. He had been the one to convince Kat to go to Georgia Tech in the first place…to channel her love for animals within another field of engineering. And Mike had always been the best debater in the school. White had pulled him aside one day junior year and flat out told him he should become a lawyer. He had supported them both through their senior year and had become a great friend to them as well.

Kat decided that it was time to stall no further. Barton and Loki would be in their positions already. “Actually, Mr. White, we came to speak with you about Uncle Phil.” The spark of sadness in White’s eyes caused the old, familiar pain to come back to her heart. She still missed Coulson a lot. Sometimes, Barton would tell an old story about the agent and memories would wash over her again. Stark would mention something to her about how much he owed to Coulson. Usually, he was the first to spot the grieving that sometimes appeared whenever this happened…and he was the first to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Yes…I heard that he had died…I’m so sorry, Kat. I know how much he meant to you,” White said, staring down at the papers in front of him. Kat could see that he was struggling with whether or not to mention something else…his past…anything.

Kat continued on slowly and carefully. “We wanted to talk to you about Uncle Phil…in private.” She glanced at the door to the chemistry lab supply room. White instantly stood up straighter, looking hard at her, realization sparking in his eyes. He knew what this was about. Good…

He nodded in the direction of the room. “Follow me, then.” He opened the door and held it open for Kat and Mike, shutting and locking it behind him. He led them through the maze of shelves of beakers and fluids, then stopped short when he came to one of the windowed aisles, crossing his arms in front of his chest and nodding.

Barton and Loki stood on either side of the window, Barton with a similar position as White, arms cross in front of his chest, standing up straight. Loki leaned casually against the wall beside the window, mimicking their arm positions, but in a bored fashion.

“Barton,” White said, nodding to the agent in acknowledgement.

“White.” Barton nodded back.

White turned to Loki. “What name are you going by now? I assume you don’t go around introducing yourself as Loki Laufeyson.”

Loki seemed surprised that White knew who he was. “Grayson Strauss…how did you…”

“Coulson kept records on you as well. I assume that’s why you all are here. For the records.”

“We didn’t know he kept records…we simply want information,” Barton said.

“I know what information you want.” He paused. “Who else is listening to this conversation?”

Barton ducked his head and detached his communicator from his ear, holding it out for White to speak into it. He pressed a button, immediately making the conversation available for all to hear.

“I’m assuming this is being transmitted to whatever your home base is,” White said. “I’ll help you under one condition.”

There was a pause before Stark finally asked, “And what is that?”

“You help me fake my own death.”

There was silence as everyone paused to see if he was serious. He continued to speak. “SHIELD has been watching me and my family. They’ve left us alone because they don’t think I’ll be a threat for any longer.”

“Why’s that?” Barton asked.

“I’ve got cancer. It’s terminal. I’ll probably be dead within a year.”

“So why have us help you fake your own death?” Stark asked.

“Because if SHIELD suspects that I’ve spoken to you, they’ll move in for the kill anyway…and they’ll involve my family. I can’t have that. You understand, Stark.”

There was another pause, then Stark said, “Fine. How do you want to go?”

“SHIELD is very fond of accidents. If I die in an accident, they may believe that one of their agents made the move a little early…and they’ll be glad to be rid of me.”

“Car crash?” Barton asked. “I can head back up to New York and grab a car…we can trick your car to explode…How soon do you want to do this?”

“Tomorrow.”

There was a pause before Stark said, “Tomorrow it is.”

“I’ll head up to New York to get the parts I need,” Barton said. He glanced over at Loki. “Kat, you, Mike, and Loki stay here somewhere.”

There was a pause before White said, “Thanks.”

------------

“You seriously think this is the right idea?” Mike asked in the hallway of the hotel they were staying in. They had rented two rooms for the night: one for Mike and one for Kat and Loki.

“We need the information he’s giving us.”

“He’s going to throw away the last year he has left with his family to do this, Kat…”
“I know,” Kat hissed. “But we don’t have a choice.”

“We can talk him out of it,” Mike protested.

“You and I both know this is the best option…”

“Not for all of us.”

She sighed. “What would you rather have us do?”

“I don’t know…just…” He shrugged. “Why don’t we just make him disappear?”

“SHIELD will know what we’re up to.”

He looked at her for a moment, then sighed. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Kat.” She watched as he disappeared back into his room.

------------

“Do you think I’m making the right decision letting Dad help White fake his own death?” Kat asked, staring at the ceiling above the bed. Loki sat in a chair nearby.

“It’s his choice,” he said after a few moments of thought. “If that’s what he wants in return for information…then we should help him.”

“It makes me nervous that you’re just as much in the dark as we are about this.”

“I know what Adam may be up do, but not what SHIELD has to do with any of this.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

“…I do as well…”

------------

Back at Stark Tower, the rest of the Avengers were gathered in one of Stark’s labs, watching as Barton put together the device he was going to use to blow up White’s car. “Are you sure this is going to work?” Cap asked.

“We make it look like a SHIELD agent made it…then attached it to White’s vehicle…Yeah…it should work,” Barton muttered, not taking his eyes off of the device.

“Well, technically, a SHIELD agent IS making it,” Stark pointed out.

Barton looked up from his work to give Stark a glare. “The moment I can rip this SHIELD emblem off of my uniform will not be a moment too soon,” he snapped, returning to his work. Cap studied the agent for a few moments. He knew that Barton was becoming increasingly unhappy about having to come into contact with his resources in SHIELD.

“Okay,” Barton said after a few more minutes, looking up from the device. “This will blow the car SHIELD-style. I’m going to need back-up on the ride down…” A loud ringing noise filled the room, and Barton took his phone out of his pocket to answer it. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Kat.”

“Something wrong?”

“No…it’s just…I just got a phone call from White…”

“What did he want?”

“He wants a separate car.”

“What?”

“He wants you to bring down a second car for him. He says he needs to pick something up before he comes by Stark Tower.”

“Kat, he could slip through our fingers that way.”

“Then make sure we know where he’s going.”

“Fine, we’ll bring down two cars.” He ended the call. “He wants to make a side trip by himself before he comes to give us info…”

“Like hell. How do we know he’s not on SHIELD’s side?” Stark asked.

“Coulson trusted him.”

“Yeah, and Coulson’s dead. White could have changed sides by now.”

“We’ll track the GPS in the car. Now, I’m going to need back-up to drive the second car…”

“I’ll go,” Stark said.

“Fine then. We’ll head out in a few hours.”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty



“This is the spot,” Mike said as he, Kat, and Loki stopped in a clearing outside of the suburb that White lived in. He checked his watch. “I guess we just wait until White and Barton get here.” The sound of tires on gravel caught their attention, and two black cars drove up and parked in front of them. Barton jumped out of one while Stark stepped out of the other.

“Should be another twenty minutes before he gets here,” Barton said. “We’ll wait to make sure he gets here safely, then we’ll head back to New York.”

“I’m going to scout ahead and make sure no SHIELD agents followed us down,” Stark announced. He pressed a button on one of the rings around his wrists and the suit instantly formed around him. He blasted off to the north, leaving the others to wait for White.

------------

White drove carefully ahead, making sure he parked the car in the right spot inside the woods on the way home from work. He took a few moments to pause and think about what he was doing before he got out of the car and strode away, making sure to be out of range when the bomb exploded, destroying the car entirely. It took him only a few more minutes to reach the site where Barton, Kat, Mike, and Loki were waiting.

Kat studied her old teacher as he walked up to them, his hand grasping the strap of a duffel bag he had backed the night before with clothes, books, and other belongings. The last time she had seen him before the previous day had been graduation a few years previously. White was around Coulson’s age, in his mid-fifties, bald, with just a reddish-brown mustache and beard to prove what his natural hair color had been. In the two years since she had last seen him, he had seemed to age nearly twenty years. She guessed this was a side effect of cancer treatments and general wearing down because of the disease.

Now, he looked weary for an entirely different reason. Her heart went out to them. He had made a huge sacrifice to keep his family safe…and now he would have to deal with the consequences. Another pang of doubt hit her and Mike’s voice echoed in her head, but it was too late to take back her decision. Loki noticed her unease and threaded his fingers through hers, gently clasping her hand inside his and leaning against her. She leaned back on his arm, grateful for his being there.

“Well, looks like everything has gone well so far,” White said, looking around at the other Avengers. “Which car has the GPS in it?”

“That one over there,” Barton said, nodding to the car Stark had driven up in.

“I figured you would want to know where I’m going.” White shrugged. “The thing is, I don’t want SHIELD to know where I’m going…”

“We’d understand if the GPS suddenly…accidently…broke.”

White smiled and nodded to each of them. “I’ll be back by the end of the week. This road trip is going to take me a while.”

“Good luck with whatever you’re doing,” Mike said.

“Thanks. I’m going to need it.” White opened the door to the car, threw his duffel bag in the passenger’s seat and sped off.

“Okay, let’s head back up to New York,” Barton said, sliding into the driver’s seat of the remaining car. Mike sat in the passenger’s seat, with Kat and Loki in the backseat. Barton started the car and drove off, searching for the highway back north to New York.

------------

After about twenty minutes on the road, Stark let out his held breath, glad that White had failed to discover him hidden in the back seat. He stared at the ceiling, wondering exactly where White was taking them and what he was up to. After another thirty minutes or so, the car slid to a stop, White putting it in park. Stark listened, wondering why they had stopped. He tilted his head towards the front seat, coming face-to-face with the barrel of a gun.

“Get out of the car,” White said in a deadly calm voice. Stark didn’t protest, just opened the backseat door and stepped out. White was amazingly fast for someone his age. He had already exited the driver’s seat and stepped around the front of the car, his hand still aiming the gun at Stark.

Stark lifted his arms in front of him. “Okay, why don’t we just calm down…?”

“I knew Barton was going to put the GPS in the car…and I knew he would probably let me destroy it. But you…do you know how many SHIELD agents are probably targeting the frequencies coming from your suit?” He snapped. Stark started to speak, but White cut him off. “I can’t have SHIELD following me…it will end in disaster for all of us.”

For a few moments, Stark was actually a bit scared that this crazy former-SHIELD operative was going to shoot him. So THIS was how he died…he had always expected something like falling out of the skies or a malfunction with the arc reactor…not THIS. “So, you’re going to shoot me, is that it?”

White sighed. “I could ask you to fly back to New York, but I know you’ll just turn around and start following me again…but then, there’s always Plan B.” He held out his free hand toward Stark, who realized exactly what White was planning to do. “Give me the rings.” Before Stark could protest, White cut him off again. That was starting to get annoying. “I know you have copies of those. Can’t be the only suit you have. Just give me the rings.”

“And if SHIELD DOES find us and I don’t have the suit?” Stark asked, raising one eyebrow. With backup who knew how many miles away, they would either get captured or killed easily…especially if they only had one gun between them.

“Trust me, we’re much better off without them tracing the suit here…” White said, his deadly calm voice returning. He was starting to sound more and more like Barton. Both of them were trained killers, after all…

Stark sighed and slipped both of the rings off of his wrists, tossing them towards White. The former agent studied them for a few moments before bending them both back in his hand, snapping the strong steel in two. “Impressive grip you’ve got there,” Stark said.

“Yeah...sometimes I wish I didn’t have it,” he said mysteriously, letting the broken pieces of the rings fall to the ground. “Okay…” he lowered the gun, sighing. “Let’s get on with this, then. Get in the car.”

------------

After an hour on the road, Kat took her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed Stark’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, are you back in New York yet?”

“Yeah…about that…” he paused.

“What?”

“I kind of hitched a ride with White to see what he’s up to…”

“You did WHAT?” Everyone in the car turned towards her, wincing and thanking God it wasn’t them who was about to get yelled at.

“I hid away in the car so that I could make sure he wasn’t up to something…and he found me…but he’s letting me come along.”

“That’s nice of him. He could have shot you…and probably should have,” Kat snapped. “He was supposed to go ALONE.”

“SHIELD can’t track the suit now.”

“Why?”

“He destroyed the rings…”

“What happens if SHIELD DOES come after you?”

“You see, that is EXACTLY what I asked…”

“STILL your fault!” She sighed. “Listen, where is he heading?”

“He won’t tell me, but we’re driving west.”

“We’ll be on stand-by if anything happens. DON’T get into any more trouble.” She hung up the phone, shoving it back into her pocket.

Barton shook his head. “I can’t believe he stowed away…then again…”

“You were SUPPOSED to be watching him.”

“Wait, what? I’m not his baby sitter…”

“Did you ask him to come along or did he volunteer?”

“He volunteered.”

“Didn’t that seem a little strange to you? As if he were up to something?”

Barton sighed. “I was going to ask Cap to drive the second car down. I should have protested, told Stark to stay in New York for his own safety.”

“Yes, but then you would have issued him a challenge, and he would have still flown down here,” Loki pointed out.

“We can’t do anything about it now,” Mike said. “Just keep an eye on them in case SHIELD decides to attack them.”

Kat sighed. “You’re right. Let’s just get back to New York.”

------------

“He did WHAT?” Cap asked, yelling into his phone.

“He hitched a ride with White,” Kat explained. “They’re heading out west somewhere. I’m sure White’s ripped out the GPS by now.”

Cap groaned. “Hope SHIELD doesn’t know where they’re going.”

“Me, too…”

------------

The first few hours of driving existed in silence. Stark tried to start a conversation with White several times, but White shot him down each time. Finally, after waiting for a while, Stark asked a question he was sure White would actually answer. “What was Kat like in high school?”

This seemed to break the ice a bit. White relaxed and shrugged his shoulders. “A lot like she is now, I guess…Top of her class, brilliant kid. Didn’t have many friends, just preferred to hang out with Mike Ross most of the time. After Mike’s parents were killed in that car crash…” He accent “car crash” as if making quotation marks in the air. They both knew accidents like that didn’t just happen in their world. “…they sort of grew closer. Neither of them had families, so they became sort of adopted brother and sister. Add to that Mike’s development of his fire powers and, of course, Kat’s powers, and they grew even closer together. Kat’s always had a love of animals. Coulson always kept several animals in the house, but after Kat left for school, he went back on field missions, so they had to give their cat away to a family friend. Kat’s always wanted to do something within veterinary technology, which is why she decided to go into biomedical engineering.”

There was silence as Stark thought about everything White had just told him, until the former agent started speaking again. “Coulson tried to get her back to you. Spoke to everyone he could, convinced SHIELD to let her out of their sights to go to college, told them that it was safe for her once she got to be around eighteen years old. He was on the very verge of convincing them…”

“What happened?”

White’s deadly calm voice returned. “You did.”

“Excuse me?”

“You made an announcement that you had built the suit. That you were the Iron Man people had spotted in America, overseas…SHIELD had already kept a close eye on you…but this…what kind of idiot announces that?”

There was silence as Stark glared at him. He didn’t respond, neither of them talking for another few hours.

It took them another half of day to get to White’s destination. The scenery had long since changed to desert. “Where are we?” Stark asked.

“New Mexico,” White said, slowing the car down in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere. “There are shovels in the back of the car.”

“So, you do plan to kill me.”

“No, but don’t tempt me. They’ll probably never find your body.”

After White had retrieved the shovels from the back of the car, they walked out into the desert until White stopped. “Here.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty damn sure.”

It was dark by the time they started shoveling, the moon illuminating the sands around them. “So, what part of my Iron Man announcement was idiotic?” Stark asked, stopping to lean on his shovel.

White sighed and straightened up, fixing him with a glare. “Coulson fought all those years to return her to you…he argued to anyone who would listen that you were more than capable of taking care of her yourself…keeping her safe. But the moment you made that announcement…I told him, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea…”

“If SHIELD had wanted to kill me, they would have done it years ago.”

“They DID want to kill you, they just couldn’t because of how much in the public eye you were. No, the issue was returning Kat to you. They immediately flagged you as a threat, and would have been able to off you with a good reason if Coulson didn’t go behind the council’s back and issue you an invitation to join the Avengers. You could have achieved what you originally built the suit to do if you had kept your mouth shut.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I know why you built the suit, Stark,” White said carefully. “And it wasn’t to escape from terrorists…or, well…” He shrugged. “You did use it to escape. At least the prototype. Pretty convincing, you know. All that money. Contacts everywhere. You know it’s a federal crime to fake being kidnapped, right? No, you didn’t build it to escape from terrorists…you invented the terrorists to cover up the fact that you were building the suit…so that no one would know that you were going to use it to go after SHIELD. What were you going to do? Find Kat, take her back, then what? Go after SHIELD, try to destroy the council, get killed in the process? You would have left Kat worse off…truly an orphan.”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-One



Stark refused to speak, just glared at White, his grip tightening around the shovel. The former agent watched him coldly. “It’s true, isn’t it? You were setting yourself up for a suicide mission…but then everything just fell apart when you basically told SHIELD you were coming for them…and they decided to hire you instead.” White smirked. “They probably did that just to spite you. I know you would rather be dead than work for them. Hell, I would, too.” He paused. “You have no idea what’s going on. This is bigger than all of us, stretching back to an ancient evil.” He looked down at the hole they were digging. “I’ll make you a deal. Stay out of trouble, and I won’t have to tell the others your secret.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Oh, no,” White smiled. “You would know if I were threatening you…”

“How can I be sure you’re not one of them?”

White’s smile vanished and he lifted the shovel. “We ARE digging a hole…either way, you won’t be found…”

“Come on, then. Kill me.”

White shook his head. “Don’t start a fight you can’t win.”

Without another word, Stark stepped forward, swinging his shovel with all of his might at White’s head. The former agent was surprisingly fast, ducking out of the way at time and shoving his shoulder against Stark’s chest, sending him flying. The shovel spun out of Stark’s hands as he hit the ground, the wind knocked from his lungs. White stood over him, his shovel raised. “Go ahead,” Stark growled. “Do it. Kill me.”

White shook his head, leaning down to help Stark to his feet. “I don’t feel like making Kat an orphan today…and I think that you feel as if you haven’t had enough time with her after all of those years…Let’s get back to work.”

Neither of them spoke another word until, about half an hour later, White’s shovel hit something underneath the sand. “Stand back,” he told Stark, stepping back a few feet from the hole himself. The sand started to swirl around the hole, revealing a large metal box hidden beneath the surface. White pulled it to car, setting it down right outside the trunk.

“You did that?” Stark asked, motioning to the hole, which had already filled back up with sand.

“Yeah. Mike and Kat aren’t the only ones with these types of powers.” White smiled. “You’ll find out more soon enough.”

------------

Cap paced back in forth in the common area, every once in a while glancing at the elevators to see if Stark and White had made it back yet. Barton, Mike, Kat, and Loki had gotten back earlier, and everyone had gathered in the common room to wait for the final two members of the team. Kat had gotten over her anger at Stark, simply hoping that he returned home safely.

Suddenly the elevator doors swung open and in walked Stark and White, White carrying a large metal box. Cap was impressed by how strong White was for a man his age until he saw that the box was actually levitating a few inches above his hands.

Kat glared at Stark as he stepped in, and he shrugged. “Looks like he wasn’t up to something.”

White shot him a look. “Thanks…” He turned to the others. “Everything you want to know is inside this box. Is everyone here?”

“Yeah,” Cap said, taking a quick headcount. “This is everyone.”

“Where is Harvey Spector?”

Everyone stared at him, confused.

“Never mind. Let’s just go ahead and get started…”

Everyone gathered around one of the big tables in the room. White set the box down on top of the table and punched in the code for the box. Before he opened it, however, he lifted his head to look around at the people gathered around the table. “For any of you who think there was something bigger behind the invasion of New York in September…you were right…but you’re going to wish you weren’t. We know about the armies of demons we have to face, but there’s something far more sinister lurking in the shadows.” He threw open the lid, resting his hands on either side of it has he looked out across the people gathered there.

“Coulson…sometimes I thought he could see the future. We joined SHIELD together, rose through the ranks together…” He shook his head. “But neither of us wanted to be part of this.” He motioned to the box.

“Around twenty-one years ago, SHIELD called a team of agents together to form an initiative…not anything like the one that is gathered here today. Coulson and I were made members of the team…then told exactly what it was to be used for. Around this time, SHIELD had offered protection to the Starks. They knew the Chosen One was alive…but they also had knowledge of the Aquapolian race and that its descendants still walk the Earth today. The SHIELD council was wary of these people. It was said that once the Chosen One returned to Earth, they would regain their powers. A bunch of people running around the Earth with elemental powers…they couldn’t have it. They had a list of names…so they put their plan into action.” He paused, glancing over at Stark, who, like everyone else in the room, listened with his breath held. “Caroline Stark was the first. They had to try and get Kat into their custody for their plan to succeed, but they didn’t count on Coulson stepping in to volunteer as her guardian. Over the past twenty years, they’ve systematically destroyed the Aquapolian race.” He paused. “There were 120,000 of us when Kat was born. Now there are just around 20,000.”

He stopped, letting this sink in with the rest of the team members. Shocked faces surrounded him. Even Stark looked appalled. He had never truly trusted SHIELD, but this…this was low even for them. White cleared his throat, digging into the box. “But Coulson had an idea. He knew that the only chance the Aquapolian race had in survival lay in Kat…and he built a team around her to help answer that threat.”

“The Avengers,” Kat whispered.

White nodded. “I don’t know where he got these names…” He shook his head. “He collected them around twenty years ago…” He started to pull files from the box, sliding them across the table to each individual.

“Wait…this is before I even had my accident…” Banner said, sifting through his file.

“And before I was found…” Cap muttered.

“Before I got captured…” Stark said, glancing at White.

“I was still in Group X at the time…” Barton said.

“That’s what I’m saying. I have no idea how he came up with this list,” White said. “All of you plus Harvey Spector are on it.”

Everyone was silent as they flipped through their files. “What does First Class Threat mean?” Stark asked.

“Just what it says. You’re on top of the threat watch,” White replied.

Banner frowned. “I’m just Second Class. You would think I would be higher.”

“Me, too…” Barton said. “Who has First Class?” Kat, Thor, and Loki raised their hands. “So that makes the three immortals and Stark…”

“Wow, I feel special,” Stark said.

“Maybe if you hadn’t made so many calls or threats over the years…” White muttered. Stark rolled his eyes.

“So, what do we do now?” Mike asked, putting down his file. “We know SHIELD is just as bad…even worse than we thought it was before.”

“We should step up our game to get Harvey Spector on board,” Barton said. “We don’t know why Coulson included him, but knowing Coulson, it’s important…”

“How much do you think SHIELD is collaborating with the Demon King’s armies?” Cap asked, looking directly at Loki.

“What would the demon king have to gain from killing off all of the Aquapolians?” Banner asked.

“Everything,” Loki replied. “He basically destroyed the Aquapolian race three thousand years ago for the same purpose. Out of all of the peoples here on Earth, they can put up the most resistance. With the Aquapolian race gone, he could easily take over this realm with little to no resistance.”

“Where is the Demon King?” Mike asked.

“I’d imagine he’s still here in Midgard,” Loki replied. “He has no reason to return to the demon realm now that he’s broken through to this one.”

“We need to find him,” Cap muttered. “But how?”

“If he’s in league with SHIELD…whatever SHIELD doesn’t want, he won’t want, either,” Stark said, garnering a range of confused looks from the rest of the team. He thought for a few moments. “Imagine…what piece of information would SHIELD rather not have the entire world knowing?”

Everyone thought for a few moments before Mike replied, “That Tony Stark has a daughter and that she’s Kat.”

“Preciously. They would come out of the woodwork if they thought I was going to announce that…”

“But it needs to be public,” Barton pointed out.

“An excellent reason for a party. Think about it, New Year’s is coming up. I’m known for making explosive announcements. Invite everyone, even the press. SHIELD shows up undercover, and, if we’re lucky, the Demon King, and Loki points out whoever’s been around demons lately.”

Everyone thought about this for a few moments. “It’s crazy…” Banner said, shaking his head.

“So crazy that it might just work,” Barton said. “Who do you usually get to do security at your parties?”

“I have my own team.”

“I’m going to do some deeper background checks on them, if you don’t mind. Make sure no SHIELD agents have crept in without you noticing.”

“I think we should do our own security as well,” Cap said.

Kat nodded. “That’s a good idea. Security guards will be helpful, but not if a demon decides to pull something in the middle of the party.”

“Should we take a vote?” White asked.

“I think it’s unanimous, unless anyone has any further objections?” Kat asked, looking around at the group. She was only met by shaking heads and silence. “Good, now, what are we going to do about Harvey?”

“If we bring this information to him, he’s more likely to join,” Mike said.

“How likely is more likely?” Banner asked.

“Still pretty unlikely.”

“He should know, though. His life is in danger regardless. SHIELD will eventually come after him, whether he’s on the team or not,” White said.

“And it wouldn’t hurt to offer to help him control his powers without joining the team,” Barton pointed out.

“He’s not going to want to meet with us voluntarily,” Stark said. “I should set up a meeting with him to talk about the case…then we can tell him about all of this.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Barton said.

White shook his head. “This is crazy.”

“Yeah, well, we’ve long since passed that point…” Kat said, looking down at the file in her hand.

------------

Kat sat in her apartment later that night, reading her file, when Loki burst in, holding his. “Who was Coulson?” He demanded.

She looked at him, confused. “He was a SHIELD agent…my guardian growing up…”

“No.” He shook his head. “There has to be more. There is information in here that no being could know unless he’s been to Asgard or spoken to somebody from there.”

She shrugged. “Maybe he knew someone from Asgard.”

“The barrier between Asgard and Midgard has been broken for millennia.”

“Then how did you and Thor get here.”

“Odin sent Thor. I came through from another realm.”

She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know how he got all of this information…this list before Banner had his accident…before they found Cap…before Dad was captured…” She sighed. “Maybe he wasn’t who we thought he was…”

“But you grew up with him.”

“He has always been an extraordinary person.”

“I would imagine so,” he said, sitting down on the bed beside her. “He has always been…” He muttered, looking over at her. “Aya…”

“I know…” She sighed. “He’s not here anymore…”

------------

Harvey stepped onto the top floor of Stark Tower, his briefcase under his arm. Stark was the only one there. “You’re late,” Stark said.

Harvey shrugged. “Fashionably. You wanted to schedule the council meeting?”

“Yes, and, I have something else planned as well.”

“Taking over the world?”

“Done and done.”

“Then what else do you have planned for us mere mortals?”

“An announcement.”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Two



Harvey raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you want to make that announcement so soon?”

Stark shrugged. “Why not? Would lower suspicions…”

“And raise questions you’re not ready to answer yet.”

“Well, turns out I’ve got the perfect answers now.” Stark picked up a file from a nearby table and held it out to him.

“New documents for Kat?”

“No. You.”

Harvey paused, looking at Stark for a long while, then took the folder, staring at his name on the front underneath the SHIELD logo. “What is this?”

Silence reigned for a few moments as Harvey looked from the file to Stark and back again, obviously trying to decide whether or not to actually open it in front of Stark. “You need to read it,” Stark finally said.

“Really? What exactly is it?” Harvey asked in the most nonchalant voice he could muster. Stark could tell, though, that the lawyer was definitely unnerved by the fact that his name was on an official, classified, SHIELD file. “Why would SHIELD be keeping a file on me?” He asked. His tone indicated that he thought it was some sort of trick, but Stark kept a straight face.

“Open it and read it and you’ll find out.”

Stark could tell Harvey was starting to get mad, but was trying to stay professional in front of his client. It pissed Stark off to no end. If Harvey would just flat out refuse or yell without playing these games, Stark could handle it. He always hated office politics. Never played by anyone else’s rules. And look where he was…well, at least financially.

Finally, Harvey opened the file, turning away from Stark and stopping short. Neither had noticed that White had entered the room and was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed across his chest and his eyes studying Harvey. “Harvey Spector?” He asked.

“Who’s asking?” Harvey asked, slipping back into his familiar cool and calm demeanor.

“Walter White. I’m the one who dug up that file.”

“Literally. He was the one who literally dug up that file,” Stark said. White glared at him.

“So, what’s in the file?” Harvey asked.

“A secret. A terrible secret,” White said.

Harvey looked from one to another, then shrugged and strode over to a couch nearby. White looked over at Stark and nodded toward the exit.

“Think he’ll join now?” Stark asked after they stepped into the hallway that led into the apartment hall.

“It’s up to him. We shouldn’t force him, but if Coulson included him in his list of Avengers, it must have been important.”

Harvey read through each page of the file, his face growing more and more worried by the moment. Finally, after he had finished, he stepped up, staring out the large floor to ceiling windows at the New York skyline, dizzy with the questions flying around his head. He heard footsteps behind him, and, expecting Stark or White, turned around. He was surprised to see Kat standing a few feet away, her eyes watching his expression, trying to read him.

“Everything in that file is real,” She said.

He paused a few minutes, studying her, before replying, “What do you want me to do about it?”

“Join us.”

“And do what?”

“Fight.”

“For these people’s lives?” He held up the folder.

“They were your parents.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t know them at all.”

“I didn’t know my mother, either. But I still want vengeance for her death. Mind you, my father is the one who deserves to exact it…but I still want it.”

“We’re different, you and I,” Harvey said.

“Then fight for yourself,” Kat replied.

He smirked. “I don’t think it will come to that.” He threw the file back down on the sofa. “Listen, I approve of Stark’s whole scheme…whatever it is…about announcing your existence at this party. It will help in the long run with the council. But leave me out of anything that doesn’t have to do with his will.” He turned toward the door and started to leave.

“They’ll come for you.” He stopped, glancing back at her. “Your name is still on their list. One day, they’ll come for you. Then, it will be your fight.” He paused for a few moments before leaving the floor.

She sighed and stepped into the hallway where Stark and White were waiting. “Any luck?” White asked.

“No. We’ll give him a few weeks to think about it,” she replied.

------------

“So, what happens if we don’t get Spector on board?” Loki asked. Everyone was gathered in the common room for a team meeting. “He isn’t exactly experienced with his powers. I’m sure we can get along just fine without him.”

“We need all the help we can get,” Barton pointed out. “Two immortals aren’t going to cover all of our bases.”

“And adding one more mortal will?”

“Coulson seemed to think as much.”

“I still want to know where he got all of this information from.”

“So would we all. He was a remarkable man, but I wouldn’t expect this even from him,” White said.

“If and when he joins the team, we’ll have a spot open for him,” Kat said, closing the issue. “Now, Barton.”

“Okay. I’ve drafted a training session. We’ll have group training once a week, but for the rest of the time, we’ll do it in pairs. I’ll post the schedule outside the gym. But, for now, our group session is scheduled for the next thirty minutes.”

“Wait, what? What if we have things to do?” Stark asked.

“Do you have a meeting or something you have to go to?”

“No.”

“Then you’re coming to the group training session. Everyone meets down in the gym within the next half hour.” Barton turned around and stepped out of the room before anyone could protest further.

------------

“Just for the record, Barton is in charge during training sessions,” Kat said after everyone had gathered in the gym. She looked over pointedly at Stark, who rolled his eyes and turned away.

“Thanks, Kat,” Barton said, turning to the group. “Kat’s already been through this training program, so she knows what to expect. We will run and do regular training stuff, but I want to focus on combat skills. We know we’re Aquapolians. Maybe we have powers that we don’t know of yet, so we need to watch out for that. Everyone sticks to the training session. Everyone sticks to the partner I’ve assigned for you during the week. No exceptions, not even for the Asgardians. We need to learn to work as a team now that our ranks have risen. You will learn a few martial arts and how to fight with a few basic weapons…the same ones our enemy uses.”

“Excuse me, but, wouldn’t that lower the advantage we could possibly have against them?” Stark asked. “I mean, swords, bows and arrows…are awesome. But guns…”

“The ancient Aquapolians didn’t use guns.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Do you remember that threat I gave you when we first met?” Kat asked.

“Yeah…” Stark said slowly, backing about a foot away from his daughter. Loki smirked and Mike ducked his head to conceal his laughter.

“Anyway, teams for this week are Kat and Mike. Loki and Cap. Banner and White. Stark and Thor.” Before Stark could protest, Barton barreled on. “I’ll be holding individual sessions with all of you as well throughout the week. Schedule is posted on the gym doors. Now, any questions?” Kat shot Stark a withering glare, forcing him to shut up. It seemed as if only Kat could force Tony Stark into silence.

When no one asked any further questions, Barton concluded the meeting. “Good. See you all this week. We’ll start with looking over the fighting styles you have now, then work up to adapting more traditional Aquapolian tactics.”

------------

“The meeting with the council in California is set for the third of January,” Harvey said when Mike walked into work the next day. The older lawyer didn’t look up from his desk as he shuffled through the paperwork in front of him. Mike had made a silent resolution to himself not to bring up the Avengers in front of Harvey again. While Stark and the others schemed to get his boss on the team, it would put way too much tension on Mike at work to be constantly reminding Harvey of what he had read in that file.

“Two months, then…and a few days after the best New Year’s party ever.” When Harvey didn’t respond to Mike’s statement, he barreled on. “Come on, you know it’s going to be awesome. The first ever party thrown in Stark Tower. It’s going to be epic.”

“Have you ever been to one of Stark’s parties before?” Mike let out a silent sigh as his boss looked up at him and gave him his usual trademark self-confident smile. When Mike shook his head, Harvey continued. “Well, I have. The man constantly outdoes himself at every party. Getting on the guest list is a great feet. But, then again, you have inside connections.”

“Which one do you think got me in, being his daughter’s best friend or being one of his lawyers?”

“Don’t give me that. You and I both know it was being in the Avengers that got you in.”

“So you know of our super secret plan?” Mike raised an eyebrow. It seems as if White was trying to push all of the team’s secrets on Harvey in anticipation of him joining the team. But what if his boss never ended up joining? Harvey wouldn’t go to the wrong people about it, but with if the wrong people came to him asking questions?

“Yes, and I also know of your training sessions. I would say don’t let them get in the way of your work on this case, but the fact that you’ve moved in with our clients trumps that completely.”

“You say that like it’s a good and bad thing. I look at it as an advantage. Stark wants me to look over the particular details of the case at like three am? I don’t even have to leave my apartment.”

“True, but still…” Harvey said, scooping up the papers from his desk and opening the office door. “Are you ready to learn all of the secrets that our client holds close that you don’t particularly want to hear?” He exited the office to speak to Donna, leaving Mike to stand there and contemplate exactly which client he was talking about…and then what secrets Stark could possibly be hiding from the rest of the team.

------------

“Move it! I know you can run faster than that!”

Stark was most definitely not out of shape, but the pace Barton wanted the team to keep was hard for him to maintain. He wondered for a brief few moments if the arc reactor was having problems again…Kat passed him for like the hundredth time.

“Stark!”

“I’m moving, okay? I’m going!” He had only stopped to catch his breath for a few moments. Kat had slowed down, casting a worried glance back at him. Unfortunately, she stopped completely in the path of Loki, who had not expected it, colliding into her and causing Barton to snap again.

“You’re holding the line up, Stark, let’s move it!”

Stark gritted his teeth, glancing over to see how Banner was doing. Even the scientist seemed to be keeping the pace up better than he was. He tilted his head up to look at the dark skies above them. Barton had chosen this park at night to avoid any run-ins with people or others…

“Kat, come on, now…”

Stark looked up to see Kat running in the exact opposite direction she was supposed to be…towards him. He saw Barton stop her and say something, but he couldn’t catch exactly what he was saying. Barton stopped talking and started running back down the path. Kat made her way over to Stark, nodding to his chest. “Does that affect your time at all?” She smiled jokingly.

“No, actually amplifies it a bit. You’d be surprised how much I cut my mile by after I got this installed.”

“Well, then, I guess it isn’t the arc reactor that’s the problem.”

“Are you insinuating that my age is the problem? I’ll have you know I’m 43.”

“Liar.”

“Okay, I’m 47, but still, I’m not old yet. Besides, you’re like thousands of years older than I am.”

“Yeah, age is a little bit different in immortal years. Not that I remember any of them…”

They stood in silence for a few moments. Stark had caught his breath ages ago, but he liked these moments, enjoyed them a lot. Just having Kat nearby made everything better. It made all of those years of struggle and pain worth it. As always, he pushed to the back of his mind the fact that, after his mortal life ended, they would never see each other again. That was too painful, especially after all those years…

“Dad?”

He snapped out of his thoughts, wondering what he had missed. “Yeah?”

“Is something wrong?”

He cursed silently. Stark tried not to let his concern and worry show on his face when nothing was wrong in the present. Why did he let himself go and spoil the moment thinking about the past? “No, nothing’s wrong. Not anymore. Well, other than the entire government organization that wants to kill us and the Demon King of Hell trying to come after us. Other than that, everything’s fine.”

Kat fixed him with those shifting blue eyes that had seen so much, but had forgotten as well. Sometimes Stark found it hard to believe that his daughter, the young girl who was working so hard to lead this ragtag bunch of heroes into battle, was also the angel told of in legends who had destroyed thousands of demons and who had refused to bow even to Odin. Loki had told him on several occasions that her personality, her spirit was no different than it had been three thousand years ago. It was like looking into the past.

“You need to stop this.” Kat’s voice woke him from his thoughts once again.

“Need to stop what?” He asked, confused.

“You need to stop blaming yourself for her death.”

Oh, great, and now she’s psychic. “Where did that come from?”

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you about it for a while.”

He didn’t want to have this conversation. He NEVER wanted to have this conversation. But, at least, no one was around. He swore silently, then secretly smiled. Yes, Kat had planned this. She knew that he would fall behind the rest of the pack during training. She was every inch his daughter in this way.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Stark said, trying to stall the conversation for as long as he could. “I signed the contract that Coulson gave me for SHIELD protection. I basically signed her death certificate myself.”

Unfortunately, this was fuel for Kat’s fire. “Who asked for protection in the first place? You or Mom?”

He hadn’t expected this question, but it brought back memories of Caroline screaming across the dinner table at him, desperately trying to keep the panic and fear out of her voice. She had succeeded in that endeavor most of the time…but not when it came to her eyes. Stark could still see the fear in those pale green eyes as she begged him to sign the contract that would grant them SHIELD’s protection. He had refused for so long, but finally, his wife’s distress was too much.

When Stark didn’t speak for a while, Kat decided to answer her own question. “It was Mom, wasn’t it? I know you. I know that you would never want to be tied down or controlled by SHIELD….But she finally convinced you, didn’t she? That we needed the protection?” She paused, her eyes blazing once again, her voice lowering to a determined tone. “You did not know what SHIELD was going to do to our family. All you knew was that we were in danger and we needed the help. You did what anyone would do to protect his family. It’s. Not. Your. Fault.”

Stark had never backed down from a challenge to meet another person’s eyes. He was stubborn, arrogant, always had been. He would never let another person believe they had control over him. But Kat was different. Those eyes held too much power. If he had been anyone else, they would merely scare him. But coming from his daughter, too much pain surfaced along with the fear to meet her gaze. He ducked his head, trying to think of a response. But he couldn’t. Over the past twenty years, one fear had haunted him the most.

That Kat would blame him for her mother’s death and would hate him for it.

And now, here she was telling him that it was not his fault. That she didn’t want him to suffer more over those events. That she loved him enough to not want to see him in pain.

It was too much. The relief was too much. He had spent the last twenty years convincing everyone that he did not have feelings. That he was a selfish, arrogant, sarcastic bastard who only cared about himself. But he had to…he had to, otherwise the pain and sadness and guilt would overwhelm him.

They stood there in absolute silence for a few moments as she waited for his argument, his response, anything. Then, in a soft voice, she continued, “You and Loki don’t realize just how alike you are.”

He had to keep from letting out a sarcastic laugh. Other than their shared concern and protectiveness over Kat, Tony Stark and Loki Laufeyson were as different as two people could be.

“Both of you continue to blame yourselves over matters that were out of your control. Loki still has nightmares about the people he killed back in September…he still blames himself for everything he did while he was Shadowficated…and I hate watching him do this…it’s part of the reason why he’s trying so hard to fight against his half-brother and redeem himself. The same way you’ve fought so hard all of these years to get me back…So that you have some way to push all the needless guilt and blame back. And I’m tired of watching the both of you blame yourselves like this.” Her voice had gotten higher and more strained as she spoke. He glanced over to see that her eyes had gotten that deep shade they obtained when she was close to tears.

Kat took a gasping breath, obviously trying to keep from crying, and said in a strained voice, “So please, just, please, stop this. Promise me you’ll work on forgetting the past and focusing on the fight in our future.”

No. He could never forget the past. He would never forget the past…But the guilt and pain was already starting to dull. He paused before saying. “Okay…I promise.”

Kat wiped away some tears that were threatening to fall and turned back to the empty trail in front of them. “I guess we better try to catch up to the others before Barton gets too pissed at us.”

Stark couldn’t help but place a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn and look at him. Since she had moved into Stark Tower…since they had been reunited, he several times had to do this to remind himself that she was real…not a figment of his imagination…that she was really by his side. On instinct, he drew her close, hugging her tight and remembering the days when he used to carry her around their home in California. Caroline used to complain that she hardly ever got to hold Kat. Stark would carry her everywhere. To his home office, to his workshop, just walking around the house. He never wanted to let her go, worried that someone would come and take her.

For some reason, that instinct took over again. That someone would come and take her from him again.

“Kat! Stark! We’re heading back!”

Barton’s highly pissed-off voice found them from the trail. Kat broke away from Stark and sighed. “Well, I guess it’s a little late not to get Barton pissed at us.” They shared a laugh and walked back over to the trail where the former SHIELD agent was standing, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he glared at the father and daughter pair.

------------

“Don’t tell me you’re actually getting tired after Barton’s workouts!”

Loki groaned, not even bothering to roll his head over in the direction of where Kat was sitting. Everything hurt. He could barely move from where he lay on their bed. Who knew that a mortal’s training would be so exhausting? But Kat was used to it. She had trained with Barton for the past eleven years. Thor had always been more enthusiastic about battle training than Loki had, though he had spent millinnia perfecting his technique with swords. That had been a special pastime of his and Kat’s years ago…

“Are you serious right now?” Kat asked, sitting down on the bed beside him, her blue eyes sparking with amusement.

“It hurts everywhere…” He muttered, closing his eyes. “I’m sure after a few more days, I’ll be acclimated to it…”

“It took me years.”

“Great. Just great.”

“Then again, I started as a ten-year-old mortal girl, so I’m pretty sure it will only take you days.”

“That’s comforting,” he said, trying to muster the most sarcastic tone he could, but he was too tired to do it. “What are you doing tomorrow?” As long as it didn’t involve a lot of physical effort, Loki was definitely up for doing whatever Kat wished to do.

“I actually have to plan a trip down to Atlanta in a few weeks to wrap everything up at school. Leaving during the middle of the semester was not the best thing for my grades.” She grimaced. “Anyway, Dad, Banner, and I all have business there, so we’re just going to fly down for a few days next week.”

When she didn’t say more about the trip…well, most importantly, when she didn’t mention anything about him going with them, Loki turned his head toward her. “May I come with you?”

Kat turned towards him and sighed. Most men had that special puppy dog look they put on when they wanted something or were being yelled at about something. Loki’s was especially sad looking, as if she had physically kicked him. “Of course you can come. Why wouldn’t you?”

A small smile of relief spread across his face, and Kat wondered for a few seconds if he really had thought that she would leave him behind. After the past month or so, she couldn’t even dream about not sleeping in the same bed with him…without those late night conversations, stories about what had happened during the years they had been apart…He clung to her more tightly than she did to him…it made her feel guilty that she didn’t remember all of those missing years.

Before she could think more on this, she felt a tug on her sleeve, and she was suddenly being pulled backwards onto the bed, Loki rolling on his side and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close to his chest. Kat wrapped her arms around his chest, enjoying his warmth and the safe feeling she got whenever she was in his arms. It was extremely hard for her to believe this had been the same person who had killed all of those people…no, it wasn’t the same person. She knew that.

They stayed like that for around a half an hour, Loki at times turning his head to brush a kiss across her cheek. In silence, the years that separated them seemed to be nonexistent.

Before Kat fell asleep, she could vaguely make out his whispered words, “I love you.” She tried to murmur back that she loved him, too, but she was far too tired…

------------

The next thing she knew, she was being jerked awake, the bright sunshine shining through her windows nearly blinding her as Loki bolted up straight. She groaned, rubbing at her eyes. “What time is it?” She muttered.

When Loki didn’t reply, Kat paused, opening her eyes. “Loki?” He was staring straight ahead, not looking at her, sitting up straight. “Is something wrong?” She placed a hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t respond. She sat up, leaning forward so that she could see his face.

There was terror in his eyes, and he was breathing hard. Her heart ached for him. Another nightmare? He seemed to be having more and more lately, but they had never been this bad…”Loki, what is it?” She whispered, taking one of his hands in both of hers, her eyes on his face.

After a while, the terror seemed to disappate a bit…but it was still there. “It…it’s nothing…” He muttered. “Just a dream.” He raised the hand she was holding, pressing his lips against the back of one of her hands. He held it there for several minutes until he turned toward her. “I’m sorry I woke you.” His voice was shaking.

He tried to stand up, but Kat grabbed his sleeve, pulling him back down onto the bed. “Are you okay?” She asked, knowing full well that he wasn’t.

“Yes…yes, I’m fine…” He muttered, avoiding her burning gaze. “Just startled.”

“Loki…” She said, her voice tinged with warning. After her conversation with Stark the previous day, she was in no mood for a repeat performance with Loki. She had hoped she had already convinced him that his actions while Shadowficated had not been his fault.

“I’m fine,” he said, pulling away from her gently and standing up, trying to fight the terror from his face. “It was just a dream,” he repeated, ending the conversation.

------------

Stark pulled his red convertible into the turnaround of Kat’s apartment complex in Atlanta, turning to Kat and Loki in the backseat. “This is your stop. Three days, right?”

“Yeah,” Kat clambered out of the car, Loki swinging both of their bags out as he did the same. Banner sat in the front seat, watching students hurry past with loaded backpacks. “Make sure he doesn’t set anything on fire, okay, Banner?” Kat asked.

“Yeah, that’s going to be an awfully big task, but I think I’ll manage,” Banner said with a smile. Compared to how he had been when they had picked him up from Tech the month before, the scientist seemed to be doing well. He seemed to be enjoying life and his new project involving the sequencing of the Aquapolian genome.

“You don’t trust me not to accidently set things on fire? I’m hurt,” Stark said in his best pained voice. Kat rolled her eyes, stifling a laugh when Loki simultaneously did the same. “Have fun. The cool kids are going to go do science now.” Kat stepped back from the car as Stark and Banner drove away, leaving her and Loki in the parking lot.

Kat’s apartment building was quiet compared to the others in the complex. It had only five floors compared to the eleven the others had, so there wasn’t many people to contend with on the elevators. Kat slightly wished that her roommates weren’t home. Explaining Loki was going to be interesting, and she wanted to get some rest before then and plan out how she was going to go around to her professors and talk them into giving her extensions on her work.

Kat tried to take her bag from Loki as they entered the hall, but he swung away from her, giving her his best I’ve got this look as they approached the front door of her apartment. Unlocking the front door, she stepped into the kitchen first.

Bad move. Before she could take another step, someone jumped from behind the wall didividng the kitchen from the living room, startling her into almost screaming. When the surprise had worn off, she glared at him as he started laughing. A tall guy with a shaved head, he wore a plan white t-shirt, shorts, and glasses. She had an urge to smack him, but, since Loki was there, she deemed that unnecessary.

“Hi, Toby…” she muttered, stepping further into the kitchen so Loki could put their bags down. Toby looked from Kat to Loki, putting on his polite face.

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Three



Loki and Toby stared at each other, neither quite sure of what to do. Toby was caught off guard by the entrance of a new character in the apartment, while Loki didn’t know how to address the fact that this strange guy had jumped from behind the counter in an attempt to scare Kat. Finally, as Kat predicted, Toby stuck out his hand for Loki to shake and introduced himself, with a usual “sir” tacked on in his thick Southern accent. Loki glanced over at Kat, not quite sure if he should introduce himself as Grayson or as himself. Kat waved him forward as free to tell Toby his real name as Toby’s girlfriend, one of her roommates, emerged from her room. Karen was short, around Kat’s height, with long straight brown hair. She looked from Toby to Loki and gave Kat a look as if to ask if Toby had done his trademark scare tactics in front of their new guest. Kat nodded, and the girl rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile, Toby was asking about their guest’s name. “I apologize for asking, but is that Loki as in the Norse god, Loki?” He had a way of being super polite around new people, which was obviously catching Loki off guard, not to mention the fact that this crazy guy had just called him “sir.”

As always, though, Loki soon gained his confidence back. “I see the Norse mythologies still have us pegged as gods.” He shook his head. “I’m not a god, but I do believe that legend was based off of me.”

Toby and Karen paused, neither sure of what to say to respond to that. Both of them knew that Kat was the Chosen One. They were two in a small group of friends that knew this fact. But Asgardians were something new to them. Finally, Toby asked, “So where are you from?” Kat had to keep herself from facepalming at the tone of voice he pulled, as if Loki were a student from across the country and not from a completely different dimension.

“Asgard, originally.” A look of recognition crossed Toby’s eyes, which surprised Loki. “You know where Asgard is?”

“Well, I know about the four realms.” Toby nodded over towards Kat. “We had to learn all about them when she gave us the ‘I’m the Chosen One’ speech last year.”

“You say it like it was a boring speech. I thought I did a great job of drawing diagrams of the four realms,” Kat announced.

“I got the speech freshman year,” Karen said. “As if things weren’t new enough moving down here, learning that my neighbor in the dorm was an angel was an…interesting development.”

Before Toby could ask any more questions, Kat introduced Karen and checked to see if her other two roommates were home. Both were out, which disappointed her. She had wanted to go ahead and get the “this is my Asgardian boyfriend and he’ll be staying with us for a few days” speech over with.

“Aya?”

Kat had to stop from jumping at the sound of Loki’s voice from right behind her. He had a habit of being extremely quiet, and sometimes he scared her half to death when she didn’t know he was there. She prayed that Toby didn’t try to rope him into any antics…which he would go along with just because of his nature. Turning around in her position in front of her roommate Julie’s room, she saw that he was holding up her duffel bag.

“Which room is yours?” He asked, obviously lost about what to do. Stark Tower and the surrounding buildings had become familiar to him over the past month. Now, he was in an unfamiliar place with only Kat to guide him. She felt kind of bad for him. He tended to acclimate quickly, but the first few hours would be awkward.

“Oh, it’s this one over here,” she said, quickly walking over and unlocking her door. Her room was extremely small, and she suddenly wondered how six foot tall Loki was going to fit with her on the tiny bed. “You can put it on the bed,” she said as she heard the front door swing open again.

“Hi, Samantha!” She heard Karen call from the living room. They had a habit of ecstatically greeting each other whenever they saw their roommates throughout the day, crazy handwaving and all.

“Hi, Karen!” Kat heard Samantha call back as she stepped into the living room. Then, a gasp. “OH! Hi, Kat!”

“Hi, Samantha!” Kat said, ignoring the startled look Loki gave her at her enthusiasm. “How are you?”

She shook her head. Kat instantly knew what was going on. Her school was known for its rigor, so, by this time in the semester, everyone was crazy stressed. “Yeah, I’m taking Physics II and Calc III this semester. Not fun times.” Samantha looked past Kat to where Loki was standing awkwardly behind her. “Oh, hi…” She said, waving awkwardly at Loki. “I’m Samantha.”

“Oh! Sorry, Samantha, this is Loki, my boyfriend. He’s going to be staying here with us for a few days while I get some things cleared up at the registrar’s office.”

Samantha seemed a little unnerved by Loki’s unusual name, but she instantly ignored it and said, nodding, “Okay! Well, welcome to our apartment.”

There was an awkward silence for a few moments until Kat realized everyone was looking at her. It took a few more seconds until it dawned on her that they wanted her to explain everything. She sighed. “Okay, just wait until Julie gets here and then I’ll explain…” Loki shot her a questioning look, as if to ask if it were safe to tell them everything that had happened from September on. She nodded. They knew she was the Chosen One…they might as well know the entire tale.

Pizza was ordered, and everyone gathered around to listen to Kat speak about what had occurred since she left school a month earlier, including what had occurred during the Avengers Initiative. Loki filled in the blanks whenever she didn’t know the exact details, including during her description of his time as a Shadowficated demon. Toby seemed especially interested in this part, but Karen hit him before he started up on an endless stream of questions.

Just as Kat was getting finished describing the team members of the Avengers, a loud knock sounded on the front door. Confused, she watched as Toby sprang up to answer the door. Unfortunately, he was wearing socks, which caused him to slide on the floor tiles and slam into the door. Karen, Samantha, Julie, and Kat all stifled laughs while Loki smirked. “I’m okay!” Toby said, standing up and yanking open the door.

“You sure about that? You hit the door hard enough for them to hear you in New York,” Stark said. Banner stood beside him, ducking his head to avoid laughing.

“Oh, yes, sir, I’m okay. Just teaching people of the perils of wearing socks when running on tiles,” Toby said, not skipping a beat as he stepped aside to let Stark and Banner in. Stark raised an eyebrow at Kat, who shrugged.

“Ah, now I’m hurt. Why weren’t we invited to the party?” Stark said, instantly making his way to the extra pizza Kat had ordered. Banner nodded towards Kat’s roommates and said hello in his usually quiet way.

“I think I recognize you…” Karen piped up.

“Yeah, most people do. Goes with the whole industrial genius and Iron Man gig,” Stark said, sitting down on the floor by the TV.

“She wasn’t talking to you,” Kat rolled her eyes. Stark rolled his eyes back at her, but couldn’t keep the amusement out of his expression. Loki looked from Kat to Stark, smiling at the resemblance between the daughter and her father.

“Don’t you teach survey of orgo some semesters?” Karen continued, addressing Banner as he sat down beside Stark.

“Oh, yeah…I take on the semesters that Baron doesn’t teach. Were you in one of my classes?”

“No, I had Baron, but I think I know someone who was in your section a few semesters ago.”

“Baron has started a new research team while I’ve been gone. I’ve wanted to work on his project, but I haven’t been able to,” Banner said, shrugging.

“What’s the project?” Kat asked.

“It’s basically the Aquapolian version of the Human Genome Project. We want to isolate the genes that cause elemental powers and longevity in Aquapolians.”

“So, have Aquapolians been basically a secret for all of these years?” Toby asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. A few researchers have known about it, but not until recently did the genes manifest themselves.”

There was a pause before Karen awkwardly asked. “So…does that mean you could test everyone to see if they have the gene?”

Banner, Stark, Kat, and Loki shared a look before Banner replied. “Soon? Yes. We would just have to take a sample of blood. If you guys want, once the test is proven safe, I could test all of you just in case…” He shrugged. “You know, if you want to learn how to control your powers and whatnot.”

------------

“The blood goes in here and is run through all of the genetic tests currently available on the market. Unknown genes are detected and we isolate them for further study. So far, we’ve taken our own blood plus that donated from other known Aquapolian researchers and use human blood as a control.”

Banner and Stark stood at either side as they watched the older scientist explain the DNA mapping machine the team had created. Dr. Bill Baron was one of the most highly regarded organic chemistry researches in the country, which was why Banner had first contacted him with the idea. Besides, he had also known Eric Selvig, who, for years, had spoken with him about the mapping of Aquapolian genes.

“Are you able to test for the specific elements yet?” Stark asked.

“Only by observation so far. We’ve been able to isolate the basic genes…ice, fire, electric. We’re working on others, we just need to get a more diverse pool of subjects. Unfortunately, the list of Aquapolians we know is extremely slim at the moment…of course, for good reason.” Banner lifted an eyebrow at Stark as Baron said this.

------------

Loki took Kat’s hand and laced his fingers through hers as they walked toward the biotechnology building. His hand pretty much engulfed hers, but his touch always made her feel safer. “Baron’s lab is on the second floor,” she said, leading him towards the winding staircase to the second floor. She knocked on the door to the lab, and Banner answered it.

“Come on in. We were just looking at the DNA machine the team has built already,” he said, leading them over to a giant machine in the middle of the room. Baron and Stark were talking about how the machine was powered. Banner introduced Kat and Loki to Baron, who gave them both warm welcomes, though Loki’s name threw him off for a few seconds.

“Well, once this business with SHIELD is over and done with, we will call in all of the Aquapolians who are willing to be tested to find out what type they are,” Baron said.

“So, what’s the game plan from there?” Stark asked.

“There’s a group of us who want to form an entire system where we test Aquapolians and offer them training to learn how to control their powers. We’ll also do public relations, everything. We’re a small group…unfortunately, we’ve lost our leader…all three of them, in fact…”

“Who were your leaders?” Loki asked.

“Phil Coulson, for one, for the training side. On the scientific side, you’re looking at the creation of Eric Selvig and Howard Stark,” he said, motioning towards the machine behind him.

“Wait…” Stark frowned. “How were they involved?”

“Well, your father and Selvig were the first ones to acquire the list of the Aquapolians. As you know, Howard Stark created SHIELD for the sole purpose of advancing his plans for the Aquapolians. To give them help, to find them a place to live if they wished to…it’s far from the SHIELD we have to day, I assure you. In fact…” Baron paused. “SHIELD fell under completely different management right at the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties. Right before Howard Stark died.”

“And whoever that was started the Aquapolian Initiative,” Banner filled in. “So, there’s been a small group of you waiting in the wings with this project?”

Baron nodded. “We want to continue what Stark and Selvig started.” He sighed. “I may not live to see the fruits of our labors, but I would like to see the Aquapolian race not only survive, but thrive side-by-side with the human race.”

Loki glanced over at Kat, a small smile creeping across his features as he watched her fight back tears that she didn’t even understand. After saying their good-byes to the scientists, they left the lab to head to the registrar’s office. “Are you okay?” Loki asked, gripping her hand gently as they stopped and waited to cross the street.

“Yeah…” She said, confused. “I don’t know really why I got so emotional over that.”

“You don’t remember…but your heart does…” He murmured as they crossed the street.

------------

“You promised!”

Kat woke with a start, nearly jumping straight up in the tiny bed she shared with Loki. The voice still echoed in her head until she heard a bang and a groan come from beside her. She turned to see Loki holding his head in his hands. Her dresser was right beside her bed. He must have been startled by her waking up and hit his head on it in the tiny room.

“Oh my God, are you okay? I’m sorry!” She said, trying to move his hands away from his face to see if he was okay. He started laughing at her distress, which made her want to hit him.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he laughed, quickly catching her wrist before she could punch him in the shoulder. It took a few moments for him to catch his breath before he turned to her, the amusement draining out of his emerald eyes. “What happened?”

“I…” She ducked her head and tried to take a few breaths to steady herself. “I just had a bad dream, that’s all.”

He studied her for a few moments before releasing her wrist. She was still shaking from the screams in her dream. He pulled her close, pressing his lips gently on her cheek as she tried to calm down. After a few moments, she was able to slow her breathing down, and, before she knew it, she fell back to sleep in his arms.

------------

Baron spread a blueprint out on the desk in front of him. He, Stark, and Banner were gathered in his office, looking over some schematics for the Aquapolian DNA machine. “These are the original blueprints for the machine. You’ll recognize the handwriting,” he said to Stark. “It’s your father’s. He was the original founder of the project.”

“When was the project officially started?” Banner asked, glancing over a materials list.

Baron thought for a few moments. “I believe in 1991. A few months before he died.”

Stark frowned. “Wait, a few months? You mean, around September?”

“Yes, actually, it WAS September. Late September 1991.”

After thanking Baron for his time and the schematics, Banner and Stark stepped out of the lab. “He started the project as soon as Kat was born,” Stark muttered, mostly to himself, but loud enough for Banner to hear him. “He was expecting something to happen at SHIELD…so he started it…”

“So how do Coulson and the Avengers factor into all of this?” Banner asked.

“I don’t know yet…but we’re going to find out.”

------------

“NO!”

Another scream pierced through Kat’s dreams, and her eyes flew open. This was the second time she had heard that voice screaming through her state of sleep. And now she realized exactly whose voice it was.

Loki’s.

They were back at Stark Tower, their first night back since their trip to Atlanta. Kat, as usual, fell quickly to sleep, but it had barely been an hour or two until she was awakened by Loki’s voice.

This time, he wasn’t just talking in his sleep, but had bolted upright again, wildly searching the room with his eyes, as if he expected an intruder to be there. Kat reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder, making him jump violently.

“Loki…Loki…it’s okay…” She whispered, sitting up and taking one of his hands in both of hers. “It was just a dream…just a dream…” He was breathing heavily and real terror filled his eyes. Kat placed a warm hand on his cheek.

“No…” He muttered. “No…no…it was real.”

She shook her head, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her face against his chest. She could hear his heart beating wildly through his ribs and feel him shaking. What could he have dreamed about to make him react this way? She wished she could do something to calm him down. It hurt her to see him like this.
“What did you dream about?” Kat asked, hoping that, if she knew what he had seen, she could comfort him somehow.

“It’s…nothing…nothing…”

She wasn’t going to take this as an answer. “No…Loki…please tell me…”

After a few minutes, when he didn’t respond, she took his face in both of her hands and forced him to look her straight in the eyes. “Loki…” She said, fighting back tears. “What’s wrong?”

She could see indecision break through the terror in his eyes. Only to be replaced by sadness. “It…took me millinnia to discover that there was another entrance to Midgard from Asgard. I had searched for so long…” He enveloped both of her hands in his, staring straight ahead, away from her as he spoke. “I finally found one. One that led to the Temple of Origin…the middle of the universe…through one of the other three doors. The wall I told you about…the one you created to keep back the demons from entering full into Asgard…I am able to step through it, though full-blooded demons are not. So, I used the entrance through that wall to walk to the Temple.”

As realization struck Kat, he continued. “I didn’t make it far. Adam found me…he captured me and found this an opportunity to Shadowficate me and use me as a weapon. It took him a long time to finally break me, but he was never able to fully Shadowficate me. That’s why Banner’s blows woke me up…”

“Why…why didn’t it work?”

“After all that time…” He took a deep breath. She could tell he wasn’t telling her everything…”My body gave up before my soul did, I guess.” He smiled warily. “Adam wanted me to denounce you…but, I never did…You were all I had. You were the one I was walking towards…”

“He…tortured you…?” When he didn’t answer right away, she persisted, not able to comprehend what he was telling her. “For how long?”

Reluctantly, Loki answered, “Three centuries.”

Kat sat back for a few moments, staring at him in silence. Pain washed over her as if she could feel all of those years of torment. Guilt seethed through her. He had suffered because of HER. And then, incomprehension set in again…that someone would do this for HER.

“I…I don’t understand…” She said, tears threatening to overwhelm her.

Loki turned towards her, leaning in close so that she could feel the words on her skin. “Aya…I’m not the only one who has walked through hell to be by your side,” he said softly. “And I’m not the only one who had to undergo torture as a result.”

This realization struck her hard. Loki was right. She instantly pictured Stark, all of those years and trials he had to undergo just to get the chance to be with his daughter again. Why was it that she seemed to bring pain to those she was closest to? And now pain swept over her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, a little voice in her head telling her that she should not blame herself…not after lecturing both her father and Loki about blaming themselves for things that were out of their control…but she couldn’t stop the tears. She leaned forward, burying her face in his chest and trying to control her sobs. Loki wrapped his arms around her and held her close, waiting for her to finish crying in silence.

“It doesn’t matter now…” He whispered as her sobs began to die down. “The past does not matter to me…now that I have you in my arms once again. This time, however…no one will tear us apart. I will fight with every fiber of my being to keep us together.”

These were the last words Kat heard before drifting off to sleep in his arms. She had always felt safest here…here with her Immortal of Mischief.

------------

“So, with this machine, we’ll be able to tell exactly which elements each of us can naturally control?” Cap asked as he watched Banner, White, and Stark put in place the last piece of the Aquapolian DNA machine. It had only taken them three days to complete from the blueprints they had been given by Baron.

“Well, not all of it has been mapped yet, but we can single out the basic elements,” Banner explained, standing back to admire their handiwork. “Plus, we’ll also have Asgardian DNA to look at. And partial demon DNA as well.”

“Throw in the angel DNA from Kat, and we’ll have DNA from all four realms,” Stark said, starting up the machine and looking over the readouts on the screen.

“Not exactly. Since Kat is in her mortal form right now, all of the DNA we’ll get from her is Aquapolian,” White explained. “We’d have to wait until she’s immortal again before we can get angel DNA, but that’s way off in the future.”

“Anyway, we have other DNA to test it against. Once I get samples from the entire team, we’ll run it and see what happens,” Banner said.

“Won’t there be some changes in my DNA because of Erskine’s formula?” Cap asked, referring to the chemical formula the project team back in the forties had used to try and recreate an Aquapolian with actual powers. They had passed it off to the military as a program to create a super soldier, but, in reality, they were simply trying to see if someone with Aquapolian DNA could re-aquire their powers before the Chosen One’s return.

“Maybe. Not enough to completely eradiate any genes that code for your powers, though,” Banner said. “Now, I’ll start taking samples tomorrow of everyone’s blood, and we’ll be able to get a look behind why Aquapolians are so different from humans.”

------------

“Please tell me you’re not needlephobic?”

Kat glared at Stark from across the infirmary. She, Loki, and Stark were the last three team members to get blood samples collected. Stark had stuck around afterwards, being generally annoying. Yes, Kat was needlephobic, but she was not about to reveal that in front of her father.

“Aren’t you supposed to be training with Thor right now?” Loki asked with a pointed look at the elevator as if to tell Stark that he should go now and leave them alone.

“Yeah, but…” One look from Kat did the trick. Stark shut up, rolled his eyes, and spun around, leaving the infirmary. “Let me know if I have any awesome powers, okay, Banner?” He shouted before punching the elevator button.

“Will do,” Banner replied before turning back to Kat. “So, you really are needlephobic, aren’t you?”

Kat sighed. “Yeah, I know it’s strange, I just…” She shrugged. “I don’t like needles.” Kat prayed for the day that microneedle packages would be in permanent use. In fact, she hoped to work on that project, one day…one day when she finally went back to school for her degree.

“Okay, well, then, just turn away and don’t look at the really big needle while I get some blood,” Banner said jokingly. Kat turned away, focusing her attention on Loki, who gave her a sweet reassuring smile. She smiled back, slightly embarrassed that he was now witnessing the most powerful being in this realm being defeated by a mere needle.

The worst part was waiting for the blood to be collected. Loki could tell from the expression on her face that this was highly uncomfortable for her, so he rolled the chair he was sitting on forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. “So, you’re going to have to explain next week to me again,” he said, obviously trying to distract her.

Banner smiled at Loki’s statement, and Kat laughed, her mind instantly off of the blood collection. The next week was Thanksgiving, and she had already tried for an hour to explain the holiday to Thor. Loki had picked up on it quickly, as per usual, so he really wasn’t asking her for the information’s sake as much as to distract her. “Well, we’re all going to gather around and eat food.”

“Isn’t that the definition of every holiday?” Banner said. “Gather around, eat food, deal with family members?”

“Well, my entire family is here anyway, so I guess I can deal with both of them at one time.” This statement saddened Kat for a few seconds before she realized that she had spent most of her living years believing that she had no living family at ALL besides Coulson, who wasn’t actually blood related, but still…another pang also told her that this would be the first holiday since Coulson died. Loki could feel her sadness starting to well up, so he quickly changed the subject.

“Barton does not seem to be pleased with Stark lately,” Loki remarked. Kat groaned. Her father had been extremely stubborn during training sessions, learning to fight hand-to-hand, but refusing to get better at it. He was currently working on a suit that would allow him to call on any part of the suit’s body and have it instantly appear. This way, he could learn the minimal amount of combat and still come out on top. While Barton called it lazy (and a few other choice words), Kat had to admit it was, once again, another way her father fought smarter instead of harder.

“Yeah, well, if this new suit of his works out, he’ll be more efficient than ever,” Banner said, half-jokingly referring to Stark as a cyborg, which Thor had actually thought he was for the first week or so until Cap nicely explained to him that the only actual machinery in Stark’s body was the arc reactor. “Okay, Kat, you’re done. And that’s the last sample,” Banner said, swinging around to label the test tube of Kat’s blood. Kat sighed, glad that was over and done with.

“Okay, I have a training session with Cap right now, so I’m going to head up there, okay?” Kat said once they got into the elevator. She enjoyed facing off against her great-uncle. They were both of equal strength, which meant they had to really strive to come up with special tactics to take each other down. It was rough, but fun.

Loki frowned. “Shouldn’t you rest after having your blood drawn?” He asked, concerned. Kat knew this was partly concern over her health and partly concern over the fact that he wanted to spend more time close to her. Ever since his revelation of his walk through Hell, Loki had stuck by her side more than usual. He hadn’t gone so far as to be called clingy, but she could tell he instantly gravitated toward her more often, something drawing him to her as if the memories scared him enough to think they’d be separated.

“I didn’t have that much blood drawn. Don’t worry, if I feel dizzy, we’ll give it a rest. Cap’s not a slave-driver, and neither is Barton,” she replied, stepping into the gym area. Cap, Thor, and Barton were all standing on the sidelines, watching Stark with amazed looks on their faces. She and Loki stopped and watched as Stark demonstrated the different parts of the suit. He wasn’t even wearing the bracelets he wore for the last model…

After a few minutes, he turned around see Kat and Loki watching him. He shot her a smile. “Hey, Kat, I think I just found out what element I can control.”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Four



A few days later, when Banner received the results back from the Aquapolian DNA machine, Stark’s theory was confirmed. He was, in fact, not only Iron Man, but also had the elemental affinity for metal. Which meant he could control metal, including calling each piece of the suit out of midair whenever he wished. After this discovery, Stark tried his powers on nearly anything he could, even, to Kat’s annoyance, the silverware. She and White had to make several runs to buy silverware just so Stark would quit messing up the utinsels everyone was supposed to be using.

By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, the only other elements in the team that were discovered were fire and psychic for Mike and White respecitvally…which was nothing new. Cap and Banner shared an element, but they didn’t have the code to identify it yet. Kat had her own unique element, so they labeled that one “light.”

“This is nice silverware, Dad, and I swear to God I will stab you with it if you try to mess around it,” Kat snapped at Stark Thanksgiving evening as she tried to set out the plates, napkins, and everything for the team’s dinner. It wasn’t anything fancy. The entire team had pitched in to help prepare the meal. Barton was surprisingly good at cooking and had made pretty much half of the stuff Kat was trying to set on the table, but Stark was getting in the way, so it was slow going.

“Now, Kat, it’s a holiday. You shouldn’t be going around threatening people,” Stark said in his mock fatherly voice he took on every once in while when he told her to do her homework or go to bed early, as if he needed to make up for twenty-one years of parenting that he lost.

Kat sighed. As this was her first holiday without Coulson, it was her first holiday with Stark, and he was using every single wit and quip in his arsenal to try and contain the fact that this was exciting for him. She couldn’t imagine how Christmas was going to be…and forget New Year’s. He was already planning the party, but keeping all of the details to himself.

Kat tried not to be philosophical about things, but, half an hour later, when everyone was sitting around the table chatting about powers and football games and current events, she couldn’t help but notice all of the things she had gained over the past few months, what she should truly be thankful for. True, she had lost Coulson. Her heart still ached for the man who had, on his own, raised her. But look at what she had gained…

Thor, a friend who was genuine and true, who inspired her by telling her amazing feats of battle he had seen in Asgard, not to mention her own, which gave her hope that she was able to protect this world.

Cap, an uncle who cherished the few family members he had and reminded her of the nobility, honor, and courage of the Aquapolian race. She loved training with her the best. He inspired her to stand up for others.

Banner, a mentor and friend, who had grown from merely a shy professor she would see in the halls of her school to a sweet researcher who loved to discuss some of the details of Aquapolian science and even trivial things like types of coffee or tea.

While she had known Barton, Mike, and White her entire life, she felt as if she had gotten to know them much more in the past month or so than she ever had. Fighting beside them, she realized that Barton’s methodical, seemingly cold ways covered an underlying need to redeem himself and fight for justice. Her best friend had always seemed like a joker, but he had taken his training seriously and was in this until the end. White had sacrified being with his family to help their effort. Her heart went out to him. Every once in a while, she would sit down with him when she saw that he was having a rough day. The best encouragement for him was to know his efforts would save his family’s lives.

Finally, there were the two closest (in physical proximity as well as in her heart) to her on the team.

In Stark, she had, at long last, found a caring, compassionate, slightly crazy father. She had learned over the past month that the outer shell he put on to convince everyone else that he cared only about himself was just that…a façade. In actuality, it was a lot sadder than that. He pretended not to care because it had hurt him when he cared too much. Twenty-one years of pain showed through each time her mother was brought up, but she imagined (in fact, he had hinted towards the fact) that her being there made the hurt a lot less painful.

Loki, as he usually did when they sat down at a table together for long periods of time, had a hand resting on her thigh, not in an overly-intimate way, but in a way that assured him that she was still there. That he wasn’t still being tortured in hell and that this was all an illusion.

And Kat was so, so thankful for Loki. All of the sweet words, kisses, and warm arms aside, he gave her hope. He had been there for her during her loneliest days…back when she was the only immortal on Earth. He was proof that (as cheesy as it sounded) good and love conquer over evil every time.

Kat couldn’t tell how long she had zoned out, but she finally snapped out of her thoughts, only to see Stark and Loki glancing from her to each other and back again. The unlikeliest of partners, her father and her boyfriend had apparently come to an understanding a month ago and now seemed to be closer than ever. They had initially bonded over one main point: they both loved Kat and would do anything to protect her. Now, as Kat had pointed out to them both several times, they had discovered that they were much more alike in other ways as well, including the need for revenge and to make up for their past actions.

“What?” Kat asked, looking from Stark to Loki and back to her father again. “What is it?” Everyone else had, thankfully, not caught her complete mental departure from the table and had continued their talking.

“Nothing. Just, you looked a little creepy staring off into space with that smile on your face,” Stark said, earning a punch in the shoulder from his daughter. “Hey, not at the dinner table. We have company,” he complained.

“I was just thinking. Is that a crime? Because the last time I checked, this was America.”

“Hear, hear!” Cap called from the other end of the table, making Mike and Thor burst into laughter. Even Barton and White started chuckling.

“She didn’t mean Captain America, she meant the country America, but you are the spirit of America as well, so I guess you count, too,” Banner said with a smile.

The rest of the dinner went well, everyone chattering away until well into the morning hours. Kat fell almost instantly to sleep that night, one arm wrapped around Loki’s chest.

------------

“We have a month until you have to be in Malibu for this board hearing, and you want to announce to the world a few days beforehand that you have a daughter?”

Harvey’s question was directed at Stark, but Mike was ready to jump in as well. “It wouldn’t hurt for the board to get to know her. Kind of sway them in her favor.”

“I admit, Kat has a way with people. Gets that from her father, of course, but that won’t change their minds when it comes to taking the control over Stark Industries and giving it to someone who seems to be an absolute stranger.”

“She’s not an absolute stranger,” Stark said from his position by the window. He had picked up one of the signed basketballs sitting on the bookcase there. No one was permitted to touch them except for Harvey, but he made an exception for Stark. “She’s the granddaughter of the founder of the company. She’s hardly a stranger. She’s a Stark.”

“Yes, but a Stark who has been out of the picture for over twenty years,” Harvey explained. “Besides, we’ve also had problems back from Malibu that the board is not exactly buying her being your daughter.”

“We gave them concrete DNA evidence, including DNA analyzed by a top researcher. What more do they want?”

“They want a closer look at her birth certificate…and your wedding certificate and your wife’s death certificate. They want to know the truth.”

“They’re going to get the truth. I am going to tell them the truth at the meeting.”

“The entire truth?” Mike asked, concerned.

“Everything they need to know. Might as well. Someone needs to know what SHIELD’s been up to.”

------------

“It’s snowing!”

Kat felt liked a little kid, scooping up the snowdrifts on her balcony and packing them into balls. It was early in the morning, but she was wide awake. So intent she was on making snowballs, that, when Loki came up from behind her and quickly wrapped his arms around her, she screamed, turned around, and shoved a snowball into his face. He grimaced, shaking the snow from his hair and eyes, but refused to let go of her.

“It’s just a little snow, Aya,” he said quietly, watching the flakes fall around them.

“Yeah, well, growing up, we didn’t get a whole bunch of it…and at school, we almost never get it.”

They stood outside, watching the snow fall for a few more minutes before Loki picked her up. “You need to get inside before you get too cold.” Kat tried and failed to fight her way out of his grasp, and, instead, let him dump her unceremoniously on the bed.

“We should go to the park, today!” Kat said as he closed the doors to the balcony and rejoined her under the warm covers.

“Yes, we should…after we get a few more hours of sleep.”

Kat was too excited to sleep, so Loki went for the tactic up bundling her up in as many blankets as he could to make her warmer, and, therefore, more sleepy. It didn’t really work until he himself wrapped his arms around her.

“Mfagdgadgf” Kat said from underneath the covers.

“What’s that?” He asked, leaning in closer to hear her better.
“Mjaghajdfg” Kat said.

Loki sighed, pushing the covers back from her face so that he could hear her better. He leaned in closer than before to where their noses were nearly touching. “What did you just say, Aya?”

“I said ‘I can’t breathe and I can’t move.’”

He laughed, pressing a gentle kiss on her cheek before helping her out of several of the blankets.

As per Kat’s suggestion, the entire team made their way out to Central Park that day to admire the snow and basically hang around a goof off. Barton wasn’t happy about giving everyone a day off from training, but even he had fun walking around in the snowdrifts, talking about the old training days with White. It was lunch hour, so Mike had agreed to appear once Harvey let him off work.

“What do we call a frozen Avenger?”

Harvey’s voice surprised her. She didn’t know the lawyer was coming. It was a pleasant surprise seeing him step carefully through the snow towards the group. This was his element. She could see the usually guarded expression on his face give way to actual happiness.

Stark had walked up, glad to participate in a verbal exchange with his long-lost twin. “A Capsicle,” he said. Both Harvey and Stark burst out laughing. Cap had turned around to give them a glare, but he ended up rolling his eyes in a spot-on imitation of Stark’s eyeroll, which caused everyone, including himself, to laugh.

Kat looked at Barton, a suggestion forming in her mind. “Hey, anyone up for a little contest?”

“Uh-oh, I see where this is going,” Mike said with a “yikes” expression on his face.

“I think Kat’s got something there…” Banner said with uncharacteristic mischievousness in his voice.

“What does Kat have?” Thor asked. He had not quite as of yet learned all of the Midgardian sayings.

“She has an idea,” Loki explained to his brother, in the simple, helpful, unpatronizing way he had when Thor had no clue what was going on.

“Ah. Share with us this idea. You have good ideas.”

Smiling at Thor’s confidence in the general goodness of her ideas, Kat said, “Do we want to form teams or is it every man for himself?”

“Teams. We fight as a team on the field, so we need to practice as a team,” Barton said.

“Yeah, practice as a team trying to beat itself,” Harvey said.

“Are you going to join in?” Kat asked.

Harvey smiled. “I can’t turn down a challenge like that.”

“Okay, so, let’s split up into two teams, then.”

Random teams were assigned. Harvey, Stark, Cap, Banner, and Thor on one side with Kat, Barton, White, Loki, and Mike on the other. They all ran off into different directions just as time was called. Kat climbed up into a tree to watch the madness.

At the end, everyone’s coats were full of snow, Kat’s team had won, and Harvey and Stark were arguing over what the other had done wrong throughout the entire fight. Thor had not thrown at a bone-crushing speed, and White and Barton’s tactics had proved lethal to the very end. Kat felt alive the entire time, and it was one of her snowballs delivered to Stark’s face that ended up winning the game for her team.

Stark hadn’t let her get away with that, though. When she wasn’t looking, he snuck up behind her and stuffed a ton of snow down the back of her shirt. Anyone there at Central Park that day would have caught an amusing sight of the famous industrialist sprinting as fast as he could across the snow to get away from his enraged daughter. He wasn’t successful and ended up soaked to the bone from tripping and falling into one of the ponds, none of which were entirely frozen yet. That called off the day’s activities, as he had to get home quickly before he actually froze in the cold outside.

------------

“Everyone’s over twenty-one here, I don’t see any reason NOT to spike the egg nog.”

“I’m not arguing with you spiking it. I’m arguing with you pretty much drowning it.”

The Christmas Eve’s festivities started out with Stark and Cap arguing over how much alcohol the former was putting into the egg nog.

“I don’t see what your problem is. You can’t even get drunk,” Stark muttered before walking off. Kat and Banner chuckled from where they were stringing lights up around the large tree Thor had picked out for the common area. Unfortunately, neither of them was tall enough to place the star on top, so Loki had to be called for Kat to use as a stepladder.

Surprisingly, Harvey showed up to the party. He joined the rest of the team in drinking, eating, and generally having a good time. By the time midnight rolled around, however, Kat had noticed that Stark and Loki were missing. Sensing something was wrong, she spun around, trying to find them in the room, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Cap cleared his throat, and everyone went silent. Kat turned to see that he had captured everyone’s attention. “I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. This is my first Christmas in the twenty-first century, and I have to say, though many things have changed, I’m glad the entire getting together with friends and family part hasn’t.” This garnered some smiles from the group. “The past few months have been tough ones. We’ve managed to stick together as a team, though we’re pretty much the most incompatible team out there. And we couldn’t have done so without one person holding us all together.”

Kat looked around the room to see everyone looking at her as Cap continued. “Kat, you’ve been a lot to us. Daughter, girlfriend, friend, niece, student, sister, and even client. But, most of all, you’ve been our leader…and you’ve been an inspiration to us all.”

Kat was struck speechless as nods and murmurs of agreement rose up from the group, even from Harvey. “So, we thought we’d all pitch in and get you something to show you how much we appreciate what you’ve done for all of us, individually and as a team.”

Everyone turned toward the entrance, where Stark and Loki were standing, Stark holding a box in his arms. Kat took a few tentative steps towards them. A huge smile was plastered on both of their faces. “Merry Christmas, sweetie,” Stark said in the softest voice she had ever heard come from his mouth as he handed her the box. She looked around at everyone as she carefully opened it.

When she heard the meow, she burst into tears.

Sitting inside was a fluffy, auburn, yellow, and white colored Himalayan tabby kitten, barely over a few weeks old. It jumped when it saw her face, trying to get up to her from the depths of the box. Before she could drop the box with the kitten in it, Loki picked it up while Stark took the box away from her.

As Loki placed the kitten in Kat’s arms, Thor spoke up in his usually cheerful manner, “A cat for Kat.” Everyone laughed and Kat started crying harder.

“I told you it would make her cry. Pay up,” Mike snapped at White.

“It’s up to you to decide what to name him,” Cap said, watching the scene was a content smile on his face.

“Do you think you could have picked out a fluffier cat? He looks like Thor hit him with a lightning bolt or something,” Harvey joked, earning a rush of laughter from the team. He seemed extremely laid back around the team, as if he were fitting in beautifully. Bringing this up to him, though, would earn her a rush of denial and another round of “none of this Aquapolian Initiative stuff really affects me at the moment, so I’m not joining the Avengers.”

His comment DID give her an idea on what to name the little fuzz ball that was currently trying to climb up her shoulder. “I think I’ll name him Pika, then,” she said. Mike cheered and Stark shook his head. Cap and Thor looked completely lost at this reference, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it, and Kat made a mental note to explain it to them later. Despite Loki’s ability to quickly learn Midgardian references, she was still surprised that he understood this one.

At around two or three in the morning, everyone was too tired to stay awake. Harvey decided to crash in one of the empty apartments for the night so that he could join the next day’s festivities. Before she joined Loki to get some good sleep, Kat stuck around to clean up a bit. It took her a few minutes to get everything in the common room back in order. She gazed out at the snow falling outside to see her father standing on the balcony, watching the snow come down.

A pit formed in her stomach as she stepped out into the cold night air. She knew what was coming. How hard this time of year was for him. Her mother had died in December, a few months after Kat had been born, and, a mere few days later, Kat had been taken from him. Christmas was probably the worst time of them all.

She leaned against the railing beside him, looking down from the dizzying height to the streets below. They stood in silence for a few moments until Stark said, “I was going to get you a cat for your first Christmas…but by the time it came around…”

Kat hadn’t expected him to break her heart with the first sentence that came out of his mouth. She tried not to look at him and instead focused on the snowflakes dancing in front of her nose.

“I researched it for months,” he laughed. “Caroline thought I was crazy. I actually had the idea just a few weeks before you were born. You would grow up with that cat…Just another thing that she complained about…” He smiled to himself. “She complained about a lot for those few months all three of us were together. Nothing entirely serious, really.”

He took a deep, slightly ragged breath, and Kat suddenly wished she could jump off the tower, fly away and not have to think about the past. “After Coulson first approached us about seeking SHIELD protection, she started complaining that she never got to hold you.” Stark laughed, but it was a bit pained. “I started carrying you everywhere around the house…including in the shop when I was working. I just thought…somehow…if I had you with me everywhere I go, they wouldn’t be able to take you away from us.” There was a long pause, until he said, in the shakiest voice Kat had ever heard him use, “I was wrong.”

Kat forced herself to look over at Stark, but what she saw almost made her burst into tears. The man who had convinced the entire world that his heart was made out of the same material as the suit he had built was gone. Gone was the Tony Stark with the brash exterior. Gone was the Tony Stark who had fought in the Battle of New York tooth and nail. Gone was the Tony Stark who had annoyed her to no end over simple things like cutlery or business trips.

Here stood the real Tony Stark. The husband who had lost his wife to a tragic death. The genius who flew around in a suit of metal to stand up for a cause he believed in.

The father who had finally, after so many years of anguish and pain and guilt, was reunited with the daughter that had been torn away from him.

Kat placed a warm hand on Stark’s shoulder, her heart breaking slowly as she watched him slowly start to break down in front of her, his body racked with sobs. She wondered how the previous Christmas’s had been.

He turned around, and she could tell that he was trying to keep himself together in front of her, but it was no use. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her as if he would never let go…as if he were scared that, if he let go of her…once again, she would be taken from him. She wrapped her arms around his chest, burying her face in his shoulder to try and stop her own tears. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the faint glow of the arc reactor under his shirt.

They stayed like that for a good ten minutes, Kat finally letting herself cry softly.

“Coulson was right.”

Stark’s voice almost startled her. “About what?”

“About not letting ourselves get separated. Because…I don’t think…I don’t think I can go through that again.”

Kat sighed, her eyes watching as a few snowflakes drifted past.

------------

Pika had, apparently, chosen Loki’s chest as the prime place to sleep. When Kat finally got to bed, the kitten was already curled up on top of him, both of them sound asleep. She smiled. She needed that sight, especially after having to practically walk Stark to his apartment to make sure he actually went to bed. After changing out of her clothes and into her pajamas, Kat slid into bed next to Loki, listening to the deep and content purr that emanated from Pika.

------------

“This one.” Donna pointed to a long and slinky midnight blue dress.

Kat sighed. “No. I’m way too short to wear that.”

They were standing in a downtown boutique, picking out dresses for Stark’s New Year’s Eve party. Donna already had her dress, but insisted that she help Kat find hers. After all, she said, Kat would be the center of attention after Stark’s announcement.

Kat picked through several more clothes, turning to the saleslady. “I know this is weird, but do you have anything more…Grecian…flowy…in blue?”

The young woman thought. “I think I have just the thing. I’ll be right back.”

“This one!” Donna said, producing a navy blue dress with a plunging neckline.

Kat grimaced. “Ah, no. I’ve already got a man, and Dad isn’t liberal enough of a father to let me walk around in that.”

Donna rolled her eyes. “You’re no fun. By the way, how is your man?”

“Same as usual, really.”

“Tall, dark, handsome, and British?” Donna sighed. “So jealous.”

“Ugh, that reminds me. Shoes. Shoes that help make up the obvious height difference.”

“Between you and Stark or between you and Loki?”

Kat groaned. Her father was not a particularly tall man…heels would help her dance better with Loki, who was a full foot taller than her, but Stark only had half a foot on her. She was distracted by this dilemma by the saleslady appearing with a beautiful dark blue Grecian dress. Kat ran her hand through the fabric. “This one…” She breathed.

Donna shook her head. “You’re going to break so many hearts.”

------------

“I still don’t see why we need to get so dressed up if we’re doing security detail,” Cap complained as he fixed his bow tie. The entire team, save for Kat, stood around in the common area, waiting for the time when they needed to go downstairs to join the party.

“We’re undercover security detail, remember?” Barton said.

“Where’s Kat?” Mike asked.

“In her apartment with Donna. They’re coming down in a little bit after we go down.”

“Okay, everyone ready?” Stark asked, stepping into the room.

“When are you going to make the announcement?” White asked.

“I was thinking 9:19. How’s that for significance?”

Thor frowned, “What is significant about the numbers 9 and 19?”

“Kat’s birthday,” pretty much everyone else in the room answered, then looked around as if they were stunned that everyone else knew it.

“Anyway…let’s get going. Kat and Donna will join us in a bit.” Everyone started to make their way for the elevators. Stark stopped Loki, and they waited until everyone had gone downstairs before they spoke. “If any demons show up tonight, your priority number one is to make sure Kat’s safe, NOT me, got it?” Stark asked.

“If any demons show up tonight, I doubt that they’ll cause any trouble,” Loki said, “Especially if some of the higher ranks in Adam’s army show up. They’ll simply come to show that they’re not afraid of us.”

“Then we show them we’re not afraid of them. Besides, having a party with a ton of SHIELD agents and demons…What’s a party without a three thousand year old grudge match brewing underneath the surface?” They both laughed, a shared comradery between them. “Let’s get downstairs so that we don’t miss out on all of the tension.”

------------

Kat ducked her head, blushing, as she and Donna entered the grand ballroom that pretty much took up the entire second and third floor of Stark Tower. “I told you, you look fabulous in that dress,” Donna said, nodding to several people she knew.

“Is that dress from the olden days?”

Kat smiled, turning around to see Harvey walking towards them, a huge grin on his face. He had become so relaxed around the rest of the team, it felt as if he were an Avenger already. If only he would just agree to join them in their mission…Kat felt a bit sad. She had enjoyed hanging out with the lawyer. He reminded her a lot of her father, and he joked around with her as well, even agreeing to some sparring matches which left him bruised for days.

“No, actually, it’s from this millinium,” Kat said.

“I hope this works,” he said, a serious look flashing across his eyes for all of three seconds before Confident Harvey returned. “Here’s to Stark’s announcement,” he said, lifting his glass of champagne. “Oh, wait, you don’t have any…and last time I checked, you’re underage.”

“Then you must have checked last year, because I’m twenty-one.” She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, if you’re going to work on a case that involves my birth certificate, one would expect you to look at the date.”

“I don’t do well with numbers and calculating ages…or anything with math, really, I’m going to leave that to the experts.” He smiled at someone behind her, and she turned to see Stark standing there. Harvey checked his watch. “Is it show time yet?”

“What, are you getting nervous?”

“Yeah, as your lawyer, I’m sweating over here. This could go both ways, and I don’t enjoy you using this as both legal and demon bait.”

“Wouldn’t have to worry about it much if you’d, you know, join the Avengers.”

“Not a chance,” Harvey laughed. “Well, I’ll leave you two to your scheming. One of the new partners wants to talk with Donna and me.” With that, both of them left, leaving Kat and Stark alone.

“Thought of wearing anything more up to date…God, a toga would be more up to date.”

Kat rolled her eyes and laughed, stopping herself from playfully punching him. “No, I mean…” He turned to her, that serious look showing through his smile. “You look beautiful.”

She gave him a small smile. “Thanks, Dad.”

They looked around for the others. Everyone was spread out throughout the ballroom, keeping eyes and ears open. She could see Loki, a strange sight speaking with Harvey, Donna, and several other people nearby. He glanced over and stared at her for a few moments, a smile slowly forming on his face.
Stark took a deep breath, his eyes on the center of the ballroom, where he was to make his announcement. “Are you ready for this?” He asked, giving Kat a meaningful glance. She knew that this was a huge moment for him. Being able to announce to the world that he had a daughter, and that she was by his side once again. She smiled and nodded, stepping past to join Loki as her father made his way to the middle of the ballroom, his presence calming the dull roar of conversation to complete silence.

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Five



“Just want to welcome everyone to the first ever New Year’s Eve party held here in Stark Tower. We’re going to try and make an annual thing out of this, coming together to have an awesome time and to celebrate the realm of possibilities the new year has in store.”

Everyone hung on to every word that Stark spoke. Kat had to admit he had a gift for captivating an audience. Nervously, she grabbed Loki’s hand, and he gently squeezed her fingers, not taking his eyes off of Stark. She would have to walk out there in front of a ton of people. She wished that Loki would go with her, but he couldn’t…not for the plan to work.

“Now, this time last year, when I took a look at what 2012 would bring, I could see this building…but I couldn’t exactly see it destroyed…New York’s been through a lot. But we’ve risen out of the ashes once again to show that not even a major attack can make us bow. This tower had to undergo several renovations to restore it to what you see today.”

He paused. Kat froze. This was the moment. “Something else happened this year, however, something that gives me even more hope for the future than what you see around you. Many of you do not know this, but, about twenty years ago, I married the love of my life, Caroline Rogers. This was before I took over the company. She helped me expand my vision for it. She made me the man I am today. Unfortunately, she passed away about a year after our marriage.”

Another pause. “Another fact that you don’t know is that Caroline and I had a daughter. She was a few months old when my wife died, and due to the events that followed…we were separated from each other.” Kat thought that was rather a smooth way to say “SHIELD violently threatened to tear her away from me so I had to give her up to an agent who promised to take care of her.” “This past year, however, soon after the events here in New York, we were reunited once again.”

He turned towards her. This was her cue. Loki gave her one more encouraging squeeze as she stepped forward.

“Ladies and gentleman, with great pleasure, I introduce to you, my daughter, Katharine Stark.”

Unexpected applause thundered around the room as Stark placed his arm around her shoulder. No one but her could see the tears in his eyes. He leaned forward, whispering to only her, “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to say that.”

Kat knew how long. Exactly twenty-one years. Every trial he had gone through over the past two decades was in the hope that, one day, he would be able to introduce her to someone, even just one person, as his daughter. And this was the day.

When the applause died down, Stark continued. “It turns out, we have another engineer in the Stark family, albeit a different one, biomedical engineering. She doesn’t let me forget the fact that if it weren’t for her field, the arc reactor would have not been developed for use in the heart.” There was a smattering of laughter. “I’ve missed quite a few of her birthdays,” he said more somberly. “Which is why I’ve searched for some way to make this up to her.”

Kat had not expected the next words out of his mouth. “Starting next week, construction on the second Stark Tower in the world will begin in Atlanta a few blocks away from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where Kat and many of her fellow engineers of tomorrow study. We will offer internships and research positions to the students of the school in an effort to build an interdisciplinary effort to fuel the technology of tomorrow. The second Stark Tower will open its doors on September 19, 2013.” Stark turned to her, still addressing the audience, but looking only at her. “And this will be my gift to her on the first birthday we will spend together as a family.”

That was the end of his speech. As another round of applause kicked up, everything went out of focus for Kat. She tried to make out all of the people around her, but she couldn’t. Sensing instantly that she needed to get out of there for a while, Stark tightened his grip on her shoulder and managed to get her out of the ballroom before they could be stopped by all of the well-wishers.

They stood in the empty lobby for a few seconds as Kat tried to catch her breath. “So…THAT was why you came down with us to Atlanta?” She asked in a strained voice. When he nodded, she cried again. “Thank you.”

“You won’t be thanking me after you meet pretty much everyone in the world tonight,” he joked as she wiped away the tears from her eyes. “Just have Loki stand by, and if you’re getting tired of the attention, he can save you.”

Meanwhile, back in the ballroom, the rest of the Avengers were looking around at each other, impressed looks on their faces. “Wow, even Kat didn’t see that one, coming,” Cap observed.

“None of us did. He didn’t even really tell me why he was down in Atlanta, just that he wanted to meet Baron’s team,” Banner pointed out.

Barton nodded in agreement. “Okay, time to get this show on the road,” he announced. The team broke up, glancing around and watching for any suspicious characters.

------------

Kat met a whirlwind of people that night, everyone wanting to meet and shake hands with Tony Stark’s daughter. Many people commented on her and a possible new role in the company, while others who had known the company for years simply commented that it was nice to know that the Stark tradition of being an engineer continued on. Everything could have been overwhelming if Stark hadn’t insisted on staying by her side during all of the meet and greets, sensing when Kat was ready to move on and making her excuses for her.

Exausted, Kat looked around for Loki to see that he was speaking with Thor on the other side of the ballroom. Both brothers had had their hair cut short to not seem out of place. She noticed that a lot of girls were giving the Asgardian brothers attention, several asking them to dance. Thor took their offers up every once in a while, but Loki declined every one politely.

Kat was about to go up to ask Loki if she could dance with him when she was stopped by someone. “Did you know that biomedical engineering is the fastest growing engineering discipline in the world right now?”

Kat turned around towards the speaker, a man around the same age as Stark, with tan skin and blonde hair. She put on her best polite smile, intrigued by his conversation starter. It was certainly something new. “Yes, it’s almost topped mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech.”

“Second in the nation now, right?”

“NOW, yes. In a few years, we’ll see if Johns Hopkins can compete,” she said.

He laughed. “Now, I’m sure kids will be flocking to the school for a chance to study the same discipline as Kat Stark. You’re going to be a celebrity overnight there.”

“Yeah, well, if they get in between me and getting to class on time, we’re going to have a problem,” she joked, amazed at how easy it was to talk to this person. Maybe it was the slight bit of alcohol in her system. Stark had forced a drink into her hand at the very start saying she would probably need it by the end of the night. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name…”

“Aldrich Killian,” he said, extending a hand for her to shake. “I’m a geneticist. I work with some of the research groups down at Tech, actually. Baron, in particular.”

A geneticist. There was no doubt about it. He was working on the Aquapolian genome project. “Glad to have you on board,” she said with a smile.

She noticed that Killian had looked up over her shoulder, and she turned to see Loki standing there. Both men were having what it looked like to be a staring contest combined with an appraised look contest. Before she could decide who won, Stark walked up, looked from Loki to Killian and said to the latter, “I see you’ve met the boyfriend.”

“Oh…” Killian smiled, holding out his hand for Loki to shake. “Aldrich Killian.”

“Grayson Strauss,” Loki said, opting for his fake mortal name as he shook Killian’s hand. Kat could practically feel the tension between the two men. Loki put a hand on her arm. “Do you mind if I borrow her for a few minutes?” He asked Killian, a polite smile on his face.

“Of course, I’ll talk to you later,” Killian said to Kat before Loki practically dragged her away. Stark watched them leave, a bit confused as to Loki’s urgence, before he turned to Killian.

“I went down to the lab in Atlanta about a month back. They said you’re still funding the genome project, but you’ve stepped out a bit.”

“Yes, well, funding problems, unfortunately. I’ve had to focus on raising money for the lab from private investors instead of actually working in it.”

“Well, Stark Industries will be right next door in the fall. We’d be happy to fund any of the research.”

“Of course. Is that your new goal for the company, Stark? Focusing on providing the Aquapolian race a bright future?” Killian gave him a knowing smile.

Stark didn’t waver. “Of course, seeing how we’re almost an extinct species.”

Killian shook his head. “It’s a tragedy, isn’t it? Can you believe that there’s an entire organization out there who wants to kill us all off?”

“Really? I haven’t heard that. Tell me more.”

Meanwhile, Loki, instead of basically dragging Kat out of the ballroom as he had wanted to, had decided the least suspicious thing for him to do was to dance with her. Kat kept stealing glances back to where Stark and Killian were talking. “Do you know him?” She asked.

Loki took a long look before he answered grimly, “Yes, I do.”

“Trouble?”

“The worst kind,” he said simply. Kat turned to where Barton was standing off to the side, motioning with her head where Stark was talking to trouble. Barton smoothly walked off to speak to White, most likely looking this guy up in a database somewhere. Both Kat and Loki were quiet for a few moments until he looked down at her and said, “This is the first time we’ve danced together in three thousand years.”

“Were the dances on Asgard a lot like this?”

“Surprisingly, yes. A little more fast paced,” he laughed. “But still, very similar.”

“Did I have height issues back then?”

“To quote my brother, ‘I thought the Chosen One would be taller.’” Kat made to hit him playfully, but he added quickly, “THOR said that, not me, but, yes…you were the same height back then…not that it was or still is an issue,” he said smoothly.

“That entire foot difference between you and me would beg to differ.”

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and they stopped as Stark asked Loki. “Care if we switch places?” Loki nodded and stepped away, glancing back to where Killian had been standing, then drifting away to speak to the others. “Well, I just had the most interesting conversation with Killian just now,” Stark said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“What did he say?”

“It was more what he was implying during the conversation than what he said. He knows about the Aquapolian Initiative, but he didn’t seem too unhappy about it.”

“Loki says he’s trouble.”

Stark frowned. “That makes him either with SHIELD or a demon…and he’s been on the Baron team for long enough to have his blood convince them he’s Aquapolian. So…either he’s a traitor or an outright enemy.”

“For his sake, he better be a demon,” Kat said through gritted teeth. “Selling out his own kind…well…literally to the devil.”

“Anyway, this is also bad news because he knows about the Aquapolis project and is letting it run for his own nefarious purposes.”

“Nefarious?” Kat raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, it’s the perfect word to describe a villain, right?”

“This isn’t a Bond movie, Dad.”

“Yeah, well, we’re working with two former spies, so we’re partway there.”

------------

There was a sort of balcony above the entrance to the ballroom. In his search for Killian, Loki found someone else there. He abruptly froze, watching the man watch the partygoers with an amused look on his face. Black hair that was graying around the temples. Black eyes. That familiar amused grin. There was no mistaking who it was. Loki forced himself to walk over to him.

“Stark throws a party to rival his royal ancestors of old,” the man mused, leaning against the rail of the balcony. “You could say he’s modern day Aquapolian royalty. The Starks always did like a nice party.”

Loki paused for a few moments, before asking, “Why are you here?”

“I’m here because I, like Stark, enjoy a good party. Too many humans here, though. Then again, the more humans, the less trouble we’ll have…”

“You will have,” Loki corrected him.

“Now, Brother, have you really given up on me and my quest?”

“Do not call me brother,” Loki said forcefully. Adam’s eyes glistened with laughter. He knew that his half-brother hated to be addressed as such. “Thor is the only person whom I will ever call brother.”

Adam sighed, straightening up. “The time is approaching,” he gestured to a clock above their heads. It was an hour until midnight. “2013 promises to be a grand year. A year of new beginnings. By the time 2014 comes, the Aquapolian race will be destroyed once again.”

“All odds are against you.”

“Really?” Adam raised an eyebrow at this. “Tell me, there are eight Aquapolians and two Asgardians in your ragtag band of…Avengers.” He smiled at the name. “Now, prophecy says that you’re quite powerful, but I have just as many generals that could crush half of the team on their own. I see you met my commander-in-chief…”

“Is your commander-in-chief involved with SHIELD?”

“So many questions. This is a party, not an interrogation. I only came here to wish you and your lovely girlfriend a happy new year.”

Loki physically reacted to Adam’s layered threat, gripping the balcony railing hard and turning his harsh emerald gaze towards his half-brother, lowering his voice as he said firmly, “You should know, that if you lay a hand on her, I will destroy you.”

Adam smiled, stepping back from the railing and casting one last glance down to where Kat and Stark were dancing. “Do not reunite the Starks…” He mused before striding off. Loki watched him go, worry not replacing the fury that had washed over him at Adam’s veiled threat. He considered going downstairs and dragging Kat back up to the Avengers’ apartments, even though it was highly likely that Adam did not plan to act out his threat that night. He had simply come to the party to show that he was not afraid of the Avengers.

“How many humans does it take to match up to the strength of one Asgardian?”

Harvey’s question confused Loki until he realized that he was gripping the marble railing so hard that it was starting to crack. He quickly drew his hand away, though he knew replacing the railing would be merely a drop in the bucket for Stark. “I don’t know, though they said that there were several Aquapolians with the strength of ten Asgardians,” he said, turning fully to speak to Harvey.

“You’ve been around since the days of Old Aquapolis. Tell me, are demons real?”

Loki smiled, amused by the lawyer’s lack of belief. “You’re asking someone literally from another dimension if another set of beings from another dimension are real? Once you start believing that Asgardians and Aquapolians are real, what is to stop you from believing in angels and demons…” He paused, gesturing to the dance floor. “There is an angel. A half-demon stands before you…and you just saw another demon walk away, so amused with the mortals of the twenty-first century. You are surrounded by people who represent the four realms, yet you still have doubts.”

“I was looking for a yes or a no, not an essay,” Harvey said, causing both of them to laugh. “No…I was just thinking of investing in a new venture. Something about a group of crazy people who are trying to take down the world’s most powerful intelligence organization plus an army of demons.”

“If you’re looking to invest money…” Loki pointedly looked around the room. “I think we have that covered…”

Uncharacteristically, the smile faded from Harvey’s face. It was uncanny how alike he and Stark were, Loki mused. “If I join the Avengers, what would I be fighting for? Stark’s got his revenge. Kat’s got her idealistic views of a New Aquapolis. Cap’s got justice. You and Barton have redemption. I…have none of those things save a great urge to save my own skin.”

“Why not just fight to save yourself? If you’re looking for a cause and haven’t found one yet, it’s no matter to us. Even Banner is shaky on why he’s fighting.”

“Yeah, but, see, in the end, he’ll find a reason. And that’s just it. I’ve spent the last few months hanging out with this team, eating meals with you, having snowball fights, observing you. This team is a team with a cause. Anyone who joins without a reason might as well just leave. There’s no point to facing such great odds if you don’t have a reason.”

Loki studied him for a few moments before asking, “You’re digging for excuses not to join, yet you simply don’t just walk away from us. You have, as you just said, spent the past few months with us. You’re afraid to commit to our cause…but you feel the urge to do so.” He saw something change in Harvey’s eyes that confirmed his suspicions as he continued. “Really, you’re just afraid of Stark.”

Harvey laughed, but it was a bitter one, full of truth. “I’m afraid of Stark? Seriously? Please, humor me, why am I afraid of the great Tony Stark?”

“Because he’s you,” Loki said simply. Harvey’s face took on a stunned expression as Loki continued, leaning closer to get his point across. “You and Stark are so alike personality-wise. You see Stark…and you see the person you would be if you cared so much. And that scares you…because, at one point, Stark lost everything…and his two decades of pain resulted from caring too much.”

Harvey didn’t protest. Loki knew he was right. He was good at reading people. He had called it months ago. But he wasn’t finished. “Now…you wonder why Stark is so adamant about you joining the Avengers. That’s because he sees you…and he sees the person he would be if he didn’t care at all…and that makes him desperately want you to care…desperately want you to fight, because Stark cannot stand to see a side of himself with no feeling, no matter how much pain would be spared as a result.”

The lawyer’s stunned face turned to a serious, hard look. He was angry. Good. It was denial, because Loki was right.

The next words out of Harvey’s mouth impressed the half-demon. “Is that why you get so angry at your half-brother? Because he’s a constant reminder of what you can become?” It was said bitterly, as a sort of comeback. Harvey was in pain, and he wanted Loki to be in pain, too.

It was a good challenge, but it fell short. “Would have become,” Loki corrected, looking down at the dance floor, where Kat and Stark were still dancing, Stark obviously telling her a story from the way she was laughing. “I had a savior.”

Harvey, who would have never let someone have the last word, unexpectantly walked away. Loki watched him stride across the dance floor, and he got the feeling that Harvey was about to perform another uncharacteristic act.

------------

“We need to talk.”

Stark and Kat stopped, turning to Harvey as he approached them, a slightly angry look on his face. “Okay, but I’m not dancing with you,” Stark joked as Kat stepped away, excusing herself as she looked around for Loki. Not being able to find him, she decided instead to walk over to Thor.

“I’ve thought over your repeated offers to join the Avengers,” Harvey said.

“Oh, good, I was worrying about that.”

Harvey smiled. “So…” He said, stepping closer to Stark. “Let me put this in a language you’ll understand.”

Before anyone could do or say anything, Harvey punched Stark in the face, almost downing the billionaire as he ice that had coated the lawyer’s hands cut like razor blades into his skin. Kat gasped and ran forward as her father straightened up again, touching his face and staring at the blood on his hand before turning to Harvey again. Harvey studied him for a few moments before addressing Kat. “Take this as my formal acceptance of YOUR offer to join the Avengers.” He glanced around the room. Everyone had quieted. “Also as a display of my powers to any demons or SHIELD agents that are watching. I’m sure there are a ton here…” He lowered his voice. “And I’m pretty sure they’re here for a different kind of party.”

------------

“You know, this isn’t the first time one of my parties has gotten broken up because someone took a swing at me,” Stark winced as Kat put some rubbing alcohol on his face. They were both in the infirmary, Harvey admiring his handiwork with a smile on his face. “By the way, smooth job of closing the party early by attacking me.”

“Looks like you’re not the only genius here,” Kat muttered.

“Meh, it would have looked suspicious if you had just yelled, hey party’s over,” Harvey said, leaning against the wall. “I estimate we’ve got half an hour until company arrives.”

“A team full of former spies and soldiers and none of us suspected that we would be attacked at midnight,” Kat said, shaking her head as Stark stood up. “I’m going upstairs to change. This dress won’t let me fight too well if we end up having more guests,” she said.

“I’m going down to the lab,” Stark said. “Pick up a few things.”

“Pick up?” Harvey frowned.

“We have a back-up plan…just in case we need to skip town. You WERE serious about joining us, weren’t you?”

“Wouldn’t miss this fight for the world,” Harvey said jokingly. Kat was surprised by his entire 180 on this issue. What had convinced him to join them? She remembered that, several times when she was dancing with Stark, she had glanced up into the balcony to see Loki talking to Harvey. Had LOKI said something to convince him? She made a quick memo to herself to ask her boyfriend about it before heading for the elevator.

------------

“Aya?”

Kat squeaked and jumped behind the door to the closet. She hadn’t heard Loki come in, and she had been undressing in preparation to put on her normal clothes. Luckily, the room was dark. “Yeah?” She asked a bit shakily.

“Oh…I’m sorry,” he laughed, turning his back to the closet. She quickly changed into a black t-shirt and jeans, her cheeks blazing at the thought that he had walked in on her. Not his fault, but still embarrassing.

“Did you say anything to Harvey that would convince him to join us?” She asked as she sat down on the bed, pulling socks on over her feet and trying to look casual, as if her boyfriend hadn’t just walked in on her while she was half-naked. He didn’t do much to help by sitting down beside her, sliding an arm around her waist, and kissing her on the cheek.

“It didn’t take much convincing,” Loki murmured. “He was already extremely close to joining us as he was. That attack on Stark, however.” He raised his eyebrows. “That was brilliant…though I’m afraid I did piss him off a bit beforehand.”

“Do you think he’s right about SHIELD and/or demons attacking tonight?” Kat asked, worriedly.

The faint sounds from Times Square reached their ears. It was almost midnight. “I’m sure we’ll be fine…” Loki said as they heard the countdown begin. Usually, this was the time Kat reflected on the past year and looked forward to the next one, but she wasn’t given enough time to.

She hadn’t expected it, but, when the countdown ended, Loki took her by the shoulders and kissed her more passionately than he ever had before.

------------

Twenty minutes to midnight, Stark strode into his workshop, picking up odds and ends and checking to make sure the suits in their cases in the back were secured. Loki hadn’t seemed too worried about a demon attack, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Impressive…Truly impressive.”

Stark turned around to see Adam standing there, studying the suits in front of him. Stark had seen Loki talking to him earlier. From the conversation, he assumed this was his half-brother.

“Yeah, well, they get me where I need to go,” he said carefully, in his usual nonchalant voice. There was no way he was going to let Adam think he was afraid of him.

“Did you know that the Starks of Old Aquapolis were also scientists? It seems to run in the family blood.”

“Didn’t know it ran THAT far back.”

Adam gave him an amused smile. “An enjoyable party, but it ended all too soon.”

“Yeah, most of my lawyers just want to punch me. Not surprised that eventually I would get one that carried it out.”

“A quick room-clearing technique, but he needn’t have bothered. We didn’t come to attack, only to enjoy the party. And, of course, to converse.”

“’We?’”

“Just me for now.”

“And you chose me out of the entire team to speak to. I’m flattered that Satan cares so much.”

Adam laughed. “Did you know that Lucifer was actually Loki’s and my grandfather?”

“My daughter’s dating the grandson of Lucifer? I thought she was past that rebellious teenage stage.”

“You’ve always interested me, Stark. All of the others on the team have reasons that could be justified in helping others…but you. You’re in it for revenge. A team of…what…ten people. Eight Aquapolians, two Asgardians. And you stride around as if you have already won. What do you really have?”

“Well, we’ve got your half-brother, the immortal of mischief…his adopted brother, the immortal of thunder…a super-soldier out of the new Aquapolian legends…a man who is just now learning to manage his anger…a master assassain whose weapon of choice is the bow and arrow…two lawyers, one a fire type and the other an ice type…a retired SHIELD agent who is psychic…oh, and my daughter, the Chosen One. You know, the angel who’s prophecied to take you down?”

“Yes…it’s ironic how infatuated my brother has become with her,” Adam mused. “He’s given up several thrones to stay by her side. When he could have so much more…”

“Yeah, well, money and power aren’t everything,” Stark said with a knowing smile. He had both money and power, yet for decades, neither of them had meant anything as he mourned Kat and Caroline. He knew were Loki was coming from. He would have given up all of his grand wealth to have Caroline back again.

When he saw Kat with Loki, they reminded him of himself and Caroline. While it was sad, he was glad that his daughter had found someone who would take care of her long after he was gone. Stark knew, in the grand scheme of things, he was insignificant. Kat was thousands of years old and would live for many more thousands of years. He would live for six, seven decades tops. All he had claim to was the title of being her father and that was all.

Something Loki had said, however…During the Battle of New York, he had spoken those same words to Stark, the half-demon’s Shadowficated self most likely repeating something Adam believed. Afterward, though, when Loki was his normal self, he had told Stark that he was wrong…that he would be known for much more.

However much Adam thought he was intimidating Stark…he was wrong. Stark smiled to himself. Not an arrogant smile…a confidant one. That he would be able to stand up against this demon and make it known that Adam was going to lose.

Adam studied him. “The prophecy that the Chosen One would come from the Stark line has been passed down for millinnia. The ancient Starks were also inventors, great warriors as well.” He paused, stepping closer. Stark forced himself not to flinch and to stand his ground, not to look down. Never.

“Which begs the question…” Adam said, tilting his head to the side to look at the arc reactor. Stark’s blood ran cold.

“How long would you survive if your heart is ripped out of your chest?”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Six



Loki had his arms so tight around her, Kat thought that he would squeeze all of the rest of the air in her chest out. Before this moment, his kisses were gentle, sweet, not long, but enough to make her feel warm and happy inside. This kiss held within it the pent-up emotions of three thousand years of separation, the longing and the pain combined with the relief and sheer happiness that she was once again in his arms.

She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, slightly wishing that she hadn’t forced him to cut his hair for the party. This was the happiest she had been in ages, and images were starting to flood back into her mind. A musty library filled with bookshelves that reached towards the skies. A deep blue lake where the water was so clear, one could see the fish at the bottom darting around. An abandoned castle, whose ruins told of a violent past, but whose many rooms held different secrets and treasures.

Finally, they pulled away from each other, both of them slightly out of breath. Loki pressed his lips against her cheek, whispering gently, “I love you.”

Kat was just about to respond, just about to say that, yes, he was her entire world…She had struggled with the lost memories for the past few months…the fact that she barely knew this man, yet still cared for him. Now, she was definitely certain, now she could say for sure that she loved him as well…

And then her phone rang. Pain and guilt gripped her as she pulled back. She could see Loki’s eyes for a brief moment, slightly confused and slightly hurt. It was too late to replace that hurt by blurting out that she loved him, too, all in a rush like that. She gave him an apologetic look, one that told him exactly what she would have said before they were interrupted, before turning and snatching up her phone.

“Kat…Kat…” It was Stark’s voice, but strangely garbled, as if he were underwater and trying to breath and speak at the same time.

“Dad…what’s…”

“Kat…shop… now…NOW!”

She could hear him struggling to breath. Terror seeped through her as she sprang up from the bed. “DAD, HANG ON! I’ll be right there!” She screamed, dropping the phone in her hurry and sprinting towards the door, Loki on her heels.

Her heart sank even further at the sight she found in the work shop.

Lying on the floor, drenched in sweat, gasping for every last breath, the arc reactor torn violently from his chest, was her father. As soon as he saw her, he tried to lift up his arm, holding it out in a pleading gesture as she sprinted and fell to her knees by his side.

“Is there another one?!” She asked desperately. “Where? Where?!” She placed a hand on his cheek, trying to calm him down as much as she was trying to calm herself. If he panicked, his heart would give out more quickly.

“Mal…MAL…” He gestured wildly in one direction. She didn’t have time to ask what direction that was. Mal…Mal…Malibu.

“Malibu!?” She screeched as he nodded his head desperately. She turned to Loki, fear in her eyes. That desperation pained him so much, he instantly wanted to take it away.

“I can teleport us there,” he said, gritting his teeth. It was an awful long way to go. He didn’t know if Stark’s body could take it, but he had to try. It was better than watching him die here on the floor. With one hand, Loki grabbed Kat’s shoulder, and with the other, Stark’s arm. Biting back any harshness and desperation from his voice, he told Stark calmly, “Focus on the place in Malibu were your arc reactor is. Keep it in your mind.”

In a few seconds, the room started to get fuzzy. And then, the workshop vanished.

------------

With three consecutive thuds, they landed in a workshop space that looks oddly similar to the one they were just in. For a few seconds, Loki was fearful that Stark had accidently kept a picture of the same workshop in his mind, but odds and ends were different here. This one looked more like a garage, with several nice cars lined up near the opposite wall. More suits lined the walls than back in New York.

“Where is it?!” Kat was asked wildly. Stark gestured toward a desk nearby. Loki was on his feet, his long legs allowing him to reach the metal and glass desk much faster than Kat. He opened and slammed drawers until he saw an arc reactor in the bottommost drawer, exactly similar in every way to the one that had been ripped out of Stark’s chest.

“DAD!”

Kat’s screech froze Loki to the core as he dove forward, handing her the arc reactor. Quickly, she attached it to the hole in his chest, a faint clicking noise echoing as she slid it into place. Stark was on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness until that final click, where he drew in a huge breath of oxygen. Loki could feel Kat sigh with relief. He drew back, his mind flying back to New York.

“I need to make sure he’s not there still…” Loki whispered into Kat’s ear. Stark didn’t need to say it. He knew who had ripped the arc reactor from Stark’s chest. She nodded faintly. “I’ll be back as soon as possible…” With that, he disappeared.

Kat tried to catch her breath, relief flooding her as her father regained the color in his face. He reached up shakily, placing a hand on her cheek and he winced in pain. Wrapping his arm around her neck, he pulled her in closer. “Th…thank…” He wasn’t able to get out more than that, just laid there holding her close, thankful to be alive.

------------

The dark workshop in New York flooded back into Loki’s vision. He spun around, checking to see if his brother was hiding in the shadows somewhere.

“Hello, Brother.”

He wasn’t hiding. Loki turned to see Adam leaning against one of the tables, admiring one of Stark’s holographic screens. In one of his upheld palms sat the arc reactor he had pulled out of Stark’s chest. A loud and clear signal to Loki.

He hadn’t just been threatening Kat. He had been threatened Stark as well.

“I cannot kill the Chosen One. That would descend the universe into chaos. However…” Adam turned the arc reactor in his hand, studying it from every angle as if he wanted to discover its secrets. “How heartbroken do you think she will be if her dear mortal father dies?”

Before Loki could make a move or threaten his half-brother again, Adam disappeared. He gritted his teeth with anger. Adam had been right. Loki knew, eventually, he would have to watch Kat grieve over her father’s death, but he would rather that occur at an old age, when Stark’s heart naturally gave out.

“What happened here?”

Thor burst into the room, still dressed in his tuxedo, turning around and taking in the entire room with his gaze. Loki knew his brother could sense all of the energy down here. Adam’s dark aura could be sense for miles.

“Stark and Aya are in Malibu,” Loki said, not stopping to explain where that was. “Adam attacked Stark, but he’s fine…he’s recovering. Aya is with him. I need to get back to them…”

“We’ll check to make sure he’s no longer in the tower.”

“No…I’m sure he’s long gone…”

------------

Kat was able to get Stark to a standing position, her father leaning on her for support as they stumbled towards the elevator. “Top floor…” Stark stammered as she pressed the button. As they ascended, Kat nearly lost her grip on him, but caught him just in time. “Damn, you’re strong…” He managed.

She gave him a small smile. “Comes with the job,” she said.

“Of keeping me alive…” He took a deep breath and let out a jarring laugh. “You’re going to need more than…than…super strong…”

“Stop talking. You’re wearing yourself out,” she said sternly as the doors opened to the top floor. He pointed out which way his room was and she led him in, letting him collapse on the bed facedown, sighing. Kat stripped him of his shoes, socks, jacket, and bowtie before pulling the blanket over him. By the time she was finished, he was already asleep. She watched him to make sure he was breathing well. Satisfied, she stepped out of the room.

She wandered around a bit upstairs, quietly, wasting time while she was waiting for Loki to get back. She found a spare bedroom, making note to herself where she would sleep that night. She wandered in and out of rooms, finally making it to one room next to Stark’s.

Her heart stopped when she opened the door.

It was a nursery. Complete with a crib overlooking a beautiful view of the ocean. Pictures lined the walls. Toys were scattered across the floor. There was no mistaking whose nursery this was. She tried to imagine spending the first three months of her life here.

And then it became very real. True, learning that Stark was her father was real…learning about her mother, that was real…But this was so real it hurt. The fact that she had lived here, that her mother and father had been happy here…a small family…

Her stomach twisted as she sidestepped around a rust colored stain on the white carpet. She tried not to think about where it had come from, but she knew instantly it was her mother’s blood, spilled as she had rushed to protect Kat from her murderer. Kat picked up a photo from a chest, examining it, her heart aching.

It was the happiest she had ever seen Stark. He had his arm around Caroline, who was holding the months old Kat in her arms. Her mother was laughing as Stark kissed his wife’s cheek, his other arm wrapped around his daughter.

Kat felt tears spring to her eyes, the picture shaking in her hand. She wondered if her father would ever look that happy again.

“Aya?”

Loki’s voice nearly made her drop the picture. She placed it back on the chest, not daring to look around. She knew that, if she turned towards him, she would burst into tears. She could hear him stepping forward, carefully skirting around the bloodstain her mother had left on the floor. He wrapped an arm around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.

Kat stared at the happy family in front of her. This scene begged a question she was afraid to ask…and then she had that answer, and before she knew it, it was slipping out.

“Their lives would have been better without me,” she said bitterly.

Loki’s reaction was immediate. She heard him draw in a sharp breath. “Don’t ever say that, Aya…” He said sternly, wrapping his other arm around her. “Just look at all of the lives you’ve changed for the better.”

Each example he gave her put her closer and closer to the verge of tears. “All those years ago, you taught my brother humility. You’ve given Cap a new hope for the future he’s been thrust into. Barton was saved from a life of darkness by becoming your mentor. You provided Mike with a family when you had none and inspired White to stand against the Aquapolian Initiative. One of the true reasons why Harvey joined us was because you inspired him as well. Banner would not even be here today if it weren’t for you. You gave him hope enough to stop him from killing himself after the Battle of New York.”

The examples he named last released the flood works. “Your father would have lived a dark and lonely life without you…as would I. Without you…today, I would be exactly like Adam. You were the one to step in and tell me that just because I was a demon didn’t mean that I was resigned to a fate as a demon. Every single life you touch, Aya, you bring light to…” He paused, saying more softly, “Every single life around you is made better by you being in it.”

He released her, turning her around and wrapping his arms around her so that she could cry into his shoulder. Fortunately, she was too short to see over his shoulder…see the bloodstain on the ground.

“Do you want to stay with Stark tonight?” Loki asked as the sobs grew quieter and ceased to exist at all. She pulled back and nodded as he wiped the tears from her face.

“There’s…there’s another bedroom across the hall…” She said, gesturing in that direction. He nodded, pressing a kiss on her cheek before leaving the nursery. He stopped when she hurried after him, not wanting to be left in that room with those dark memories all alone. Shutting the door behind her, Kat put a hand on Loki’s arm to stop him before he got into the spare bedroom.

Because she was so short, she had to gently tug on the chest of his shirt to make him bend down. After a kiss that last almost as long as the one that had been interrupted, she drew back and whispered, “I love you.” He smiled as she let go of his shirt and made her way silently down the hall to where her father was sleeping.

------------

This was the first time he had slept in the Malibu house since being reunited with Kat. Stark tossed and turned in his dream, but, amazingly, stayed still in real life, as if someone were holding him in place. After a few hours of this, he woke up, not suddenly, but gradually, stretching, and then realizing that someone else was in the room.

He glanced over, surprised to feel Kat’s hand over his, his daughter fast asleep a few feet away from him.

He chuckled to himself about the surprising metaphor. No matter how much turmoil he stirred up in his own mind, Kat kept him grounded in reality. She was here now…and would never leave again.

With the first geuiene smile he had displayed on his face in years, he fell back asleep.

------------

The next day, Loki stepped into the living room, some more thing gathered from Stark Tower in a box under his arm. Surprised to see someone there, he stopped, not sure what to say. The woman in front of him looked to be around Stark’s age, with the same distinctive blonde shade of hair as Kat and Cap’s.

She was just as surprised to see him there. “Oh, hi…I just got a message from JARVIS that Tony was back, but I didn’t expect anyone else to be here.” Loki was completely caught off guard by her calling Stark “Tony.” As far as he knew, only the man’s wife had ever called him Tony. “I’m Pepper Potts, Tony’s assistant,” she said, stepping forward.

Loki reached forward to shake her hand, one of the boxes underneath his arm shifting, making Pika let out a squeak. Pepper froze and turned toward the box. “Did that box just meow?”

“Ah, yes, is it okay if I let him out? You’re not allergic, are you?”

“Oh, God, no, I love cats,” she said, dismissing the notion with a wave of her hand.

Loki stooped down and took the lid off of the box. Pika sprang out, going straight to Loki first to rub against his arm, then sprinting towards Pepper, eager for someone new to meet. “What’s his name?” She asked, kneeling down to pet him.

“Pika.” She smiled at the silly name. “Kat named him,” he added.

She froze. “Kat’s here, too?” She stood up, a look of shock and relief flooding her. He wondered why the news meant so much to her…”Oh…sorry, I just…Caroline was my cousin. We grew up together…she was pretty much the sister I never had…and when she died and Kat was taken away…I didn’t think Tony would survive.” She stood there, trying to gather her thoughts for a few moments before saying, “Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to ask you your name.”

“Loki Laufeyson. I’m…Kat’s boyfriend,” he said, shaking Pepper’s hand.

“I take it you’re from Asgard.”

He tilted his head to the side. “You know about Asgard?”

“After SHIELD approached Tony and Caroline about Kat being the Chosen One, we all did our research. We wanted to help her out any way we could.”

“Pika!”

They turned to see Kat padding barefoot into the living room, scooping the kitten up into her arms and rubbing his head lightly. Pika purred and rubbed his face against her chin. Pepper looked as if she had seen a ghost. “Oh my God…” She muttered so that only Loki could hear. “She looks just like Caroline…”

Kat looked up, giving Pepper a big smile. “Hi, I’m Kat Stark.”

Pepper smiled back. “I know who you are. I’m Pepper Potts, Tony’s assistant. Your mother and I were cousins.”

“You’re a Rogers, too?”

“On my mother’s side, yes.”

“You should meet Cap, then,” Kat said excitedly.

Pepper frowned. “I’m sorry…?”

“She means Captain Steve Rogers,” Loki explained.

“Oh! Yes, I heard that he was found earlier this year! Caused quite a stir in our family, though SHIELD didn’t allow any of us to visit him,” Pepper grumbled.

“Why not?” Kat asked, her eyes wide.

“One of the same reasons why they didn’t want you and Tony to be reunited, I guess. Wanted to keep this family split apart so we won’t cause any trouble.”

“Well, they were right about that part, reuniting the Starks has caused a hell of a lot of trouble for them so far.”

They turned to see Stark walking in, stretching. Pika jumped from the couch onto his shoulder, and impressive leap that almost knocked Stark off of his feet. Disoriented for a brief few seconds, he simply gave a small smile as the kitten sat perched on his shoulder, looking pretty content.

Pepper laughed. “You’re looking awfully manly with that kitten on your shoulder, Tony.”

“Of course. Cats are the epitome of manliness. They’re fierce hunters and pretty badass.”

“Well, I actually came by to talk about the board meeting in a few days.”

Stark groaned. “Why did we set it so close to New Year’s?”

“I heard a rumor your lawyer is in big trouble with his law firm.”

“If that was about the fight at last night’s party, I’m not pressing any charges.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think Pearson-Hardman is going to care much about that, just about the fact that you may decide to drop Harvey Spector as your lawyer INSTEAD OF pressing charges.”

“If it helps, it was a fake fight,” Kat pointed out, though she knew it probably wouldn’t help Harvey’s case any in front of the partners of Pearson-Hardman. She grew concerned. If Harvey was fired, Mike would go as well…on top of two of her friends losing their jobs, even if Stark hired them as his personal lawyers, the Stark Industries board was bound to bring up their expulsion in the middle of the will meeting. She glanced over at her father, but she knew he was already thinking about this and counterarguments he could make.

“No matter whether it was a fake or real fight, the meeting is still in two days,” Pepper said, mostly to Stark. Kat wondered what it had been like to be her father’s assistant for so many years, then instantly put Pepper Potts on the list of saints who could deal with her father for extended periods of time right underneath Caroline Stark.

“Okay, yeah, I’ll call Spector up and see if he and Ross are on their way over,” Stark said, shrugging, but not hard enough to dislodge Pika’s grip on his t-shirt’s shoulder. He turned around and walked out of the room unexpectantly. Kat wondered if he were going back to bed and if she should follow him.

“Do you need anything else from Stark Tower?” Loki asked her, gesturing to the bags at his feet. It looked as if he had pretty much brought all of her belongings (though they were few in number) to Malibu with him.

“Oh, no, I think you got everything, thank you,” she said, feeling kind of sorry that she had forced him to go all the way across the country to pick up her things.

“Well, I’m going to go back to the office. I’ll probably see you later on today…” Pepper said, nodding to Kat and Loki, then stepping forward, lowering her voice so that only Kat could hear. “This time of year is really bad for him, so…I wouldn’t be surprised if he spent most of the time in his room…I would think it would be easier this year…” She nodded to each of them again in turn and stepped from the room.

Loki turned to Kat, who was staring in the direction where Stark had disappeared. Stepping to her side, he slipped an arm around her shoulder. “She’s right…” He whispered. “This year…it will be easier for all of us…” He planted a gentle kiss on her cheek, wrapping his other arm around her and pulling her close. She wrapped her arms around his chest, burying her face into his shoulder. He placed his chin on top of her head, holding her close and enjoying the feeling of having her in his arms once again.

After a few minutes, Loki pulled away from her, holding her at arm’s length. “Now…” He said with a smile. “What do you want to do today?”

“I kind of want to explore Dad’s lab further,” Kat said, glancing over to the stairs that curved down into his basement workshop. “I’m sure he won’t mind if we take a look downstairs…”

------------

Loki slowly walked down the line of glass cases, admiring the details on each of Stark’s iterations of the original suit, which hung towards the very beginning of the row. Kat was messing around with Stark’s shop computer, JARVIS taking her through different projects and features, his dry wit causing her to burst into random fits of laughter. “Having fun over there?” Loki asked with a smile, not turning from his study of a silver and red suit that folded out from a suitcase. It was obviously an earlier prototype for the current model that folded out from the cuffs Stark constantly kept on his person.

“Yes, I am…” Kat mused to herself, looking around on Stark’s desktop for something else to look at. She nearly screamed when suddenly Loki threw his arms around her from behind. He always moved so quietly, sometimes it seemed as if he teleported everywhere. He stayed there for a few moments, his chin on her shoulder as he watched her click around to Stark’s different projects, every once in a while speaking to JARVIS, who addressed him as Mr. Laufeyson instead of Loki like everyone else did.

Finally, late in the afternoon, Kat’s stomach growled. “Are you hungry?” Loki teased from his seat next to her. She blushed, nodding as she scrolled through some histories of the company. “I’m going to go see if I can find some food upstairs.”

After he left, Kat continued to search around the desktop, stopping when she found a folder marked for Stark’s will case. She clicked on it, hoping to find some stuff she could brush up on in preparation for the board meeting. There was a video hidden amongst the files. She clicked on it.

And immediately wished she hadn’t.

The camera shook for a few seconds. She could see bits and pieces of the workshop and hear Stark directing who or whatever it was that was holding the camera to focus on him. The repeated use of the name “Dummy” told her that it was one of his robots, who had grown attached to her on her walk through of the shop and had a tendency to follow her around like a dog.

Finally, Dummy centered Stark in the frame. He looked a few years younger, and she could see the disassembled parts of the Mark II in the background. She guessed the video was from around the time he escaped captivity and started building the suit. He cleared his throat, looking straight into the camera.

And began to address her. With every sentence out of his mouth, she could feel her heart break into more and more pieces.

“Hi. If you’re watching this, I’m most likely dead or missing. SHIELD is really good at covering these things up, so I left this on my desktop…only to be opened by you. If, by the time you’ve seen this, we haven’t met and no one has told you who I am besides Tony Stark…” He had been swinging around in his chair, the very same one Kat was sitting on now. He suddenly stopped, turning towards the camera and looking straight at her. “I’m your father. And even if we were able to spend a few years together, I just wanted to tell you this…”

He took a deep breath. “When your mother died and Coulson took you away…that day I made a promise to myself…to do everything in my power to find you and make it so that we could live as a family again. That’s why…” He swung around to look at the disassembled suit behind him. “I came up with this project.” He swung back around. “I actually was not kidnapped in Afghanistan…that was a cover-up for the project…so that SHIELD would not catch up with what I was doing. I’m sorry that I made so many people scramble to try and find me, but…that’s in the past now. This suit that I’m building…it’s going to enable me to find you…to fight for you…to get you back. At least that was the plan. SHIELD has kind of caught up to me now. They don’t know my true intentions behind building the suit, so, for now, I’m working kind of as a consultant for one of their Initiatives…”

There was another long pause as he looked at something off camera. “Anyway, the gist of this video is supposed to be me telling you what I’ve left you. So, obviously, you get the suit and any other iterations I make to it. You get the house…and any other houses I build between now and now…” He trailed off.

“I don’t know how much time we get together. I’d like to be there for everything. Your high school graduation. College…Maybe even walk you down the aisle at your wedding. I just want you to know…no matter what happens…that…” He took a deep breath. “Many people say that the arc reactor is the proof that I have a heart. Well, they’re wrong. YOU’RE the proof, Kat. I love you.”

The video cut off. Kat stared at the black screen for a few moments, unable to comprehend what had just happened. She faintly heard the glass door open behind her as Loki stepped in. “I…um…couldn’t find anything in the kitchen, so I ordered pizza…” He stopped at her side, glancing down at the blank screen that she was still staring at. “What’s wrong?”

Kat hadn’t noticed that tears had started streaming down her cheeks. He had built the suit not to protect himself…not to get himself out of danger…but to get her back. It was too much for her. She started sobbing. Without another word or question, Loki sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him.

------------

Stark didn’t wake up until later that night, totally disoriented and wondering what time it was. His chest felt extremely heavy and he wondered if it was the new arc reactor. It was actually Pika, who had decided to curl up right on top of the arc reactor, basking in the heat it gave off.

He shuffled into the kitchen, knowing full well that he wouldn’t find anything. Instead, he found a box of pizza on the table across from where Kat was sitting, flipping through the pages of a book.

“Where did the pizza come from?” He asked, sliding into the seat next to hers and checking to see what kind it was.

“Loki ordered it,” she said without looking up from her book.
“Have you ever stopped and asked him why he knows so much about Midgard?” Stark asked, biting into a slice of pizza.

“He says that he’s read a lot of books about Midgard. They randomly started showing up after I was banished from Asgard.”

“So books could make it to Asgard without crossing the Rainbow Bridge, but people couldn’t? That makes no sense at all. But who are we to argue with the dimensional physics of Asgard?”

There were a few moments of silence as Stark ate quietly. Kat still hadn’t looked up from her book, not trusting herself to burst into tears. She still hadn’t gotten over Stark’s video will, and, what was worse, she had found several files on his computer that contained home videos from when she was two months old. The three of them had seemed like such a happy family. Stark had been right…Caroline had complained on camera on at least three separate occasions that she didn’t get to hold Kat. Stark carried her around everywhere.

“Are you okay?”

Kat finally forced herself to look up. Stark had a concerned expression on his face. She forced herself not to cry or say anything with a shaky voice. “Yeah…yeah, just tired.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot…how long was I asleep for?”

“For at least sixteen hours,” Kat said.

“What time is it?”

“Almost eleven o’clock.”

He frowned, turning to the clock on the wall as if he didn’t believe what time it was. “Maybe you should get some sleep…We’ve got a long two days ahead of us,” he said absently, as if his mind were far away, focusing on other issues.

Kat agreed with him, but for a different reason. She knew that, if she didn’t get away from him soon, she would dissolve into tears. What was she going to do? She couldn’t avoid Stark forever, nor did she wish to avoid him…She just needed time to process the tragedies of the past that were on her mind.

Closing her book and sliding off the chair, Kat bade her father goodnight, padding towards the stairs, then speeding up once she got closer to them.

“Hey, Kat?”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Seven




“Yeah?” Kat turned around, praying that her dad wouldn’t ask her if she was okay.

“I love you.”

Kat had to keep herself from bursting into tears on the spot. She choked out an, “I love you, too, Dad,” before almost literally running up the stairs.

------------

Loki rolled over in bed, wrapping his arms around Kat and pulling her close in his sleep. She snuggled closer, until she realized that he was still tightening his grip on her. “Hey…hey, stop!” She gasped, trying to push away. Luckily, he woke up, releasing his grip on her and shooting her an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry…” He said sheepishly. Kat smiled, reassuring him that there were no hurt feelings. They really needed to work out a system to help stop him from doing that.

Kat rolled towards the window, squinting at the noonday sun outside. She needed to get up soon. The meeting with the board was in three hours, and she needed to get showered and dressed and ready before then.

She squeaked as Loki wrapped his arms around her and pulled her towards him again. “I need to get up soon,” she protested.

He buried his face in her hair. “No, you don’t,” he said, his voice muffled.

She sighed, enjoying lying in his arms for a few minutes more before she finally struggled out of his grip and into the bathroom.

An hour later, they were sitting in the café on the first floor of Stark Industries. Kat sipped at her coffee nervously, waiting for Pepper to come and tell them the meeting was on.

“It’s going to go well, I’m sure,” Loki said as a way of assuring her that things were not going to go disastrously wrong.

“Yeah…” Kat said absentmindedly.

“Miss Stark?”

Kat looked up to see a man walking towards them, a worried expression on his face. “Yes?”

“Hi, I’m Happy Hogan, I work for your father. Listen, have you seen Mr. Stark around today?”

Kat frowned. “No, I haven’t. I thought he would be a little late.”

“Well, he’s not at the house, and I keep calling his cell and he won’t pick up.”

She thought for a few seconds. “I think I know where he is…” She mused to herself, shooting up out of her seat. Loki made to follow her, but she stopped him with a wave of her hand. “I need to go alone,” she said before rushing out of the café.

------------

Kat found Stark in a cemetery a few miles away, kneeling in front of a grave. With every step she took closer to him, she felt a little bit weaker. He didn’t look up as she stopped and knelt beside him, her breath catching in her throat as she read the words on the grave marker. Caroline Rogers Stark. Born August 31, 1965. Died December 23, 1991.

There was silence for a few minutes until Stark spoke. “I visit her every year on December 23rd…Every year except this year.” He took a deep breath. “I thought about making the trip out here, but…I figured she would rather I stay in New York with you.” Kat placed a hand on his shoulder. “I called this meeting with the board to ensure that you had something when I was gone…a home, mostly, somewhere to call your own.”

“You act like you’re going to die soon.”

“I’ll die sooner than you…and even when you do die…” He took a ragged breath. “I just want to make sure you have this…and someone to watch over you. The latter part is finished. I didn’t think so at first, but now I know…Loki will be there for you until the end of time.”

There was silence for another few minutes. “Dad…” She said in a low voice. “We have to go. The meeting starts in thirty minutes.”

He nodded, both of them standing up. With one last look back at his wife’s grave, Stark put an arm around his daughter and walked out of the cemetery.

------------

“Okay, this hearing is now underway. The topic for today is the split of Stark Industries upon effect of Anthony Stark’s death. He has requested that control of the company, eighty percent of his fortune and his house and possessions in Malibu and New York go to his daughter Katharine Stark. For granting Miss Stark control of the company, Mr. Stark must have the approval of the board of Stark Industries.”

When the proctor was finished, the first to speak was an older, slightly heavily built man. “We’ve received the proof that Miss Stark is, indeed, your biological and legitimate daughter. The board only wishes to know why said daughter has been out of the picture for so many years. You have to admit, Mr. Stark…” He said, leaning back and studying Stark. “…that her showing up at this time is awfully suspicious.”

Harvey and Mike turned to Stark, waiting for him to answer. “As you know, my wife was killed twenty-one years ago. But that is not the entire story. It started with our daughter. Kat is the Chosen One, the angel out of Aquapolian legend…”

------------

Kat was not allowed into the first part of the meeting, so she simply paced in one of the waiting rooms nearby. Pepper and Loki sat in chairs, Pepper studying something on her iPad and Loki watching Kat pace.

“They’re not going to believe him,” Kat said.

“It’s a stretch. We don’t know if any of them know even of the existence of Aquapolians,” Pepper said, looking up from her iPad. “But they asked for the truth, and Tony is going to give it to them.”

“What is they decide he’s gone crazy and kick him out of the company?”

“I highly doubt he’d allow that to happen,” Loki said.

“He’s right. Kicking Tony Stark out of Stark Industries would take an army,” Pepper added.

Kat continued to pace.

------------

After Stark finished his story, there was stunned silence from the board, all of the members simply staring at him. Finally, the man who had started the questions from the board spoke up. “Aquapolians…Aquapolians, we have found to be real. There are several research groups in our knowledge that surround that science…But the Chosen One?” He raised an eyebrow. “Are you claiming that your daughter is the Chosen One?”

“I’m not only claiming it. I can prove it to you,” Stark said, leaning forward. “You know of the full legend right? The signs? The physical signs?”

Back in the waiting room, Loki stood up, walking over to Kat and placing a firm, but gentle hand on her arm. “It’s going to be all right,” he whispered in her ear. She nodded, not quite convinced, but feeling a little bit better at his touch. Loki turned to Pepper. “Will you let us know when they need Kat?” She nodded, and he led Kat out of the waiting room and out of the building. When they reached the parking lot, he turned to her, his arm wrapped around her waist. “It’s going to be okay,” he said firmly.

“Everything?”

Loki realized that she was not just talking about the case. “Yes…Aya, everything…” He sighed.

“Kat?”

They turned to see Pepper walking towards them. “They want you in the conference room.”

------------

Kat stepped into the room, nervously taking the seat in between Stark and Harvey. She looked down at the table for a few moments as silence reigned, until Stark leaned toward her and muttered, “Look up.” She did so, and he continued, in a louder voice, addressing the men across the table. “As you can see, she has the same color eyes as Aquapolian crystal. The mark of the Chosen One. You can’t fake that…it changes with her mood.”

One of the men laughed. “Really? You really think you…” He stopped in midsentence, staring aghast as Kat turned to him, her dark, cloudy blue eyes of worry turning to an electric lightning shade of blue defiance and anger. Everyone stopped breathing, it seemed like, as they watched the shade grow duller as her anger disintegrated.

“So you are the Chosen One,” the head board member said. “But how can we possibly check this story out when the agent assigned to your case is dead?”

“There was a secondary agent on the case,” Harvey announced. “Walter White. He’s prepared to give a statement on the SHIELD Stark case if needed. In fact, he’s already prepared a written one.” He slid a document across to the head board member, who scanned over it, then looked up from Kat to Stark and back again. He calmly slid the document back to Harvey.

“Well, I think we can take a half an hour to come to our decision.”

------------

“I’m sure it went well,” Loki whispered to Kat in the waiting room. She stared off in the direction of the conference room. He wrapped both of his hands around hers, leaning in to kiss her gently on the cheek. She placed her head on his shoulder.

The door to the conference room opened and Stark walked out. The meeting was over. He motioned with his head for Kat to follow him to walk towards his office. She stood up and started walking down the hallway with him until they reached a large office with floor to ceiling windows. Stark let the door close behind them and strolled over to the windows.

After a few moments, he turned around, his arms wide, a smile on his face. “They approved it.”

“What?” Kat asked in disbelief.

“They approved of me passing on control of the company to you…and, of course, all of the suits and the houses and everything…So, a Stark will remain in this company after all…well, not for long, really, Stark by blood, but you’ll end up a Laufeyson soon enough…or would that be Strauss…?”

Kat laughed, but immediately felt somber. “What’s wrong?” Stark asked.

“Nothing…” She said, forcing a smile. “I…just…you know I don’t like to…”

“Talk about this stuff, yeah…I get it…so…why don’t we call up the rest of the team and see if they can get out here.”

Kat smiled for real that time.

------------

“Yeah? Tomorrow at three? Okay, got it, see you then.” White hung up the phone and turned to the rest of the team, raising the phone. “That was my contact. We’ll have transportation tomorrow at three.”

“We’re really doing this…” Banner mused. It was a few days after the board meeting, and the entire team was gathered in Stark’s living room. “We’re seriously going out to a land that’s never been walked on by mortals…until Stark and Kat…for thousands of years…It’s never even been mapped.”

“That’s the fun of it, right? It’s an adventure,” Thor said, smiling.

“He’s right, this will be some adventure,” White said, shaking his head.

“So, we should head out at noon to make the drive out there?” Barton asked.

Kat stood by the floor to ceiling windows, gazing out at the ocean. “We’re really going back…” She murmured to Loki, who stood right beside her. She couldn’t help but tremble from nervousness. “We’re really going to fight them…”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Yes…and we’re going to win.”

“Okay, then, listen up!” Stark shouted to gain everyone’s attention. “That means we have exactly sixteen hours before we begin our final mission together, so, I say, this is the perfect time for drinks and food.”

Everyone laughed. “Okay, so, what, pizza sound good?” Mike asked.

“Come on, Mike, dream bigger,” White said. “I say we go for some Chinese, too.”

“I could use a hamburger…” Cap mused.

“And some Mexican…” Barton said.

“What are we going to do, get takeout from every takeout place this side of Malibu?” Harvey asked.

A few hours later…that was exactly what they sat down to eat. Kat watched as everyone chatted and argued and generally enjoyed each others’ company. To think that that team that barely got along a few months earlier now seemed almost as close as family…

“Wait! What are we going to do with Pika?”

Stark’s question rang out, causing everyone to grow silent. Pika was currently sitting on his shoulder, watching everyone and purring loud enough for Kat to hear him across the room. Everyone grew a bit sad, even Harvey, at the prospect of leaving him behind, but they HAD to.

“Do you think Pepper would take care of him while we’re gone?” Kat asked Stark.

“Yeah, if we leave him here, she’ll feed him.”

“But then he’ll be all alone,” Harvey protested. Everyone turned to look at him. “I’m just saying, he’s our mascot, we need to care about these things.”

“Maybe Pepper can take him back to her place for the time being…” Stark mused.

With that settled, the conversation continued into the early hours of the morning.

------------



The desert winds whipped past, spraying sand into their faces as the team waited by their odd assortment of black cars for White’s contact to show up.

“Do you know who his contact is?” Cap asked Barton.

“A fellow student of White and Coulson’s. The small group of SHIELD agents who decided to rebel against the Aquapolian Initiative. Where do you think I’ve been getting my inside information from?” Barton responded with a smile.

The sound of a jet overhead made everyone tilt their heads up. One of SHIELD’s passenger jets was descending in front of them. It landed, and the passenger bay opened. A man in his early thirties with light brown hair and sunglasses descended the ramp. He was dressed in normal SHIELD gear. Everyone gathered around as he stepped up to White.

“Everyone, this is Michael Weston, one of Coulson’s former trainee’s,” White said. Weston nodded to all of them. “Give us a status update.”

“Jet was flown off the radar logged underneath a routine flight from Los Angelos to Washington. It’s GPS will make it to Washington and back in the appropriate time, but, as you can see, the actual plane won’t. All bugs, and I mean everything, were swept for and taken off.”

White nodded. “Thank you. Let’s load up.” The team started to load their bags onto the jet.

“Also, there’s a box in there for you. Coulson wanted it delivered to the team on effect of their…what he called…their ultimate mission,” Weston added.

“Our ultimate mission?” Loki asked Kat, raising an eyebrow. She giggled, despite the fact that this was serious. Loki wrestled her duffle bag out of her hand, ignoring her protests that she could carry it on her own and walked up the ramp with it.

“So, what are we going to do with the cars?” Barton asked.

“I could drive them back to where you came from,” Weston offered.

Stark did the math. “Yeah, but seriously…”

“I’ll drive them back…teleport back out here…and drive the next one back.”

“Wait…what?” Banner asked.

“I haven’t become skilled enough to teleport large objects yet, otherwise I would try to teleport them all back at once.”

Banner and Stark looked over at White, who shrugged. “We tried to encourage our trainees to learn their powers. You never know if you’re going to need them.”

“I better go now…” Weston said, nodding to Barton and White. “Good luck.” He strode over to one of the cars, climbing into the driver’s seat and starting it with the keys that Barton had left on the passenger’s seat.

After the first black car was out of sight, Barton turned back towards the jet. “Okay, everyone get on an we’ll head out.”

------------

“We should open the box.”

It was three hours into what would most likely turn out to be a twelve-hour flight. The members of the team had simply sat in silence with random bursts of conversations. Everyone was a bit overwhelmed about what lay ahead, even Thor and Loki. They were about to make history…either as a failed resistance group or the saviors of New Aquapolis.

Mike’s statement caused everyone to turn to the cardboard box Weston had mentioned earlier. “Why don’t you do the honors, Kat?” Cap asked, sliding the box over towards her.

Kat withdrew a knife from her pocket to cut into the box. “Not quite sure I feel safe with you carrying that around,” Mike grimaced.

“What, are you afraid that I’ll hurt myself?” Kat teased as she sliced into the top of the box, enjoying the feeling of the knife cutting through the tape.

“No, more afraid that you’ll hurt someone else,” Stark pointed out. “Seeing as how your boyfriend is well-versed in knife-throwing.”

“It’s the only fighting skill in which either of us almost surpassed Kat back on Asgard,” Thor said. “Sword fighting, hand-to-hand, archery…” He shook his head. “We lost miserably.” He and Loki shared a laugh at the memory. Kat wished she had that particular memory back, but it didn’t come to mind as she opened the box.

Inside, ranging from Kat’s size to Thor’s size, were black jackets, shirts, and pants. “Oh, are we planning a night heist or something? You should have told me, I would have brought a ski mask,” Harvey said as Kat lifted one of the jackets out, along with a note.

“Oh, it’s color coded…” She muttered, holding up one of the jackets with the Avengers ‘A’ on it outlined in dark green. “This one is Loki’s,” she said, handing it across to her boyfriend. He immediately put it on over the t-shirt he was wearing as Kat dug into the box for the next person’s jacket.

“Wait, uniforms?” Mike asked excitedly, obviously thinking about his suggestion and wish for team uniforms a few months previously. As Kat handed him his jacket with a red ‘A’ on it, he put it on with a large grin on his face. Stark rolled his eyes at the red and gold emblem on his jacket, but he put in on anyway, much to the surprise of the rest of the team. Thor’s ‘A’ was a bright lightning yellow, while Cap’s was red, white, and blue. Banner’s and Barton’s sported light and dark purple respectively while Harvey’s was an icy blue. White shrugged his jacket on, chuckling that his color was, as appropriate, white.

Finally, Kat slid her arms into her jacket, on which the ‘A’ was embroidered with all sorts of shades of blue, ranging from midnight to sky. Everyone looked happy in their jackets, all except for Barton, who had not had a chance to put his on yet. “Take over for me, will ya?” He asked White as he stood up, shrugging out of the SHIELD uniform jacket he was wearing. Everyone smiled. This was the big moment for him. The moment he had been waiting for for months.

Barton held his jacket out in front of him, flicking open his pocket watch to start cutting around the SHIELD emblem on the sleeve. When enough of it was loose, he pocketed his knife, and with a loud, satisfying rip, tore the SHIELD symbol off of his jacket, turning to White. “Open her up!”

Everyone made sure they were buckled in as Barton stepped towards the opening cargo bay, the SHIELD emblem in his hand. A loud round of applause and cheers resounded through the plane as Barton tossed it into the darkening sky triumphantly. The bay doors closed as Barton turned and strode toward Kat, who stood up, a huge grin on her face. She was so happy for her mentor. She knew how far he had come to get out from underneath SHIELD’s influence and his own haunting past. Now…now it was real as she handed him his Avengers jacket with the dark purple ‘A’ on it.

“Thank you!” He said cheerfully as he took the jacket and slid it on, the largest grin on his face Kat had ever seen. “Now, we’re ready to get to Aquapolis!”

------------

A few hours later, half of the team was asleep while the other half were listening intently to one of White’s stories about Coulson, a mission that his buddy had taken in the late eighties in Soviet territory.

“So, we get the reports back. Out of the five people on the mission, only four survivors. Coulson’s not on the list. Then, we learn that he had managed to distract the Soviet’s long enough for his team members to get to safety. So, everyone at SHIELD is talking about how heroic this young agent was and how we’ll honor his memory and everything, and I’m just like, well, I just lost my best friend, how can everyone else be happy about how the mission went? Well, one day, about a month later, Coulson shows up back at HQ. Everyone’s like, we thought you were dead!? And you know what he does? First thing he does is go to the Director, who was Green at the time, and goes, ‘Sorry, boss, I’m a little late getting back to you on that paperwork.’” Everyone burst out laughing. “Not kidding you! He was genuinely concerned about the lateness of his report on the mission. They gave him two years of vacation for that before they sent him on his next mission.”

As another round of laughter and chatter started up from that, Kat couldn’t help but see White’s expression turn somber. “What was his next mission?” She asked softly as the others started listening to one of Cap’s stories from the war.

White paused, sadness and tiredness flickering through his eyes as he met hers. “To offer SHIELD protection to you and your parents.” He sighed. “Kat, when the Aquapolian Imitative was called together, he was furious. He didn’t want any of it to happen. He blamed himself for years afterward for your mother’s death…” White glanced over to Stark, who was, thankfully, too caught up in his uncle-in-law’s story to hear White’s. “He and Stark had their differences, but, at the end of the day, Coulson wanted nothing but to insure that you were returned to your father…and that the Aquapolian Initiative was stopped.”

Kat nodded, another wave of pain and sadness crushing over her. She could remember sunny days in the park when she was five, Coulson throwing Frisbees to her and helping her learn how to ride a bike. Coulson teaching her how to read, to fish, to climb trees. Coulson rejoicing with her at her admission to Tech and Coulson sitting in the front row at graduation. Coulson showing up to parents’ weekend at Tech, enthusiastically hiking around campus with her and cheering on the Yellow Jackets at home games.

Coulson teaching her how to laugh, to learn, to live by the values of honesty, loyalty, and justice. Coulson sitting her down when she was four years old and telling her the story of a fierce warrior angel who helped to fight against the Demon King all those years ago.

Coulson telling her that SHE was that angel.

While she wished for a life spent with her father…Kat cherished the years spent with the agent who had treated her as his own niece (never his own daughter. In retrospect, Kat realized that he had held her away just enough to leave an empty hole in her heart for Stark to fill as her father). She missed him so much. She wished he was there to fight alongside the team he had created. It nearly drove her to tears to think that he would never see the land he had fought so hard to return to.

“Heads up, guys! Land ahead!”

Everyone turned towards the front windshield at Barton’s words. They could make out trees in the darkness ahead. The plane descended until they touched down outside of a large stone archway. Cautiously, Kat stepped out first, glancing around in the darkness before turning around and motioning for the others to follow her. One by one, they started making their way to the archway, where two torches stood unlit.

“I got this,” Mike said, snapping his fingers. The torches burst into flames. Banner took one and Thor the other as they stepped into the archway. After walking down a long tunnel for a few minutes, they happened upon a set of rooms in a hallway. On the other end was another large archway. They spread out, looking into the rooms.

“Hey! Look what I found!” Mike said, sliding back into the hallway, a sword in his hand. “There’s like a ton of them in there…it’s like an arsenal or something…”

“Any idea what this place is?” White asked Loki.

He shook his head. “No clue…”

Kat was drawn to the archway ahead of them. Passing through, she stepped into a large circular chamber illuminated by a pulsing blue light. She looked up and took a sharp breath. “The Tesseract…We’re back where we found it before…”

Everyone gathered into the room, eyes wide as the Tesseract pulsed above them. Kat reached out her hand to it, and it started to descend. Everyone watched aghast as she stepped forward, touching one side of the Tesseract. Lines of data exploded around them, words dancing on the walls as everyone turned to read about ancient names and faces long ago.

“Isn’t it weird…” Banner breathed. “…that we ended up in exactly the same place Stark and Kat ended up a few months back?”

“That just shows us what our mission is,” Thor said.

“And that is…what?” Harvey asked.

“To protect the Tesseract. They’re coming for it,” Kat said simply.

------------

“Okay, we’ll have two standing watch and two protecting the Tesseract at all times. We’ll do six-hour rotations. Thor and Cap on watch. Barton and Mike protecting the Tesseract for now,” Kat said, dividing everyone up into watch teams. The team split up, those who were not on watch making their way to the rooms to catch some sleep before their watches began.

After laying out two sleeping blankets side-by-side in one of the rooms, Kat and Loki curled up together, Kat’s arms wrapped around Loki’s chest, and his wrapped around her stomach. She buried her face into his chest, hearing his heart beat underneath his shirt. She quickly drifted off to sleep.

------------

“Okay, um…show me the ancient royal bloodlines.”

Kat smirked as the Tesseract’s display cleared to reveal the family names and lines of the ancient Aquapolians. “Just the Starks, please,” Stark announced, looking up at the Tesseract suspended in the air above them. The list cleared down to only the names of the Starks. “Thank you.”

“I wonder how long it took to gather all of those names…” Kat mused.

“The names on the Aquapolian Initiative list? Years, probably,” Stark answered, distracted by his reading of the list in front of him.

“I wonder how long we’re going to be able to hold out here…”

Stark paused, glancing down at his daughter. “Well, sure, we’ve got numbers against us, but…we’ve got history in our favor.”

Kat sighed. “I sure hope so…”

“Okay, shift’s up,” Cap announced as he and White stepped into the chamber.

“Just five more minutes, Uncle Steve,” Stark whined.

“Out, we all need our sleep,” White replied. Kat stood up from where she was sitting and followed Stark out into the hallway. They bid each other good night before going into their respective rooms.

------------

Kat slept soundly beside Loki that night, fast asleep until she felt someone grab her. Her eyes flew open, but she was unable to scream as she was dragged from the room, kicking and thrashing about, unable to get free from her kidnapper.

------------

“LOKI?!”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Eight



Thor’s voice snapped Loki out of his deep sleep. He instinctively pulled his arms closer to keep Kat safe, but he realized she was no longer there. He bolted to a sitting position, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room after a few seconds. He could hear his brother calling out for him from the hallway, and he sprang to his feet, rushing across the marble and stone floor to join Thor.

His brother looked dazed, turning in small circles in the hallway, his blue eyes looking from one open door to the next. They were all empty. No noises escaped from any of them. Loki’s first instinct was to shout her name, “AYA?!” To his dismay, his voice simply bounced off of the marble walls to no effect. Her soft voice did not answer. She did not come running out of one of the other rooms. He had hoped, at least, that she might have been talking to her father in his room, but Stark was nowhere to be found as well.

After a few moments, both Asgardians seemed to snap out of their daze and fear, the grim reality sinking in. With one last look around at the rooms, they muttered one word, disgust and rage set into their voices.

“SHIELD.”

------------

Hands grabbed at her, thrusting her into a seat, tying her up beside someone else. She could barely see, barely feel, barely comprehend what was happening. The thought that she had been drugged rushed through her head as whatever they were in took off from the ground. She could always recognize the sensation of flying…even drugged.

She was uncomfortable sitting up, but she forced her eyes to focus before she felt like blacking out again. Dark shapes all around her, other drugged bodies. She could make out Mike’s tousled head across from her, White’s glasses reflected the sheen of the low lights as his head rocked back and forth. She struggled to make out the clearest sign of the group: her father’s arc reactor. She couldn’t make it out, and slightly panicked for a bit until she realized the person sitting directly to her right was Stark.

Like her, he was fighting unconsciousness, trying to force his eyes to stay open. His head tilted to the side, a dull spark of recognition flashing across his eyes when he saw her. He leaned closer, managing to wrap his arm around her and pull her closer.

Before Kat blacked out, she realized what he was doing.

Once again, Tony Stark was hoping that, by holding his daughter close, he could prevent her from being taken away.

------------

Agent Maria Hill knew instantly as the plane landed and the unconscious prisoners were unloaded and taken to their cells that this was wrong.

Though she spent most of her time making sure that missions issued from Director Fury went smoothly, she remembered her early days in SHIELD (that, honestly, hadn’t been that long ago). Those missions had been run on post-Soviet territory or throughout the Middle East. She had killed terrorists and “bad guys” (from SHIELD’s point of view), but now…after she had been read into Coulson’s circle, she realized that SHIELD was not the white to the terrorists’ black.

In fact, SHIELD was blacker than the terrorists’ black. It was dark to the core.

After Coulson’s death, Hill had risen to take his place by Fury’s side. She had not been happy about filling in her former mentor’s place, but, at least, her fellow agents Weston and Lawson had come with her to similar posts. They were what was called the next generation in Coulson’s circle, which now only consisted of the three young agents and Fury. Barton had officially cut ties from SHIELD and White had left years ago. They had all been recruited to the Aquapolian Initiative by higher ups who didn’t realized that they were, indeed, Aquapolians themselves.

Hill knew better than to wear her Aquapolian pendent around the helicarrier, but she wore it under her clothes anyway. Sooner or later, her name would come up on that list the real working members of the Aquapolian Initiative have. And that would be it for her. She would go out kicking and screaming, defending the cause. She wanted to make a difference for the next generation.

As she watched the prisoners get carried along the tarmac, her heart stopped as she saw the agents unload the only female prisoner. Her Aquapolian pendent hung backwards on her neck, brushing the air above the tarmac. It was her. Hill had been absent from work during the Battle of New York, but she was definitely sure that was her…the girl whom Coulson had talked of fondly, the Aquapolian people’s savior.

Before this entire Aquapolian Initiative business, Hill had never experience a sort of religious experience or knew in her heart instinctively that someone was so much greater than they looked, but her heart knew instantly that this young woman meant that the Aquapolian nation had a future. That their past, present, and future were not myths, but facts.

And then that feeling of wrongness welled up in her again, and Hill had to get off of the tarmac. She descended to the depth of the helicarrier below, intent on finding Fury and getting his official and unofficial marching orders.

Fury was a bit pissed off about the Avengers having been found on Aquapolis. He had called Weston in and grilled him about everything in a secure area of the helicarrier. Hill was unlucky enough to step into the room while Weston was still getting yelled at. Though really, Weston had done everything he was supposed to do, and, under normal circumstances, the Avengers would not have been found. Fury was just generally pissed off at the higher-ups for finding them.

“I want you to get your *** back to Aquapolis with Lawson and find the remaining two members of this team. They are our only hope of getting the team off of this goddamn helicarrier…now move before the chance to slip away quietly passes by!” Fury snapped at the younger agent. Stern Weston nodded and immediately turned to leave, giving Hill a short nod of acknowledgement. Now was not the time for small talk.

“What do you want me to do, sir?” Hill asked after the door closed behind Weston.

“After they regain consciousness, the team is going to be interrogated by the counsel. They’ll need agent escorts to and from the room. I want you to escort Kat Stark. I want to keep an eye on her…speculation is already rising from the science department that she’ll be handed over to them.”

Hill couldn’t help but respond in shock to this. “Oh, God, sir, they’re not going to start testing on her, are they?”

“That is about a 100% possibility at this point, Agent Hill. It’s what Howard Stark feared the most for his granddaughter in the months leading up to his death. That she would turn into an experiment. A much darker kind of super soldier…”

“Are we going to try and stop them, sir?” As soon as she asked it, though, Hill knew that that would be a fruitless endeavor. Really, all they could do is make sure Kat would not be killed as the tests progressed.

“We’re going to try and stay their hand a bit…and make sure that she isn’t being brainwashed, which is why I want you as her escort. Allows you to talk to her, determine whether or not she is in her right mind. I want you to talk to her as soon as she wakes up to gauge her true self before anything can happen. Understood?”

“Understood,” Hill said grimly before leaving the room, her mind focused on ensuring that Kat would come out of this situation 100% herself.

------------

Kat felt cold without Loki sleeping beside her. In her groggy state, she kept on flipping from side to side, trying to find him with her arms. Finally, after a few minutes of trying, she came to the realization that he wasn’t there. Again, her foggy mind searched for someone else, focusing in on the last person she had seen before she blacked out: her father. No. Stark wasn’t there. No one was there. She was alone.

Finally, she was able to sit up without getting too dizzy. She was in a room roughly about the same size as her room in her college apartment. There was a bed, a chair, and an extremely small bathroom to her left. She shakily stood up and slid her feet across the metal floor to the bolted door across from her. One barred window sat in the middle. She was too short to see out of it.

Sliding the chair across to the door, she stood up on it, trying to see what she could see by leaning at different angles. There was another door about three yards in front of the door she was standing at. A passageway connected the two, but that was it. It was occupied by two SHIELD agents. Kat could make out the patches on their arms. She had suspected as much.

She stepped down from the chair, sliding it back in place. Her mind was much too foggy for her to try and think of an escape plan at the moment. She decided to wait for a bit to see if they would take her out of the room. That way, she could get a better view of her position.

She sat down on her bed. SHIELD had taken the entire team…except for Loki and Thor as far as she could tell. They had left the immortals behind. That was good. Thor would stop at nothing to save his friends, and Loki would tear apart anyone who stood in his way if it meant being reunited with her again.

Kat knew she needed to sleep. That was the best thing for her at the moment. There was a sink and a cup in the bathroom. She drank a full cup of water, laid back down on the bed, turned toward the wall, and tried to push down the lonely ache in her heart. She wasn’t panicking just yet…just lonely.

It had been a long time since she had slept in a bed alone.

------------

Loki and Thor had made their decision. They would return to Stark Tower via the plane they had flown to the island. Then, they would track down the rest of the team. There was just one problem.

Neither of them knew how to fly the SHIELD standard jet.

Loki sat down in the cockpit, his eyes flying over the controls. Barton had navigated it so easily, but Loki knew he had had years of practice. Thor impatiently paced in the back of the plane. Loki knew how he felt. He wanted to get to the rest of the team…get to Kat…as soon as possible, but rushing it and crashing the plane in the process could potentially injure and delay them. He searched around for some sort of manual in the seats, then sighed, gritting his teeth with frustration. This was getting them nowhere…literally, nowhere.

Suddenly, Thor froze. Loki immediately stood up from his seat, sensing his brother’s wariness. Thor turned around, nodding his head towards the open cargo doors as if to say he heard someone outside. Had SHIELD come back for them? Loki sneered. If they had, that was a stupid move.

They stepped outside carefully, glancing around, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of an intruder.

Thor had grabbed his hammer from inside the plane, and, in a matter of seconds, he hefted it above his head threateningly as a man materialized from the shadows in front of them, holding his hands out in front of him. To Loki’s eyes, he seemed to be of Jewish descent with curly brown hair and light brown eyes. He looked warily from one brother to the other, clearly aware that, dressed in a SHIELD agent uniform, he was inviting an attack.

“Who are you?” Thor growled. Loki had lowered his sword, studying the agent in front of them.

“My name is Agent Henry Lawson. I am part of Coulson’s circle,” he said carefully and deliberately, making sure to get his point across. “I’m here to inform you of the whereabouts of the Avengers and the current efforts to free them.”

“How do we know that you are who you say you are?” Loki asked calmly.

“Because you know I am who I say I am.”

They turned to see Weston stepping out of the forest beside Lawson, calmly taking his place beside his fellow agent and nodding to him to assure him that it was safe for him to put his hands down. He did so, although a bit hesitantly. Thor lowered his hammer, tension gone.

“Where are they?” Loki asked.

“They’re on board the SHIELD helicarrier, all of them being held in separate rooms. The council intends to interrogate them over the course of the next few weeks. Unfortunately, we haven’t been informed of a hole in security yet…”

“Get us there, and we would have no use for a hole in security, we could…” Thor started out before Weston cut him off.

“Two immortals and two mortal agents alone against I’d say a good percentage of the entire SHILED agent force? No. We need a head start leaving the place, and, if you wake it up, we’re not going to get a head start. We wait for the signal from Fury, and then we head there.”

“How long do you think that would take?” Loki asked.

Weston shrugged. “I’m thinking at the very least three days. We need to see what type of permanent security the council has planned for them.”

Loki and Thor glanced at each other. “Fine,” Loki said. “We’ll wait…but not for long.”

------------

Kat sat up when she heard voices in the corridor outside of her room. The door was unlocked, and in stepped a woman about ten years older than her, her brown hair tied up in a bun. She was dressed in the standard-issue SHILED agent uniform. “Hello, Kat. I am Agent Maria Hill. Director Fury has sent me to escort you to the council.”

Kat stood up, taking a deep breath. “Okay, then.” At that moment, before Hill turned to go, she made a motion of the cross over her heart. It could have easily been mistaken for the Catholic gesture, but Kat knew it meant something else. Hill was an Aquapolian. And Fury was still extremely loyal to Coulson’s cause. Her heart lifted a bit as she followed Hill out of her cell.

“What do they want from me?” She asked as they made their way down the corridors of the helicarrier.

“They just want to ask you some questions about your actions on the island,” Hill answered. The rest of their walk was made in silence.

Hill led her into a large room decorated with the SHIELD emblem. She sat at one end of a long black marble table, facing five people across from her. Four of them were familiar. The fifth…

“Hello, Miss Stark,” Aldrich Killian said, leaning back in his chair, studying her with his black eyes. “We brought you here for a former SHIELD interrogation.” He raised his voice for the recording. “The date is January 10, 2013. This is the first of a series of interrogations with our first guest, Miss Katharine “Kat” Stark.” He lowered his voice back to its regular volume. “Now, Miss Stark. The council has kept up with your case for the past twenty-one years. We have offered you protection, paid for your schooling, and have kept our distance as promised. All we wanted from you was your loyalty. But you seem to have the notion in your head that we are…evil. Who first instilled this notion in your mind?”

Without hesitation, Kat said, “Phil Coulson.”

Killian raised an eyebrow. “Really? I was expecting you to say Tony Stark.”

“I would be lying if I said he didn’t encourage the same thinking.”

“Yes…Mr. Stark and the council have not been on good terms for some number of years. We have simply tried to help him…tried to help you…”

“It’s understandable. You offered protection for his family to his face, then turn around and kill his wife and try to kidnap his daughter, all while trying to frame him for murder,” she said bitterly.

Killian smirked. “You believe your mother’s death was our fault?” He paused, studying her. “Miss Stark…You have been surrounded your entire life by people who believe we are evil. And yet…we’ve provided you protection, stayed out of your life…what more do you want us to do?”

“Stop. Killing. My. People.”

There was silence until Killian asked, “I’m sorry?”

“You are murdering innocent people. STOP.”

He tilted his head to one side. “Do you have proof?”

“The Aquapolian Initiative. My mother’s death. My grandfather’s death. Eric Selvig’s death. Phil Coulson’s death. The attempts on my father’s life. The files for the Aquapolian Initiative. The lists of names. Everything.”

“And what do you plan on doing with this information, Miss Stark?” Killian asked.

“Nothing. We don’t have to prove it to anyone. We will simply stop you.”

“With this…” He looked down at the piece of paper in front of him. “…team of yours, you will stop us?” He shook his head. “One of your team members on here is actually the person who attacked the Earth a few months ago.” He raised his eyebrows. “Care to explain that?”

“He was being controlled.”

Killian laughed. “You’re going to have to do better than that. No…no, I think it’s something else. I saw you at Stark’s party with him…You two seemed quite close. Is it true that you and Loki Laufeyson are in a relationship?”

Kat’s cheeks burned with rage. “Yes. We are,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Wow…” Killian said with mock surprise, leaning forward. The other members of the Council were silent. It seemed to Kat as if Killian were making a show for the others, as if he weren’t entirely in charge, but, from how Loki had spoken about the man, he unquestionably held the power in that room. That’s what angered her the most.

This man was mocking her.

A blind rage surged through her, causing her eyes to spark the same color as the lightning Thor called from the skies. Killian smiled that confident, assured smile that she hated so much. He had been trying to rile her. He wanted a response from her. A verbal response. Well, he wouldn’t get his response.

“I’m surprised that Tony Stark would allow his daughter to date such a dangerous man. I mean…what was he thinking?” Killian had switched tactics. He had failed to rile her by speaking about her boyfriend. He was now testing to see if an attack on her father would push the right button. True, it made Kat even more mad…but even more determined not to bend his way.

Unfortunately, her failure to respond also resulted in a failure to wipe that self-assured smirk off of his face. “Kat…” He sighed. “Do you understand why we took you away from your father all those years ago? He is a dangerous man. I’m sure he cares about you, but…sooner or later…his recklessness is going to get you killed.”

Kat glared at him, refusing to comment. His black eyes sparkled for a few moments before he smiled. “I think that’s all for today, Miss Stark.”

------------

“Any word from Weston and Lawson?” Fury asked after Hill was finished escorting Kat back to her cell. Other members of the Avengers had been interrogated. Cap had ranted, comparing SHIELD to the Nazi regime. White had calmly told the Council in no uncertain words to go screw themselves. Barton simply sat there, not saying a word the entire interrogation.

“They’re standing by for orders, sir…” Hill trailed off as they watched Stark being escorted to the Council room. “They’ve already decided….haven’t they, sir? The Council has already decided what it is going to do with the Avengers?”

Fury sighed. “I’m afraid so.”

------------

Stark laughed as soon as he entered the room, sitting down in the chair across from the council and shaking his head. “Killian…I knew it.” He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Their eyes met. The tension in the room could be felt by all of the other council members…and even by Fury and Hill who were watching from a video feed outside of the room.

Killian smiled. “Now, Stark, don’t tell me you always knew it would end like this.”

“Well, if it were up to you, this would have ended either with me getting torn apart by demons in hell or drowning at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, so I’m actually pretty happy about how it’s turning out right now.”

“You think we were behind your plane crash?” Killian asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t think, I know. My jets are pretty much crash proof. Someone had to tamper with it to take it out of the skies.”

“We asked you politely to stay away from your daughter.”

“So you decide to kill me? Did you really think I would pose that much of a physical threat to her? No…I posed a psychological threat to her, right? I mean, I would have probably raised her to never trust SHIELD…Oh, wait…” Stark tilted his head to the side. “She ended up being raised like that anyway…”

“Yes, well, looking back on Phil Coulson’s performance as her guardian, we realize that we made a mistake.”

“You have no idea…” Stark said with a knowing smile. This threw Killian for a few seconds before he recovered.

“We have continuously asked you over the years to keep away from her, to keep to yourself…and, once your…incident…occurred, so keep your use of the suit to a minimum, all of which you ignored. We have tried to be patient with you, Stark…and now we’ve reached the end of our patience.”

“I think I have an excuse for ignoring all of the above, personally.”

“And what excuse is that, pray tell?”

Stark’s gaze darkened. There was silence for a few moments before he spoke again in a low, dangerous voice. “You offered false protection to my family. You orchestrated the murder of my father, the very man who founded this organization, and for a different purpose, I might add. You killed my wife, in our home, in the presence of my infant daughter, then preceded to threaten her future enough to force me to give her to someone in order to keep her out of your hands. For the next twenty-one years, you made it impossible for me to find her, then, when I finally do, you plan to have me killed as well.” He paused. “I call that a valid excuse.”

There was silence until Killian leaned forward, his voice low as he gave Stark a slow smile. “Is that why you built the suit, Stark?”

Stark wasn’t going to dignify that with an answer. Yes. That was exactly why he had built the suit. SHIELD had driven him to do it. But he was not about to admit it out loud. Admit that they had angered him to the point that he had literally created a flying suit of metal to that he could destroy SHIELD from the inside out and reclaim his daughter. No. He would let his silence tell Killian all he needed to know.

“This is the end of the road,” Killian said deliberately. “I hope you enjoyed the few months you had together with your daughter. They will prove to be your last.”

------------

It took several more days for Fury’s team to work out a plan that gave the entire team a good chance of escaping before the Council decided it was time to have them executed…which was exactly what they had in mind. They had decided to wait a few more weeks, glean as much information as they could from the team, then kill all of them but Kat, who would most likely be put through more experiments than a lab rat before the scientists wiped her memory and brainwashed her.

The idea was simple: Weston and Lawson would bring Loki and Thor onto the helicarrier. The two brothers would split up, each releasing half of their teammates, saving the Starks for last. Barton would take the rest of the team to one of the jets on the helicarrier and escape. Thor would release Stark, and the two of them would rush to one of the jets Weston would manage to grab. Lawson would drive the third jet with Loki and Kat on board. All three would get a head start by splitting up, dropping their GPS, and heading back to Aquapolis by different routes.

It could go horribly, Fury knew, but this was their only chance. It was either try to escape and get killed or injured or stay and definitely get executed. Not to mention Kat would suffer the worst fate of all. Imagine one day in the future, after SHIELD had managed to wipe her mind and make her a weapon, her meeting Loki again…but this time she would be a prisoner, captured, tortured…Fury was certain that if it came down to that, the immortal would launch his own personal war again SHIELD to at least save the life of his beloved. The director didn’t want it to come down to that.

Barton was relayed a coded message with the details of the plan. The fewer members of the team that knew, the better, and he was trained in the art of resisting interrogation and torture, so Fury was certain that he would not give up their plans. There was another that needed to know, however.

Stark had been handcuffed and chained to the table before Fury arrived, which was amusing. If they hadn’t been thousands of feet up in the air and Kat was not an issue, he could have easily escaped. The director shook his head as he sat down across from Stark. “You’ve become much more deadly since the last time I saw you.”

“Yeah, apparently I can bend metal to my will now,” Stark replied, glancing down at the handcuffs.

“Hopefully, you won’t be here for much longer. This room’s under our protection, so don’t worry about our plans leaking out. You remember Weston, right?”

“Teleportation guy? Yeah.”

“He and another of our agents, Lawson, are going to bring Loki and Thor here to help exact an escape. We’re going to split the team up into three parts. You are going with Weston and Thor. Kat is going with Loki and Lawson. And the rest with Barton.”

“Who else in the team knows about this plan?”

“Just you and Barton for now. Besides Kat, we’re not going to let the rest of the team know.” Fury leaned forward. “I need you to convince Kat that she needs to immediately leave without trying to follow you. We both know she’ll do that, but splitting all of you up will be our only chance.”

“I need a meeting with her.”

“And I can get you a meeting with her, a supervised meeting.”

“When?”

“A few days from now. We’ll launch off at an undetermined time.”

------------

Hill came to get Kat a few days later, leading her to an interrogation room and leaving her there. Kat stood in a corner, then started pacing a bit until she heard the door open. She spun around, feeling an immense surge of relief when she saw Stark step in. She walked over and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder, trying to fight back tears. He held her close, placing his chin on top of her head and sighing. “God, I’m glad to see they haven’t done anything to you…Besides the interrogation part, of course.”

He lowered his voice, speaking to her in basically a whisper before she could say anything. “They’re coming soon. He’s going to come for you…and I need you to promise me that you will leave without me…that you’ll leave when he comes for you.”

Kat drew back, staring up at Stark. “I…”

“Kat…I need you to do this…I need you to promise me that you’ll keep yourself safe,” he said, placing his hands firmly on her shoulders.

She stood there in silence for a moment, simply looking at him with those brilliant blue eyes of hers before she said, “Okay. I’ll go.”

The door opened, and Hill stepped into the room. Stark nodded to Kat as she left, following Hill back to her cell.

------------

Weston landed the jet on the top of the helicarrier, opening up the back for Loki, Thor, and Lawson to slip through. They split up, Loki and Thor heading for the lower levels as Lawson ran to secure another of the jets. Then, once they reached the level where the rest of the Avengers were being held prisoner, they split up again. Loki made his way to Barton’s cell first, taking the guards down quietly and releasing the former SHIELD agent, who made followed Loki as he released Cap and Banner as well. Meanwhile, Thor released Harvey, Mike, and White, who quietly joined Barton and left for their ride. Batting aside the two guards in front of Stark’s cell, Thor wrenched it open.

“Wow, I didn’t expect you guys to get here so soon,” Stark said as he followed Thor down the corridors in a different route than their teammates.

“We wanted to move as quickly as possible before they brought harm to any of you.”

Loki made his way to Kat’s cell. The first guard lunged at him, but the human was easily taken down with one of the immortal’s throwing knives. The other tried to open fire, but he received a knife to the throat, slumping down on the floor beside his partner. Forcing open the door, Loki stepped inside to find Kat lying on her side, facing towards the wall and away from him.

“Aya…” He whispered, stepping forward and placing a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. “Aya…wake up.”

She turned over, her blue eyes cloudy until they sharpened with recognition. She sprang up off of the bed, throwing her arms around Loki. “I missed you…” She sobbed quietly.

“I missed you, too,” he said, sighing in relief. “Now…” He pushed her away gently. “We need to get off of this helicarrier.”

They ran back into the corridor, heading in a different route from the other two teams.

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Twenty-Nine



Stark and Thor raced down the corridors to the top of the helicarrier, the former glad that Barton had pushed the team through all of those runs through Central Park during the dead of night. They heard some shouts behind them several times, but both were able to outrun most of the agents who chased after them.

The demons, however, they weren’t expecting. The power bracelets of the mobile suit Stark wore had been taken from him after the team was captured. He had an extra set back on Aquapolis, but that did little good for him at the moment. There were no metal objects in the halls he could control save for the few doors he managed to rip off their hinges and send flying at their pursuers.

Demons were much faster than humans, and they were overtaken several times by a back of two or three, which Thor mostly fought off as Stark got their position straight in his head. One flight of stairs away from the top exit, one demon got past Thor and threw himself at Stark, barreling into him and nearly causing him to bang his head against the wall as they both fell to the ground with a thud.

The sound of sharp metal on metal told Stark that the demon had just withdrawn a knife from his belt. Stark grabbed the wrist of the hand that held it, trying to wrench it away from his face. The face he stared into was completely human except for those black, black eyes. He didn’t realize until his attacker smiled that demons had unusually long canines. Wondering briefly if the legends of vampires actually spawned from demons visiting Earth, he started to push the knife further and further away from his face.

Surprisingly, he was finally able to wrench it out of the demons’ hand, snatch it up before his attacker could respond, and plunge it into his throat. The demon sank to the floor, immobilized by the sheer amount of blood loss he suffered from. Stark stood there for a moment, frozen as he contemplated his first-ever short-range kill. Sure, he had fired many a laser from his suit…but he had never actually attacked and killed someone up close.

Before he could dwell on this further, Thor shouted at him to run down the corridor towards the door that led out onto the deck of the helicarrier. With the immortal of lightning right behind him, Stark barreled towards it, nearly running smack into a man in a white lab coat as he exited from a side door.

Stark wouldn’t have given the man a second thought if he hadn’t shouted, “Mr. Stark!” as the two escapees passed by him. Intrigued by his tone of voice (it was not one of warning for his fellow agents to come and capture them), Stark turned around.

The man in the lab coat looked to be about around Cap’s age, with shoulder-length, curly black hair. His brown eyes were urgent as he kept glancing behind him to make sure no SHIELD agents or demons had suddenly appeared there. When he spoke, Stark could determine a strong Irish accent.

Fishing what looked to be a CD out of his pocket, the man said, “My name is Dr. John Mitchell. I’m on the research team here on the helicarrier. I know Dr. Bill Baron…” He glanced behind him, discreetly making the sign of the cross over his heart, the new signal that someone was an Aquapolian. It was too risky for him to pull his Aquapolian pendent out. “Please, take this,” he held the CD out.

Stark hesitated. “Some sort of GPS on there? Something that will give our position away?” He wasn’t about to trust him just yet. No. He needed more proof.

When Mitchell actually pulled on the string tied around his neck and drew out the Aquapolian cross from underneath his shirt, glancing back, terrified, Stark knew he was telling the truth. He snatched the CD from him. “Thank you! Thank you!” Mitchell said, backing away.

“For what?” Stark asked, backing away in the other direction. He and Thor needed to get up to the top of the helicarrier ASAP. He could hear demons approaching them from around the corridor.

“For fighting to save us,” Mitchell said, pausing for a moment to turn back to Stark. “For fighting to save all of our people. Go on…I’ll hold them back…”

“Wait…”

“JUST GO!” Mitchell shouted. The lights above them sparked violently, shattering as the hum of electricity in the corridor grew stronger. Stark looked back at Thor, but it wasn’t the immortal who had just done that…There was a strong surge of electricity coming from Mitchell’s side of the room. It was his element.

Stark didn’t have to be told twice. Holding on tightly to the CD (which was too large for him to put inside any of his pockets), he sprinted after Thor and onto the top of the helicarrier.

------------

As soon as Kat and Loki made it to their awaiting jet and climbed inside, the bay doors slammed shut behind them, and the plane lifted into the sky. They took a few moments to catch their breath, smiling at their escape. Two other jets shot off in two directions.

“We have our two on board. Report in.”

They turned around as Barton’s voice sounded over the radio. “Everyone on board.”

Then Weston’s voice spoke up. “My two are on as well.”

“Good. Keep your radios on, just in case.” The agent whom Kat believed to be Lawson turned slightly in his seat, shooting them both a smile. “Wow…I actually didn’t think that was going to work…but seems like it has so far.”

“Which route are we taking?” Kat asked, striding toward one of the windows and looking out at the ocean below them.

“Straight across America to Aquapolis,” Lawson responded.

“Where were we?”

“Over the Atlantic,” Loki said. “Almost halfway to Europe.”

“Of course, you did a few laps across the planet in the past two weeks,” Lawson added.

Kat frowned, turning to Loki. “It’s only been one week since we were picked up…”

He shot her a confused look. “No…it’s been two…”

“Did you black out at any time over this week?” Lawson asked.

“I…I don’t think so…I was interrogated several times…I saw Dad…Maybe I slept so much the days just ran together…”

------------

Stark immediately made his way over to the large flat screen computer that was on the side of the jet as soon as he boarded. Tapping in Baron’s contact number, he was instantly connected to the scientist in Atlanta.

“Ah…Mr. Stark. I heard from some of my sources that the team had run into some problems the past few weeks…” Baron said.

“Yeah…problems would be an understatement. Listen…do you know anyone by the name of John Mitchell?”

“I most certainly do. He attended school here at Tech I’d say all through his undergrad career as a biology student…then stayed for a Master’s and Ph.D. He originally worked on the Aquapolis Project with us…but SHIELD offered him a better job, and we felt it was wise for him to take it.”

“Take a job as an Aquapolian in a company that kills Aquapolians?” Stark raised an eyebrow.

“Well, we had agents on the inside of SHIELD giving us information and curbing the Aquapolian Initiative, but we didn’t have any SCIENTISTS, and we had reason to believe that the Initiative was not killing off everyone in the list…at least not instantly. Who knew what kind of experiments were being performed on these people?” Baron sighed. “Mitchell is trustworthy. He’s part of the new wave of SHIELD agents and scientists who are against the Initiative.”

“Okay…well…he gave me this.” Stark held up the CD. “Any clue what’s on it?”

Baron studied it for a few moments before saying very slowly. “I would watch that as soon as possible…then allow everyone else on the team to watch it.” He paused before adding. “What is about to happen…is something that I, Selvig, your father, and Coulson have worked toward for years…a chance to destroy the Aquapolian Initiative…and save the Aquapolian race once and for all. It’s historical, really…but our fate is in your hands.”

With that prophetic message, Baron hung up. Stark stared at the CD for a few moments before sliding it into the panel. “Any chance you can transmit this to the other two jets?” He asked Weston.

“Yeah. You can set the frequencies. You’ll just have to call Lawson and Barton to get the codes.”

------------

Kat and Loki sat down in the seats across from the screen in their own jet as Lawson ran off the code for Stark to transmit the CD to their screen. Kat was a bit scared to see what was on there. For some reason, the name John Mitchell seemed both terrifying and bittersweet to her ears, but she just could not place a face to that name.

Everyone on Barton’s jet sat across from the TV in a row, silent as a tomb as they waited for Stark to start the CD. There was complete silence in all three jets. Everyone’s full attention was on what message John Mitchell had to convey.

The CD started instantly with a view of Mitchell sitting at a desk in a very small room. He looked calm, and spoke in deliberate, clear sentences.

“My name is Dr. John Mitchell. I am a scientist in the SHIELD helicarrier research team. Over the past three years, our current research project has been to take in captured prisoners of SHIELD and subject them to tests of endurance and overall elemental prowess. After they are run through the entire string of tests, they are then dissected before they are allowed to be euthanized. Every single one of these subjects have been Aquapolian.”

Stark felt sick. Baron had been right about his suspicions that experiments had been going on…but this…Mitchell continued. “Before I reveal the results from…our most recent experiment, I have some footage I was given by my research mentor at the Georgia Institute of Technology years ago. From two of the founders of the Aquapolis Project. They predicted this would happen…both of them are gone now. Slain by SHIELD, the very organization they created years ago to protect the Aquapolian people…”

The screen cut to a new image, the quality pointing to its being shot in the early nineties. Howard Stark looked exactly as Stark remembered him, though Eric Selvig looked considerably younger. They introduced themselves, and the elder Stark spoke first. “Today, we introduce the Aquapolis Project. While historians and scientists around the world disagree over the existence of the Aquapolian race, we are here today to discuss the people that disappeared from the face of history three thousand years ago. Their descendants still walk the Earth. Both Dr. Selvig and I are descendants of the ancient Aquapolians.”

Selvig took it from there. “However, the elemental powers that our ancestors controlled lay dormant. The only recorded instance before this year of an Aquapolian using his powers was that of Captain Steve Rogers. Erskine’s formula brought out these locked characteristics in his body, but the formula was lost soon after the war. Now, however, for the past few months, the powers of the Aquapolian race are starting to wake up once again.”

“And people will need to know how to control and use their powers. That is what the Aquapolis Project was created to do. Along with Dr. William Baron and Dr. Selvig, I have helped to build a machine that will detect the Aquapolian gene in DNA. The Human Genome Project set for the future will help us in this aspect, but we need to hurry and put this machine to use now.” Stark paused. I created SHIELD to help protect our race, but, unfortunately, the council has strayed from this path and created the Aquapolian Initiative, a group dedicated to wiping our people off the face of the Earth.”

“Sometime in the future, they may come close to succeeding…However, there is hope…” Selvig trailed off, waiting for Stark to get his thoughts together before he looked straight at the camera. Both Kat and her father thought the elder Stark was looking straight at them.

“Tony, if this ends up in your hands one day, please know this one simple thing: the future of our race is in the hands of your daughter. She’s only two months old as of today, but one day…she will lead the fight to destroy the Initiative and save the Aquapolian race. I know that it took a bit of convincing for you to believe exactly who she is…but don’t lose faith in her. There is a fight coming…and she’ll need you there to be with her every step of the way.

“And Kat…if you’re hearing this in the future…if you doubt your power…know that the strength of your legend has inspired people for thousands of years…that alone can help to keep our race alive.”

Kat hoped it would stop there. She was already chocked up, listening to the grandfather she had never met speak about her legend…urging her on to face this threat…She prayed that was the end. Too many emotions were flying around in her head from Mitchell’s experiments to this…

But, unfortunately, Mitchell had more to show them.

The feed went back to Mitchell. This film had obviously been shot a different day. His hair stuck up at odd angles. He was no longer calm. His eyes looked haunted as he addressed the camera, shaking visibly.

“This is Dr. John Mitchell of the SHIELD helicarrier research team. About a week and a half ago, on January 12, 2013, a group of eight individuals was brought here, all Aquapolian. Under our database, this group is named ‘the Avengers,’ an initiative that was started by Agent Phil Coulson nearly twenty years ago, but, has since, been classified as rouge after the Battle of New York last September. We were kept on standby to await further orders from the Council. We expected to eventually wind up with each individual as a subject in our lab, with the last being the most…powerful…but we were wrong.”

He took a shaky breath. This was the first time the team had heard of the suggestion of the research team experimenting on them. They would have all, save for Kat, ended up like those previous Aquapolian subjects. A few shivers went down their spines as Mitchell continued.

“Our main test subject, taken into the lab a few days ago, is Katharine Stark, a twenty-one year old woman who is the prophesied Chosen One. She has been under SHIELD care since her mother was murdered a few months after she was born. Her father, Tony Stark, was labeled dangerous by SHIELD a few days after that, and a few weeks beforehand, her grandfather, the creator of SHIELD, Howard Stark, was murdered as well. I say murder, although his death was deemed accidental, because…well…we all know what really happened to him.”

“It was suggested early on that she be put into the experimental program after she came into our custody, but her guardian, Agent Phil Coulson, refused to do so. Therefore, when this opportunity rose, she was immediately put into the program. While, for long term purposes, her memory was to be wiped and reformed, we didn’t make it that far…After being taken into the lab, she was sedated for her and our safety, then put through a battery of intense heat, cold, electrical, etc. tests of endurance.”

“And then…about a day ago…this happened. She’s been unconscious since…and, I, well, it took a while for me to put the video together after what happened, so…This…is what happened when they tried to subject her to what would be a test for claustrophobia, seeing as how she is an angel.” The feed cut off.

Kat was highly claustrophobic. Highly.

It was a lab, filled with scientists. Kat sat in the middle, completely sedated on a chair, surrounded by glass walls. It looked as if the scientists planned to black them out…but they didn’t get that far.

One scientist, one of the lab techs, approached the glass, studying her and scribbling down something on a clipboard in front of him. Suddenly, he looked up, squinting at something…the glass. He turned around and shouted something to one of the other scientists. There was no audio feed, but it was clear that something was very wrong.

Several others gathered around, one of them turning and shouting at the guards on either side of the door. They look panicked, all of them do. And soon it becomes quite clear why.

The glass around Kat is cracking.

Soon, the glass seems to slide away, crashing to the floor all around her. Her eyes fly open, and they seem to transfix everyone in the room. Though the feed is in black and white, her eyes still show up that shocking Aquapolian crystal blue…but this is a shade that no one has ever seen before. A brilliant, nearly blinding shade.

Kat stands up, and every single scientist in the room backs away from her. She walks up slowly to the man who seems to be the head researcher. Words are exchanged. Kat seems to be speaking in calm and even tones, but every word that comes out of her mouth scares the others in the room a little bit more. As Kat watched herself on the screen, she couldn’t recognize anything in that other Kat.

That wasn’t Kat, she thought. That was Quamachi. The great Chosen One, Warrior of Light, Protector of the Earth.

Suddenly, the scientist’s neck twists sideways so violently, he’s nearly thrown across the room. He falls to the floor, and there is panic for a few moments before the screen goes completely white.

No one knew what to expect, but when the feed switched on again, the scene was so horrible, that Kat sobbed and buried her face in Loki’s shoulder.

There were no bodies.

There was no blood.

Just outlines of soot, like chalk outlines used at crime scenes, where the people had been.

Loki instantly turned the feed off of the screen in their jet, but it kept going in the other two. Stark was physically shaking as the video changed back to Mitchell, who looked just as shaken up as the people who were watching him.

“While…that was the worst thing that I have ever witnessed in my life…I…for anyone watching out there who does not believe in the legend of the Chosen One…or, for that matter, that she will save us all…Look. At. This. Video. She is on our side. All enemies of her people beware. She will wipe you from the face of the planet.”

The video cut off. Loki turned to Kat, wrapping his arms around her as she tried to stop her shaking. Neither Thor nor Loki were much surprised by what they had seen. They had known her in her prime. They had grown up with the legends of her prowess. This did not surprise them one bit. It took a while for everyone else to pull themselves together.

And then anger set in. It set in with Stark, and it set in fast. He jumped up from his seat, pacing back and forth in the jet. “Did you bring back the set of gauntlets I left on Aquapolis?” He asked Weston in a deep, dangerous voice.

“That’s not a good idea…” Weston said, clicking on the autopilot and swinging around to face Stark. He seemed calm and collected. Someone had to be. It seemed as if Stark was about to do something irrational.

“Where. Are. My. Gauntlets?” Stark said, stepping close to Weston, looming over the agent in his chair.

Thor rose from his seat a bit. “Stark…he is right. We must continue on to Aquapolis. If you want revenge on SHIELD for what they have done to Kat, we must continue on our mission.”

There was silence as both Weston and Thor waited for Stark to calm down. He did…just enough to forget about attacking Weston (which, in the end, was an irrational decision. If Weston couldn’t fight him off, Thor would surely stop him).

“One day…” Stark muttered. “One day I’m going to plunge a sword through Aldrich Killian’s heart. One day…”

------------
Kat was still shaking half an hour after the feed turned off. Loki had started gently rocking back and forth with her in his arms, as if she were a child needing comfort. She couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed. She had killed all of those people…all of them…so brutally.

Loki kissed her softly on the cheek as she slowly stopped shaking. “Try to get some sleep…” He whispered. It was dark outside as they flew across America. As always, she felt so safe in his arms that she fell asleep within minutes.

Mitchell had seemed a bit familiar to her, but here in her dreams…she finally remembered why. She had had one moment of lucidity during those days in which she was drugged for the experiments. She had woken up from a drug-imposed stupor one day to find that she was lying in a hospital bed. Too weak to sit up, much less escape, she simply tried to clear her mind and figure out what had happened to her.

The door opened, and Mitchell stepped in, quietly shutting the door behind him. Instead of pulling up a chair, he sat on the bed beside her, his eyes extremely troubled. He was trying to judge how lucid she was at the moment. She tried to speak, but all that came out was, “What…?”

He gave her a warm, but sad smile. “You’ve been drugged, Kat. The team is running endurance tests on you, but they want to make extra sure they don’t cause any extraneous damage.” He paused. “My name is Dr. John Mitchell. I graduated from Tech years ago.” He smiled. “I believe we even have had the same organic chemistry professor. I…I just wanted to let you know I believe in you…I…”

His voice caught a bit. “My entire family was wiped out a few years ago…my name is sure to come up on their list soon. So, I will do what I can to ensure that no more of our race will die out. I promise you, I will not allow them to wipe out your memories or brain wash you.” He paused, taking in a deep breath. His expression was truly sad now.

“Because, Kat, you are our only hope.”

------------

Kat woke a few hours later to find that they were extremely close to their destination. Loki still had his arms wrapped tight around her, but he had fallen asleep, both of them leaning against the back of the seats as they dozed in each other’s arms. For some reason, her dream about Mitchell had taken away all of the shock and disturbance of what she had seen on the feed. He believed in her. He believed that she would be able to save the rest of the Aquapolian race.

For some reason, she had woken up to a new beginning. She was determined now. Today was a new day, she thought as she smiled, turning to Loki, who was slowly waking up. He yawned, pulling her closer to him.

“We are about an hour away from our destination,” Lawson said from his place in the pilot’s seat. The sky was already starting to brighten the sky around them. Kat disentangled herself from Loki and stood up, stretching her legs as she walked to the windows. She wanted to see Aquapolis from this height.

About forty-five minutes later, they found themselves surrounded by a sea of clouds. The visibility dropped to zero quickly, and Lawson made sure that the jet was on autopilot. They coasted along for a while until, after about ten minutes, the clouds cleared away to reveal a forest of trees right below them. No shoreline was visible.

“That’s odd…I guess that’s why no one has discovered it all of these years…” Lawson muttered as he guided the jet down into a clearing, checking their coordinates. Sure enough, this was where they were supposed to land. He landed the jet, and, a few moments later, another jet landed and everyone disembarked. Weston, Thor, and Stark stepped off of the second jet.

Stark instantly walked over to Kat and hugged her. “I’m glad you’re safe.” He pulled back, hesitating.

“You saw the video, didn’t you?” Kat asked.

Anger flashed through his eyes for a few moments. “Yeah…I did. If I had known any sooner…”

“It’s over now, Dad. I’m okay. There weren’t any long-lasting effects. If Mitchell hadn’t been there, I would have probably been brainwashed by now or something.”

Stark sighed. “Yeah…I highly doubt he’s going to make it off of that helicarrier alive.”

“He knew that. Let’s make sure his death wasn’t for nothing.”

They waited until Barton landed the third jet, reuniting the rest of the team. Weston and Lawson were to go back to base, returning their two jets. “Good luck!” Lawson called out before they left.

“Okay, so, from whatever crude maps we have, we know that the capital of Aquapolis is in the very center of the island…which is that way.” Barton pointed west. “We have enough supplies to march for a week. We’ll have to return for a supply run later.”

“Why can’t we just take the jet to the center of the island?” Cap asked.

“There’s some kind of barrier blocking the island past this point,” Barton explained. “From here on, we walk.”

------------

For the next day and a half, they walked through forests and over plains. It would take them another few days to reach the center of the island. They set up camp in a forest clearing, Barton and Stark volunteering for sentry duty for the first few hours.

“You really think the city is still going to be there?” Stark asked.

“Those temples where we found the Tesseract were still completely intact. I’m sure at least part of the capital still is.”

A few moments later, they heard a russle of branches. Barton notched an arrow and Stark held out his hand, one of the laser shooters forming around his palm. Footsteps came closer and closer until they stopped.

“Who’s there?” Stark called out. A figure stepped into the light. He was tall and lanky, with brown hair. He wore a tweed suit and a red bowtie, an Aquapolian pendent hanging around his neck.

He had his hands raised in the air as he approached them. “I come in peace,” he said in a British accent.

“Who are you?” Stark repeated.

“I’m…Eleven.”

“Wait, what?”

“My name is Eleven.” When Stark continued to give him a confused look, he sighed, lowering his arms. “Is Loki Laufeyson here?”

Stark and Barton glanced at each other before Barton lowered his bow and turned back to camp to find Loki. Stark turned back to Eleven. “You do know Eleven isn’t a name, right?”

“Well, it certainly wasn’t the name I was born with. I don’t actually remember my birth name…it’s been so long,” he replied at a fast pace. “Speaking of names, I wager from the arc reactor in your chest that you are Tony Stark.” Before Stark could answer, Eleven continued on. “Did you know that one of your ancestors was also named Anthony Stark? He was the original creator of the arc reactor and an inventor like you, however, when the demon armies started to attack Aquapolis, he decided to fight instead. He earned the name Anthony the Demonslayer in the war. Chopped off a thousand demon heads before he was killed towards the end of the fight.”

Stark stared at Eleven before he finally asked, “What?” just as Barton returned with Loki and Kat.

“He says he’s a timelord,” Barton explained to Loki.

Loki seemed surprised. “I thought all of the timelords died out at the Fall of Old Aquapolis.”

“Wait…” Stark said. “You mean timelords are real?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Eleven said before he turned to Loki. “Only two of us escaped, unfortunately. Myself and Ten.”

“Why are your names numbers?” Kat asked.

Eleven turned to her as if seeing her for the first time. His eyes widened in awe. “Because…when we’re taken into the Order of the Timelords, we’re given new names…numbers One through Twelve,” he said quietly.

“What are you doing here?” Stark asked.

“I’ve come to escort you to the capital. Is there any chance I could meet the rest of the team?”

------------

“So, timelords had…have…the ability to travel back and forth in time and space?” Cap asked. Everyone had sat in a circle around the campfire to listen to Eleven talk.

“Yes, unfortunately, we can’t travel from one dimension to another. We tried to find a way to do so after the bridge to Asgard was destroyed, but we found we couldn’t transport people across. We could, however, stand at the portal and throw objects across to Asgard. So…we started throwing books across to see if someone would pick them up. We traveled back and forth in history and threw all sorts across…”

“Now I know where all of those books were coming from…” Loki muttered.

“You found them?” Eleven smiled. “Perfect. We had hoped someone would find them…better yet you. After the bridge was torn down and the prophecy was given to us, we had hoped there would have been a way to get you and your brother across.”

“Yes…turns out it wasn’t very easy in the end.”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Thirty



Eleven winced. “I’m sorry to hear that. It’s a terrible way to travel, I’m sure.” Everyone else but Thor, Stark, Loki, and Kat seemed confused. Only the four of them knew that the timelord was referencing Loki’s trip through Hell to get from Asgard to Midgard. “But sala mai su sole aye hana nyoke.”

There was completely silence for a few moments before Mike asked, “Wait, what?”

“I apologize, sometimes Aquapolian makes its way into my letu…I mean speech. What I meant to say was thank God you are all here now. Ugh, I’m going to need a kanase…translator…aren’t I?” Eleven asked, sighing. “Unfortunately, none of you knows the language, I’m afraid, not even Quamachi…”

“Kat,” Kat corrected him.

“Kat. I apologize. Quamachi means ‘Warrior of Light’ in Aquapolian, you know.”

From the confused and impatient looks he was garnering, it seemed to Kat as if they needed to get to the core of why Eleven was there. “So…you’ve come to show us to the capital? We know where it is…at the center of the island.”

“I know, my role as eru…escort…is mostly to make sure you don’t get lost along the way. Aquapolis can be quite tricky at times…It will take us a few days at least to reach the capital, but, it’s a very scenic route! Sai sure that you will aye enjoy the trip!” Somehow, everyone was able to understand what he meant from context clues, though Kat was sure it might get a bit tedious trying to figure out what he was saying…She hoped he would be able to adapt his speech fast enough to avoid annoying Stark.

Eleven was delegated to his own part of the huge tent that the team had brought along. It was sectioned off for privacy and comfort, and everyone had their own section, though Loki and Kat preferred to share one. Before she followed Loki to bed, Kat sought out Eleven. “Would you mind…would you mind teaching me more of the language as we go along? I know…in the end, it will probably be a waste of time, but…”

“Oh, no! It certainly will not be a waste of time! I would be glad to teach sole.” He smiled. “Perhaps just from listening to me speak, you’ll pick up some words.”

“Thank you…I mean…sala sole.”

Eleven gave her the biggest smile. A smile that made her feel warm inside, as if she had just made a little kid smile. “See? You’re already learning dah.”
------------

“Well, it turns out, all I needed to do was sleep on it to get all of the language confusion out of my brain,” Eleven announced the next day as the Avengers packed up camp in preparation to head to the capital.

“Thank. God.” Harvey muttered to Cap as he slung a bag over his shoulder.

“Okay, we have a long way to go. Let’s stay in groups of two to ensure that, if you get separated, you don’t end up getting hurt or killed! Now, let’s go!”

Kat and Stark followed right behind Eleven as the group marched on over the hill and through the mountain range that stood between them and the capital. They were forced to walked across a narrow ledge along the way, but stopped when Eleven called out, “Well, would you look at that view!”

Everyone stopped and looked at the far-off view of buildings poking above the forest far away. The capital looked huge from this distance, and they were still a few days away. Everyone stared in awe for a few moments until Eleven announced, “Okay! That’s enough staring! Let’s actually go and see it up close!”

The next day, they had to cross a large plain to get to the forests surrounding the capital. “Now, everyone stay with your partner! I don’t want anyone getting lost or…we’ve been spotting some demon activity here. I don’t want anyone to get attacked.”

“Demons? Where?” Thor asked.

“Just in random places around the capital. The plain will be dangerous since it is so wide open, but stay together and walk fast, and I’m sure we’ll all make it across in one piece.”

Everyone gave Eleven a skeptical look as they started off. Kat threw Stark a don’t-even-think-about-making-a-sarcastic-comment look, and he immediately stopped himself from speaking as they followed after Eleven.

Halfway across, Eleven picked up the pace. “Faster, please! We need to get through that stand of trees over there.” He pointed to the first row of trees that made up the massive forest surrounding the capital.

It didn’t take them long to pass through the stand and into the forest, everyone breathing heavily after the full out run they made. Stark turned to Eleven. “Okay, what now?”

Eleven shot him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry…” He said quietly.

“What?” Stark asked, trying to comprehend why regret and guilt were flashing across Eleven’s face. In the few seconds it took to process that they had made a fatal error in following this man halfway across the island, he heard a thump from behind him. He turned to see Barton kneeling over the unconscious form of White. Stark spun back around to the timelord. “What did you do?” He demanded just as another thump sounded behind him. This time it was Banner who had fainted.

“I’m sorry…” Eleven said in practically a whisper. “But it had to be done…” Stark could see tears in the man’s eyes. Everyone was silent as the grave. They watched helpless as Harvey fell to his knees, unable to stand up. Mike and Barton followed after him. Kat pushed forward towards Eleven, her eyes sparking with blue lightning.

“What’s happening to…us…” She said, her voice getting a bit slurred at the end of her speech. Stark caught her before she could fall to the ground, his own vision getting really blurry. Thor and Loki could only watch as the last of their mortal teammates slumped to the ground.

Thor advanced towards Eleven, his hammer raised. The timelord did not even bother putting up his hands to defend himself or fight back as the Asgardian neared. Unfortunately, it seemed as if whatever Eleven had done also affected immortals. Thor had made it only half the distance between himself and Eleven before he dropped his hammer and fell to the ground himself, Loki stepping around him to kneel beside Kat.

Turning his emerald eyes up to Eleven, he caught a sad smile spreading across the timelord’s face. “I had to do it…” Eleven murmured, kneeling across from him. “If any of you get caught…I don’t want the secret of how to get into the city given out after torture…Though you’ve been through enough of that not to break easily…some of your team mates…” He trailed off.

“So, they’re only unconscious?” Loki asked, feeling the edges of his vision start to blur. He would drop soon, he could feel it.

Eleven nodded. “It will only be for a little bit, with no long term damage done.” He smiled. “Soon enough you’ll be able to see that grand city that she told you about all of those years ago.”

Just as Loki’s vision started to blur, he saw another figure appear out of the treeline in front of them. All he could make out was the brown trenchcoat he was wearing. “All of them out yet?” The figure asked Eleven.

“Almost all of them,” the timelord answered as he rose to his feet.

The figure glanced down at Loki and smiled. “Welcome to Aquapolis!”

That was the last thing he heard before he passed out.

------------

White lights swam in front of Stark’s eyes as he started to wake up, his vision clearing. He leaned forward in his seat, trying not to hit the table in front of him. Finally, his vision cleared enough for him to see who was sitting in the chair across the table from him.

Phil Coulson.

This practically startled Stark awake. He leaned back in his seat, staring at the man across from him. Coulson had that small, knowing smile that Stark had learned to know over the years. It meant Coulson was in control of the situation and that no one needed to worry.

“Hello,” Coulson said.

“Hello,” Stark replied.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions. I’m sorry about your entrance into the city. We all thought it best that you were brought in that way just in case you were captured and interrogated for the location of the entrance to the city. Plus, it’s a pretty astonishing sight…I know it was to me.”

“Okay…first things first…” Stark glanced around the room. It was all modern white with the three metal and black pieces of furniture in it. “Where are we?”

“We’re in a room inside the main palace. It looks this way because of the time/space barrier that has kept this place standing all of these years. Some more modern architecture sometimes leaks into the buildings here, but, overall, they look as they did three thousand years ago.”

“Okay…now…where is everyone else?”

“They’re all safely in other parts of the palace. We found some extra rooms for them to sleep in until they gain consciousness again. I wanted to meet you here mostly because of our past together…I have some things I need to explain.”

“Well, I know now, without a doubt, SHIELD killed Caroline.”

“That wasn’t what I was talking about.” Coulson sighed. “I’ll start from the beginning. I came of age as an agent in SHIELD right towards the end of the Cold War. In the late eighties, we were running missions in Russia. On one mission, I spread out from the group and was able to save my partners’ lives by making the Soviets follow after me. However, I ended up getting shot and blacking out. After that, I woke up here.”

“At first I didn’t know what happened. I didn’t feel any pain…and the bullet wound was gone. I started wandering around, and, soon enough, I ran into Kat…well, Quamachi. Apparently, there was some kind of prophecy…about someone who would be make immortal to help recruit this team…and I was it. I had to return to SHIELD, knowing I was already dead. But I had to return to ensure that I was in a position to help once the time came. She told me about her past…about her time with Loki on Asgard…that’s how I knew, when the time came to pull together a team, I needed Thor and Loki on our side. But…I just didn’t expect the Aquapolian Initiative. I knew the Demon King was going to attack…but not this way.”

“So…you’ve been dead for over twenty years now?”

“Yes. When SHIELD decided to kill me off, I had to fake my own death, then slip away back here. I knew if I showed back up at the scene afterward, SHIELD would get suspicious…so I’ve been trying to pull everything together here as people started to arrive.”

“Yeah…how did Eleven get here?”

“Well, at the Fall of Old Aquapolis, the timelords attempted to put up barriers around the main part of Aquapolis to protect it. Only three of them remained, and the surrounding area was so dangerous, the people had to evacuate Aquapolis in the end. The three timelords created a way for them to travel back and forth in time…but they could not return to Aquapolis until this point. The prophecy says that, when the time comes, the armies of Old Aquapolis will rise to fight the Demon King’s armies.”

Stark thought about this for a few moments. “So…we do have an army…what role do the Avengers play in this?”

Coulson smiled. “We’re to lead the armies and do battle with the Demon King himself.”

“Is there a timetable for this battle?”

“Within the next week…at least that’s the best guess Twelve and Uther can muster.”

Stark raised an eyebrow. “Uther?”

“Uther Pendragon. The next to last king of Old Aquapolis. He’s leading the regular armies along with his son Arthur.” Coulson paused, then stood up. “Do you want to see it?”

“See what?” Stark asked, standing up.

Coulson smiled. “Aquapolis. Follow me.” He led Stark out of the room and through a passageway. They walked for a few moments until they came to a huge hall. Across from them were marble pillars that seemed to stretch halfway to the sky. Coulson led the way through the middle of two pillars and out into the blinding sunshine. Once Stark’s vision cleared, he could make out white marbled structures stretching from a mile below their feet to hundreds of feet over their heads. Stark stared around him, speechless. Coulson watched him, a huge smile on his face. “The outside of the buildings looks exactly as they did three thousand years ago.”

“But the insides change every once in a while to reflect the time/space barrier around them.”

They turned to see two men standing behind them. One had spiky brown hair and wore a brown trenchcoat over a black suit and sneakers. The other had grey and white hair and wore a simple black suit. The grey-haired one stepped forward, reaching out his hand to shake Stark’s. Up close, his eyes were a strange shade of green and blue that seemed to spark with energy and wisdom. Before he even introduced himself, Stark knew this must be another timelord.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Mr. Stark. I am Twelve.” Twelve turned to the man in the trenchcoat behind him. “And this is Ten. I apologize that Eleven did not inform you that I was here. I prefer to keep my identity secret. Two timelords are enough...” Twelve had a Scottish accent, which threw Stark off a bit. He would have to ask Eleven or Coulson or Twelve about the accents in ancient Aquapolis. Twelve seemed to be the exact image of what Stark believed a timelord looked like. Regal, powerful, and wise all wrapped into a deadly package.

Ten seemed a bit more laid back. He seemed to be about ten years younger than Twelve. He gave off a more warrior-like air, as if Twelve was the leader and Ten the top commander. His smile was friendly, but Stark did not doubt for a second that he could easily kill a person with one look. He introduced himself with a firm handshake and a Scottish accent much thicker than Twelve’s. They must have come from the same area, Stark guessed.

“Shall we show him the hall?” Twelve asked Ten.

“Ah, yes…we should run into Arthur and Uther along the way, too.”

“After you,” Coulson said. Coulson and Stark followed the two timelords through the winding passageways of the city until they came to a huge library. After walking for what seemed like ages through it, they came to a huge entranceway. Stark could see a circular room right beyond it. “This is going to feel a bit weird,” Coulson warned as they approached it.

Stark started to ask why, but stopped as he stepped through the entranceway. It WAS weird, but familiar. This power surging through the air. It turned from weird to familiar to comforting as he realized that this power was much like that that hummed from Kat when she was quiet and content, not fighting, not angry or sad, just there.

They stepped into the circular chamber. Four entranceways led into the chamber. Above their heads floated the Tesseract. Kat was standing in the middle, gazing up at the cube floating above her head. Loki stood to the side, his eyes on the door straight across from the one the new arrivals had just taken inside.

“Where are we?” Stark asked.

“The Hall of Origin,” Twelve answered. “We’re at the center of the universe. The doorways lead to the four corners and the four realms. Midgard…where we just came from. Asgard is across from us, and on either side, Heaven and Hell, the realms of angels and demons. Unfortunately…” He mused. “The bridge to Asgard is broken…”

Kat looked down from the Tessearct and straight at Stark. He was stunned at how blue her eyes seemed here. “I just wanted to see the Hall…I haven’t seen much of the city yet.”

“Let’s go…” Loki said, walking up to her and wrapping an arm around her waist. Stark followed them out of the Hall.

After the three of them left, Twelve turned to Coulson. “Do they know they are three of the four keys?”

“Stark’s heard of the legend…but, no, they don’t…”

Outside, Kat was shocked into silence by the pure beauty of the city. Loki seemed just as stunned, staring around him for a few moments before he muttered, “Much more beautiful than Asgard.”

“Have you seen this place? Well, obviously, you have.”

Kat turned to see Mike practically skipping towards them. White was leaning over a balcony, gazing at the scenary in front of him. Kat watched as Coulson strode over to his friend, shaking his hand and talking to him.

“All this time?” White shook his head. “You were pretty mysterious back then…I should have known.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you…but thank you for keeping Kat safe all of those years…and for not killing Stark over the past few months.”
“Yeah, that was a bit hard to do. Trust me.” White rolled his eyes and Coulson chuckled.

------------

After everyone was able to wake up fully and have a look around the city, a meeting was called of the team, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Arthur, and Uther. Coulson took the lead. “Unfortunately, SHIELD is on its way here…but they have back-up. As prophesied, they have the Demon King and his armies behind them. Now…we have the armies of ancient Aquapolis at our disposal for a limited time…so we need to make our plan of attack clear and simple.” He turned to Kat. “Kat?”

“We need to kill the Demon King. Once he’s dead, the rest of his armies will fall.”

“I hate to say this, but one does not simply just kill the Demon King,” Harvey pointed out. “Who says he’s going to wade into the fight himself?”

“Adam will want to be up towards the edge of the fighting. I know him, he’ll be here…” Loki said.

“If he takes control of the Tesseract, what will happen?” White asked.

Twelve shrugged. “Everything will be destroyed.”

“And we won’t be expecting any help from our friends across the way in Asgard,” Ten pointed out, glancing at Thor and Loki. “No offense to you, but Odin is still holding his grudge against us all.”

“So, we stop the Demon King from taking the Tesseract…Seems simple enough…” Cap mused.

“How long until his armies get here?” Barton asked.

“We suspect about a week,” Uther replied. “Our armies are ready. We will lead them. We just need a strong back-up within the city.”

“Which would be us,” Kat said.

“I would suggest get back to training,” Coulson said.

“Why?” Thor asked.

“Because we have a few new weapons we’d like the team to try,” Coulson replied, smiling.

------------
Kat slid her new sword out of its sheath, taking a guilty pleasure in the sound of the metal against the leather. The blade still shone as brightly as it had when it was forged, though she didn’t know exactly when that was. She felt warm and content holding this sword, as if it were familiar. As if it were simply a projection of her own arm. She slid her eyes over the Aquapolian crystal and sapphires worn into river-like grooves in the handle and sheath, both elements shining with the power that flowed from her fingertips to the metal.

“You once bested me with that sword. I believe it was actually the very moment we met…” Loki said, sitting down on the bed beside her and wrapping an arm around her. “When you first came to Asgard, you were challenging anyone who would face up against you to a match of swords…No one knew who you were…and I foolishly decided to accept your challenge.” He laughed softly. “Beautiful and dangerous. I should have known my fate was sealed that day.”

Kat smiled, staring down at the reflection of her eyes in the blade. “It’s too bad I won’t be able to use this sword as effectively as before…It’s so beautiful…but I’m not as strong as I was…” She muttered, sighing. Maybe she just swing by the arsenal and pick up another blade. It would be too shameful to wield it with subpar ability.

“When you walk onto the battlefield…I assure you it will all come back to you…Just being here in Aquapolis…I’m not so sure you won’t start gaining back some of the memories and powers you have lost.” Loki gently reached forward and tucked a lock of Kat’s golden blonde hair behind her ears.

She turned her eyes up to the brilliant nighttime sky of Aquapolis. Their bedroom had originally belonged to her millinnia ago. It was part of her chambers, sprawling rooms with large, open ceilings that let her feel the sky above her at all times, a true palace for an angel. Their room was open on one wall to a large balcony that overlooked the city below. Aquapolis sprawled beneath them…her chambers were the highest in the city. She already felt at home here.

“You were right…you spoke so many times of the beauty of this place…” Loki said. The flickering light of the torches lining the walls made him look more otherworldly than usual. “I’m glad I finally made it here…”

Kat slid the sword back into its sheath and placed it against the wall near the bed. “We were leaving for Aquapolis that day, weren’t we?” She sighed. The details were still a bit foggy, but that one stood out.

“Yes…we were going to come here…and get married soon after…” Loki sighed.

“Our plans just got put off for a few thousand years…” Kat whispered. “After this battle, we should put them in motion again. Stay here…get married…ensure that we’re never pulled apart again…” The words would have shocked her months before, but now she was certain…There was nothing else in the world she wanted more than to be married to her immortal of mischief and live by his side for the rest of their immortal lives.

Only a small tinge of surprise wound its way into Loki’s voice as he asked softly, “You still want to marry me?” Kat turned her head towards his. Even after all of those millennia, doubt and fear still shone in his emerald eyes. He still thought of himself as that damaged half-demon. Quamachi had one declared her love for him, that she did not see him as a monster. And now Kat was doing the same.

She smiled. “Of course I do…” She wrapped her arms around his chest, sighing happily as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. After a little bit, she drifted off into a light sleep, waking briefly only when he lifted her gently and laid her down on the bed, throwing the blanket over them both and wrapping his arms around her once again.

------------

The sound of metal on metal rang in her ears. It would have usually been disorienting, but her senses were clear and sharp and she shoved her blade into another demon’s chest, spinning around to dislodge her weapon and cut off another dark warrior’s head at the same time. She turned just in time to see one of the timelords…it must have been Nine…fall to his knees, blood pouring from his chest.

“BACK OFF!” She screamed at the demon who made to cut off Nine’s head, slamming into the warrior sideways and slashing through his throat in one deft motion. She knelt beside Nine, who shot her a wry smile.

“I’m hoping there will be another Nine after me,” he said, trying to force some cheerfulness into his voice. “Though I doubt they’ll be as fantastic at fighting as I was.”

She sighed, fighting back tears. Another of her comrades had fallen. She caught Nine gently as he fell forward, lowering him to the ground and placing his sword in his hands. His body would not be recovered.

She spun around, trying to decide what area of the palace needed to be protected next. Someone grabbed her arm, and she nearly swung her sword up towards his head as she turned around until she recognized Eleven’s frantic gaze.

“It’s time! You have to come to the Hall of Origin as soon as you can!” He said urgently, pulling her in the direction of the Great Library. Her heart sank. No, no, she didn’t want to do this. But it had to be done…her whole life seemed to be full of things that had to be done.

She raced beside Eleven, both of them meeting up with Ten and Twelve at the entrance to the Hall of Origin. The blonde haired young man…barely over eighteen years of age…had one arm slung over Ten’s shoulder. “Where are the others?” She asked.

Twelve sighed. “We’re all that is left, I’m afraid.”

“Do you think the four of us will be enough?” Ten asked.

“It has to be. We have to act now,” she replied, marching through the entranceway to the Hall of Origin. “Place him underneath the Tesseract and stand in front of three of the doors.” Ten did so. As they lined up in front of the doors to Heaven, Hell, and Midgard, she knelt down beside the boy.

“Please…Please promise me…” He gasped.

“I promise that your people will rise again one day, Arthur.” She said firmly before standing up again and walking over to the door to Asgard. She gazed out to the view she had to where the bridge once was, thinking about the love she was separated from. She turned back around, focusing her energy towards the middle of the room. Her vision spun, and Arthur’s dying gasps rang in her head.

------------

Kat’s eyes flew open. She shook, breathing deeply, trying to catch her breath. Morning was just dawning outside. She was on her back, one arm wrapped around Loki, who was sleeping soundly half on top of her, both of his arms wrapped around her. She lay there for a while, not wanting to wake him up, but not able to go back to sleep. Finally, he stirred, raising his head a bit and looking at her with sleepy eyes. “What are you doing awake so early?” He asked, sighing and pulling her close.

“I…couldn’t sleep.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Just had a nightmare, that’s all.”

He frowned. “I was hoping you were going to regain more happy memories, not sad ones.”

“I was on the battlefield…and then I watched the last king die in the Hall of Origin…”

“That’s how the last battle ended.”

“Hopefully, that’s not how this battle will end,” she sighed.

“It won’t…” He said, propping himself up on his elbows. She sat up, pushing her hair back from her face. He wrapped an arm around her, drawing her in close so he could kiss her.

Yes…she thought…this was where she belonged. In Aquapolis, In Loki’s arms.

------------

The day before the battle was to take place, Kat and Stark sat in the Great Library, looking at a book of figures and blueprints that Anthony Stark had drawn up. “Can you believe he created this before humans even thought about electricity?” Stark asked.

“The Aquapolians seemed to have the advantage in that area.”

“We had an advantage in most areas, we just never used that fact to conquer others.”

They looked up to see Twelve standing beside a man who looked just as old as the timelord. Grey hair, in his mid-fifties, but powerful, looking, dressed in his armor. Kat and Stark stood up as the man approached them. “One of my last works…” He sighed, glancing down at the book Stark was holding. “I was hoping to go through at least another two of those before I died…”

“So…you’re…” Stark started.

The man smiled. “Before I died, they tacked on that nickname to my name…what was it?” He asked Twelve.

“The Demonslayer,” Twelve responded with an amused smile.

“Yes…I had been hoping for something more along the lines as “Lightbringer” or stuff. Spent an entire lifetime inventing and I was more known for my battle prowess than that…” He sighed. “Perhaps you’ll be known for both.”

Stark frowned. “How did you know?”

“Ten told me all about that metal suit of yours…I’d like to see it.”

Stark, for the first time in his life, looked stunned, awestruck and nervous around his own ancestor. “Yeah…um…sure…” He said, taking a few steps back so he had enough room to deploy the suit. He pressed a button on the bracelets and it unfolded around his body.

“Impressive…” He heard Anthony say as the helmet snapped into place. “But you do know that half of the reason you were able to make it so portable was due to your powers, right?”

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Thirty-One



“Really? I didn’t know that…” Stark said, pressing the button that allowed the suit to shrink back into the rings again.

“It was most likely your affinity for metal that drew you to building it,” Anthony mused.

“Stark!”

“Yes?” Both Stark and Anthony spun around at the sound of Uther’s voice. Anthony rolled his eyes in the classic Stark family way. “He’s talking to me,” he explained to his descendent, turning to the king. “Yes, sir?”

“I want you to show the Avengers our arsenal. Let them have their pick of armor and weapons. I’m sure they’ll find something they’ll like there.”

“Of course,” Anthony smiled.

Stark shot Kat an excited smile. “All right, lead the way, Demonslayer!”

------------

“I like Mjolnir, but I must admit…these swords are extremely well-crafted,” Thor muttered to White as he studied a nicely forged blade in the arsenal.

“Yes, well, I heard the soldiers saying that these mostly take our elements and spread them to the blade. I’m sure one would amplify your lightning…perhaps not has much as Mjolnir, though,” White laughed.

“Your own psychic powers would do well with this,” Thor said, handing the blade over to the former agent.

“Not going to use the suit?” Kat asked Stark. He was holding up a piece of finely crafted white and gold armor, studying it intently.

“Who says I can’t make a suit out of this?” He said with a confident grin.

“In less than a day?” Cap asked. He was donning a full suit of Aquapolian gold and white armor. His shield wouldn’t match, but it still looked good.

“Challenge accepted,” Stark said. “Anthony is lending me some of his old tools. They work just as well as the ones I’ve been using.”

“At least you get along with one of your relatives,” Harvey joked.

“Well, I don’t know about Cap, but I think I get along with Kat just fine,” Stark protested.

Kat raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”

“What, you don’t like your old man?” Stark asked with a mock hurt tone to his voice.

“You can be annoying sometimes.”

“Wow, really? I never knew that,” he said, turning the sarcasm up a few levels.

“Who knew?” Kat said, imitating perfectly his sarcastic tone.

“That’s scary,” Coulson said, shaking his head. “I leave her with you for a few months and she turns into mini you.”

“Just imagine if I had had her for twenty-one years,” Stark pointed out.

“That would have been ideal, but I shudder at the levels of sarcasm she would have reached.” The two men laughed knowingly. Kat smiled, glad that they got along so well.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around to see Arthur standing there. The dream from a few days before rushed back to her mind. “May I speak with you?” He asked.

“Sure,” she said, handing her sword over to Loki before following the young king out of the armory. They started to walk slowly back towards the palace. “What’s up?”

“I know you don’t remember much about the last time we met…”

“Actually, I do.”

He stopped and turned to her, his eyes wide. “You do?”

“I had a dream the other night…more like a nightmare, really. I made you a promise…” She thought for a few moments. “And I plan to keep it,” she finished, a determined tone in her voice.

He smiled. “Thank you. I may not be able to stay and enjoy this new Aquapolis, but…I will be happy knowing my people are back where they belong. And that the Demon King has been vanquished.”

“Yeah…” Kat sighed. “I only hope I’m strong enough to take him down.”

“When the time comes, you will be strong enough, I’m sure,” Arthur said, shooting her a reassuring smile. “Until then, get some rest.”

------------

“I can’t believe this is happening…” Mike muttered to Harvey. Some of the team was gathered in one of the rooms of the palace around a fire, just hanging out before they were to rest up for the next day.

“What? You didn’t expect us to one day be off in a distant land fighting against a demonic army? I totally called it,” Harvey replied.

Banner shook his head. “The time’s finally arrived…and now we’re fighting beside an entire army…”

The others pondered this for a moment. Even Thor was anxious about the coming battle. Every single one of them knew that this would be an earth-shattering, history-making fight. True, it was amazing that they would take part in it, but how many of them were going to make it out alive? Even Thor and Loki were in danger of losing their lives.

But not one of them even considered backing out. They had come too far, fought too hard to let the Aquapolian Initiative win this round. No, they would fight down to their last gasping breath.

They would follow the Chosen One into this battle with all of their hearts.

------------

Kat slipped into Stark’s makeshift workshop, impressed with the progress her father had made. He had opted out of including the helmet into his new design, choosing just to integrate the intricately detailed gold and white armor of the Aquapolian army into the suit’s body. Because he would be wearing it the entire battle, he made it more form fitting and lightweight so that he could run with it on.

He was just putting the finishing touches on the suit when she stepped in. “What do you think?” He asked, lifting the chest plate. Amazingly enough, he had been able to great an arc reactor for the suit out of the objects he had found around Aquapolis.

She shook her head. “I’m impressed. Puts my armor to shame any day.”

He practically beamed at his daughter’s praise, putting the armor down carefully before turning back to her. There was a heavy weight on his chest unrelated to the arc reactor. He had plans…and those plans most likely than not meant that this was their last time alone together…ever.

“You should get some sleep,” Stark said. “Tomorrow’s a big day.”

“Okay…” She paused. “I’ll see you in the morning?”

Stark smiled. “In the morning.”

It was painful to watch her leave. Stark turned away, his eyes tracing the grooves in the Aquapolian armor. He would most likely die in this suit. How fitting that it would be the same armor worn by the last Anthony Stark who died in Aquapolis…

He heard footsteps behind him. Turning, he was surprised to see Kat. Tears glistened in her eyes, which had turned that shade of sky blue that told him she was sad.

No words had to be said between them. For perhaps the last time, Tony Stark wrapped his arms around his daughter, pulling her close, wishing he never had to let go.

If he didn’t let go…they couldn’t take her from him, right?

But he had to let go, because now there was someone else who could take her into his arms and ensure she couldn’t be taken away.

As Kat started sobbing, Stark knew he had made the right choice in trusting Loki.

He had just one more favor to ask from the immortal.

------------

Stark followed Kat back to her room, where he knew Loki would be, waiting for her to return so they could both get some sleep. “Mind if I speak to you?” Stark asked. Kat shot her father a bewildered look, but decided not to ask him any questions. Instead, she yawned and headed for her bathroom to get ready for bed.

Stark and Loki walked a good ways down the corridor before stopping to talk. Stark wanted to ensure that Kat…or anyone, for that matter…didn’t hear them. “I have a favor to ask of you,” he said. There was a good chance Loki would turn him down. While there was not much personal love spared for his soon-to-be father-in-law, Loki would balk at the implications for Kat.

“Are you sure?” Damn it. Stark sighed. Loki wasn’t psychic or anything, but he was extremely good at reading people. He knew what Stark was setting out to do…in fact, Loki would be setting out himself for a bit of revenge the following day.

Stark forced himself to look straight into Loki’s eyes. The last time he had really studied the immortal was when Loki was Shadowficated, his eyes dark as night and full of hatred. “Yes,” he said firmly. “I’m sure.”

Loki didn’t look happy about this, but he didn’t argue. “Then I’ll make sure you exact your revenge.”

“Thank you,” Stark said before turning to return to his room.

“She will mourn you.”

Stark sighed and stopped, turning only slightly back to Loki. “Yes, I know…but I’m leaving her in good hands.” With that, he walked off.

------------

Kat was sound asleep by the time Loki made it back to their room. He climbed into bed beside her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. It was obvious she had been crying.

“It’s tomorrow…” Her voice was barely a whisper.

“I know.”

“What if…”

“Aya…” He tilted her head up so that her eyes met his. “Just know that I will be out there…watching you triumph over these demons…” He gave her a reassuring smile.

She smiled back, resting her head against his chest.

------------

The sound of drums filled the air as the Avengers prepared for battle. Everyone donned their armor and picked up their weapons of choice. They would be defending the land between the outer and inner gates of the city.

Kat turned to the team as they formed a semicircle around her. Arthur, Uther, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve would be joining their defense, but they did not join the team at this moment. As Kat spoke, she felt as if someone else…no, herself from the past were speaking the words.

“Thousands of years ago, I made a promise that the Aquapolian people would be able to return home without fear of the Demon King. Unfortunately, the horrors brought about by the Aquapolian Initiative have significantly reduced our numbers…but Adam will not destroy us. We’ve trained and fought for months…Let’s show these demons what the Avengers can do.”

Everyone sounded out their agreement. Kat turned back to the outer gate, drawing her sword. Everyone got into their positions across the inner gate. Kat was in the very middle of the line with Stark on one side of her and Loki on the other.

Meanwhile, Eleven was keeping a close lookout on what was happening outside the city. The Aquapolian army was lined up in the fields outside of the outer gates. He could see the armies of the Demon King in the distance.

“Take your positions!” He shouted down. “The demons are coming!”

------------

“We can easily make our way through the army…it’s just that space between the outer and inner gates we need to worry about,” Killian muttered to Adam as he surveyed the battlefield in front of them.

“No need. Send our strongest guard around and through that gate. The Avengers will have the fight they came for,” Adam said.

Killian smiled. “Yes, sir,” he said before descending the hill they were on to bark orders at Adam’s top guard.

------------

The demon army was on the move. It slammed into the Aquapolian army full force, but the Aquapolians did not yield. The Avengers waited, hearing the fighting going on outside of the gates. After a few moments, several lines of demons slipped through the gates.

“Now!” Kat shouted. She drew her sword and charged at the oncoming demons, Stark following her every step of the way. Slamming into the first demon, Kat spun around to deliver a lethal blow to his neck. She cut down another one shortly after. She could hear the pulse lasers from Stark’s suit vaporize several more demons around her. She caught glimpses of the others…could hear Thor’s thunder as it charred demons to bits. Loki deftly slashed through several of the demon horde as Cap expertly slammed his shield into the head of an oncoming guard. Banner was holding his own beside Barton, whose arrows were extremely lethal. Harvey and Mike were set up with White, making a three-Aquapolian ring that decimated the oncoming demons with ice, fire, and psychic barriers. No matter how many they killed, though, more were coming through.

“The barrier is breaking!” Ten’s shout reached her ears through the rings of battle.

“What?” She asked as she spun around. The timelord was running towards her. Loki and Stark gathered around to hear what he had to say.

“The time/space barrier…the barrier that is keeping this entire city standing…is breaking down. I don’t know whether or not it’s the strain…but it needs more power…”

“Come with me, then. I’ll power it up,” Kat said firmly.

“Wait!” Loki said, grabbing her by the arm before she could follow after Ten. “You have no idea what it would do to your mortal body…you could end up destroying yourself completely.”

“Let me do this,” she growled. “The Tesseract won’t destroy me.” She pulled her arm out of his grasp and sprinted after Ten. Loki and Stark made to follow, but they were quickly distracted from their pursuit by the attacking demons.

“You’re right! The Tesseract won’t destroy you, but you will be weakened a bit!” Ten announced. As they entered the Hall of Origin, Kat saw that Eleven and Twelve were already there. This looked so familiar. She ran to stand in the middle of the room, lifting her gaze to the Tesseract above.

------------

Outside, the air around Aquapolis shimmered as the barrier started reforming itself. It didn’t stop more demons from coming, but it did keep the city standing and the people fighting. “Let’s get back towards the Hall!” Stark shouted across to Loki.

“Loki, the advance guard has broken through one of the other gates!” Coulson shouted, running up to him. “I need you and Thor over there now!”

Loki glanced back at Stark. “I’ve got this,” Stark said. Loki nodded and followed after Coulson.

------------

Kat sprinted out of the Hall of Origin and back into the sunlight. She could see demons already pouring into the city. Her first instinct was to join back up with the rest of the Avengers.

“Hello, Chosen One.”

She nearly tripped at the sound of that voice. Spinning around, her heart caught in her throat.

Killian was standing in front of her, sword drawn and a smirk on his face.

------------

Stark was a bit nervous about running this mission solo, but he had made up his mind. In the end, after all, Loki would have probably gotten in his way, pulling him out of the fight at the last minute and ruining his chance for revenge.

From the moment he had seen Killian, he knew. The SHIELD leader had all but told him that he was Caroline’s murderer. Stark’s plan was simple: find Killian, challenge him one-on-one, and kill him. If he was unable to do so, he would go down fighting. He would NOT live in a world in which Killian was alive, so it was simple. Either Aldrich Killian or Tony Stark would die that day.

Either way, eventually, he would one day die that bittersweet death. Sweet in that he would again see Caroline. Bitter in that he would never again see Kat. The thought of being separated from his daughter on a more eternal, permanent scale than before almost made him sick, but he had to do this. True, she would mourn him, but after centuries passed…Loki was there for her. That’s all Stark asked of his would-be son-in-law.

First, he would find Kat. Then, after making sure she was back in the fight or, if weakened, in a safe place, he would find Killian.

He had not expected to find both at the same time.

The city was a maze to his untrained eyes. Footpaths seemed to merge into balconies and then into corridors. He had managed to make his way down a long all with one side open to the city and the screeches of battle when the sight made him stop in his tracks.

“No…” He gasped.

Killian had one hand pulling back Kat’s golden blonde hair tight, tight enough to expose her throat. The other hand held a sharp blade that almost seemed to shine like obsidian. Stark had seen several of the demons fighting with these obsidian blades, which were most likely forged in the depths of hell. He stood, cursing his helplessness, as Killian spoke.

“Put down your weapon, Stark. Your sword, your gauntlets, all of it!”

Stark saw no other way. He didn’t know whether, if Kat were killed by one of these blades, she would not live to see her immortal life. He couldn’t take that chance. He dropped his sword, the blade clattering against the marble floor, the sound ringing in his ears as if it were a death toll.

“NO!” Kat shrieked, trying to pull out of Killian’s grasp. “No, DAD DON’T, HE’LL KILL YOU!”

That was an extremely likely possibility…but he would take that chance. He slid his gauntlets off, one at a time, letting them fall with a clattering sound next to his blade. He then lifted his hands as if to say he had upheld his end of the bargain…now it was Killian’s turn.

The demon smiled, keeping a strong grip on Kat for a few seconds more before releasing her. Instead of running towards her father, however, she spun back towards Killian. Stark’s heart plummeted as he realized she planned on attacking him weaponless.

The demon’s sword cut clean through her chest, slicing through her armor and out of her back, where armor did not cover the two spots where her wings naturally grew when she transformed. Blood trickled down the blade as Killian withdrew it.

“KAT!!!!”

Stark’s scream seemed to disperse Killian. The demon faded away into the darkness around them. Kat stayed standing for a bit, kept aloft by the momentum of the blade slicing through her.

She began to fall.

------------

The pain was so sharp, for an instant, Loki thought he was about to have the immortal equivalent of a heart attack.

He and Coulson had made it to face off against the advance guard along with Thor and Twelve, who had reported that Kat had left the Hall of Origin no worse for wear and was last seen heading for the main battlefield once again.

Loki had taken a sort of joy slicing through each and every demon he could get his hands on, as if with every demon destroyed, a portion of his own half-demon blood became Asgardian. He secretly hoped for Adam himself to step through the lines. He would gladly do battle with his half-brother and show him exactly what an ASGARDIAN could do.

But the pain blindsided him. Everything seemed to fade out. He thought for an instant he had merely been cut by a demon blade…but no, he was not physically wounded. No…this was much worse…this was his heart breaking. And he instantly knew what was happening.

He fell to his knees, tears stinging his eyes and flowing over his face, blinding him as he whispered her name.

“Aya…”

------------

Stark caught Kat before she fell to the marble floor. Holding her gently, he brushed back the hair from her face, staring at the wound in her chest. This wasn’t survivable. He knew it, but he pleaded with her to stay alive anyway. “Kat…Kat, sweetie, hang on…don’t go…” He could tell she was in pain, gasping for breath and shuddering as blood ran down her armor. “Kat…”

“Promise…me…” She whispered.

“What? Promise you what, Kat? Please…don…”

“Promise me…that when I wake up…you’ll still be here…”

His heart sank. He would try, but…that wasn’t in his plans…Still…”I promise, Kat. Just…don’t leave me.” Tears started to run down his face as he realized this was it. This was most likely the last time he would ever seen his daughter. Kat tried to smile. She didn’t know this…but…

“KAT, NO!” The light had gone completely out of her eyes. She was gone. He buried his face in her hair and sobbed.

------------

Coulson ran up to Loki. “What’s wrong?”

After a few moments of silence, Loki stammered, “It’s…Aya…she’s…”

Coulson knew what he meant instantly. “We need to get to her. We need to get her somewhere safe. Come on.” He pulled on Loki’s sleeve. The Asgardian stumbled to his feet, running after Coulson as they made their way towards the Hall of Origin.

------------

Stark could hear footsteps behind him. He felt numb. He didn’t even draw his sword.

“Stark!”

That was Coulson’s voice. He turned around. Coulson and Loki barreled towards him. He stood up, holding Kat’s body carefully. He could see the pain in Loki’s eyes that mirrored his own. “Take her…” Stark practically whispered. The Asgardian carefully took her body. Stark couldn’t stay with her…he had a mission to carry out. He forced himself to take one long last look at his daughter before lifting his gaze to Loki.

“Keep her safe.”

Those were the last words he spoke to the Asgardian before he ran back towards the battlefield, Coulson on his heels. Once again, his mission was clear and simple. But now it was sharper.

Killian had murdered his wife.

Killian had murdered his daughter.

Now Stark would end Killian’s reign of terror for good.

------------

The safest place in the city was the Hall of Origin. Loki planned to take Kat there and form a barrier around her body to ensure that, even if someone made their way into the hall, she would be safe. He walked carefully in that direction. He sensed no demonic activity around. Loki wanted to make sure he did not disturb her body any more. It needed to lay in stasis before she woke up.

The pain of her death had been pretty unbearable despite the fact that he knew she would wake up again soon. Just the very thought of her in a panic, in pain, losing blood fast, then descending into darkness…He wished he had been there to comfort her. He took a little comfort in knowing that Stark had been there.

As expected, the Hall of Origin was quiet. Loki stepped to the center of the room, kneeling and placing Kat’s body down carefully onto the floor. She had lost her sword in the midst of battle, otherwise, he would have placed it with her. He smoothed her hair back from her face, bending down to kiss her gently on the forehead.

“Come back soon…” He whispered. “I’ll protect you until then…” There were a few sweet moments for him to catch his breath.

And then the darkness closed around them.

------------

Stark tried to find every member of the team he could to ask if they had seen Killian. Finally, Barton was able to point him in the direction of the Temple of the Timelords. In case there was some barrier or such that would prevent him from getting into the temple himself, Stark sought out Ten first before he made his way over there.

Ten asked no questions, just agreed to come with him. The timelord understood his need for revenge. Stark was thankful for the lack of questions as they sprinted for the temple. As expected, it was in the shape of a clock. Ten had explained before the battle that at each number was a chamber where the timelord of that number slept. In the middle was the actual temple.

It was as if Killian knew Stark would meet him there. “Usual demon arrogance,” Ten muttered in disgust as they entered the temple. “I’ll leave you to knock him down a few notches…and ensure no one enters…” Stark tried to thank him, but the timelord ran off before he was able to do so.

He turned back to the center of the room where Killian was waiting. A smug smile stretched across the demon’s face.

Stark was about to literally smack that smile right off.

 

[chosen_one386]

Chapter Thirty-Two



“You wanted to find me…now here I am,” Killian shouted. “I imagine you want to settle an old score…you may find that a bit difficult…”

“No…killing demons is in my blood apparently.”

Killian drew his sword. Stark did the same, making the first move and slicing towards the demon’s neck. He dodged, slamming into Stark with full force. Killian was surprised by how strong and fast Stark was, though. Even without the suit, he could still hit back hard.

------------

Loki stood up and turned around slowly, gripping the handle of his sword tightly as Adam materialized out of the shadows. “Stay away from her,” Loki growled.

“Oh…you know I can’t kill her. That would set the universe off balance. I’ll just imprison her, though I’d imagine she’s rather die.”

“Stay. Away. From. Her.”

“Are you going to try and stop me?” Adam smirked. “Really, now. You are powerful, Loki…but you are weak at the same time…weak with your affection for her…there is no way you will be able to destroy me.”

------------

Their blades clashed together as Stark spun around to get better footing on the temple floor’s marble surface. He knocked the sword out of Killian’s grasp. The demon gasped as Stark slammed his sword hand into his face again and again, letting out his fury more and more as he saw the demon’s blood run down his face.

------------

Adam stepped forward as if he were going to step around his brother to get to Kat. Loki shoved him backwards and drew his sword, daring Adam to attack him. “As you wish,” Adam said, drawing his sword and slashing at Loki.

------------

Killian was on his knees in front of Stark, looking up through a thick sheet of blood. It dawned on him that this mortal was about to kill him.

This was the fear that Stark was looking for. The fear that he knew must have shown in Caroline’s eyes, though her fear was for both her and her daughter’s lives. This demon cared about only one thing: himself.

Stark’s revenge was to take that one thing away.

------------

Loki tried to keep Adam away from where Kat was laying, matching his footsteps to his brother’s in order to drive him backwards. Adam greatly underestimated his brother’s strength, wincing a bit when Loki’s blade slammed down on his own. The one thing that Adam said made Loki weak was the one thing that gave him strength.

His affection for Kat would drive him to protect her at all costs.

Loki shoved Adam backwards, slashing towards his half-brother’s throat. He had to be careful…Adam was powerful…

With an unexpected twist of luck, Loki was able to force the sword from his brother’s hand, cutting towards Adam once again. His blade was ripped from his hands as Loki went flying backwards, sliding across the marble floor until he rested next to Kat.

He tried to sit up, but Adam’s power was keeping him pinned to the floor. Loki was able to tilt his head to one side. He kept his gaze on Kat’s face as he heard Adam’s footsteps sound against the floor as he stepped forward.

If the Demon King was going to murder them both, the last image that would be in Loki’s mind would be his entire world…That angel who had stepping into his life, changed him, loved him, taught him that he could be more than his heritage. The mortal girl who had her same smile, same bright shine…

Loki tried to move his hand to take one of hers, but he couldn’t.

“Good-bye, brother,” Adam said, raising his sword.

And that’s when Loki saw his own sword out of the corner of his eye.

------------

The pain in his side was so great, he was nearly blind. Stark hadn’t realized that Killian had been able to draw his sword across Stark’s midsection. It was a deep cut…Stark had to keep himself from blacking out as he gritted his teeth, raising his sword.

“This is for Caroline…for Kat…and for Aquapolis.”

That was the day he plunged a sword into Aldrich Killian’s heart.

------------

The sword flew through Adam’s chest and stuck there with a sickening thud. The demon instantly dropped his own blade, the polished steel soon staining with its own master’s blood. With a horrible gurgling sound, Adam backed away, desperately trying to pull the sword out of his back…but since it had been behind him, the hilt was sticking out of his back and not his chest.

Gone was his power over Loki. The Asgardian slowly rose to his feet, fixing his half-brother with a cool gaze. It would take Adam a while to bleed out and die. In fact, Loki was counting on that.

There was a gasping sound behind him. She was waking up…

------------

Stark could have easily dropped his sword and lay down on the cool marble floor. He could have rested right there and then, letting his wound carry him off to reunite with his wife. But something pulled at him. For some reason, his mind was flying back to a conversation he had had with Twelve a few days beforehand…about the Hall of Origin…and its central legend.

“Ten!” He shouted as best he could. He would need help getting there. “TEN!”

------------
The darkness was fading in her mind.

Her memories flooded back.

As did her powers.

Once again, she was Quamachi.

But at the same time

She was Kat.

------------


Her eyes opened again, those crystal blue pools that instantly regained their brightness. Loki knelt beside her, placing a gentle hand on her cheek. A slow smile spread across her face, one that mirrored her on. “I love you,” he said, bending down to kiss her gently. They stayed in each others’ arms for just a moment before he helped her to her feet. Loki wrapped an arm around her waist, glad to feel that life was in her once again.

Adam was still losing blood at a fast rate. He took a step towards them, but he didn’t get much further. Sneering at them, he said, “No matter…once I get back to the realm of demons…”

“Actually, I’m afraid that’s not an option.”

They turned to see Stark limping through the gateway into the Hall of Origin. Kat gasped at the wound in his side.

“You see…one of the timelords told me that there is a mechanism in this place that’s supposed to reset everything when four keys in place. Basically, it will mend the bridge to Asgard, destroy you, and send all of your demon army back to hell.”

Adam smirked. “I know of that legend, but the keys…”

“Ah, yes, four individuals, each representing the four realms. Plus…each of them had to have royal blood…Well, there’s you, the Demon King…there’s an Asgardian prince over there with royal blood in him…and the Chosen One, she has royal blood, too.”

“No…” Adam muttered, the realization dawning on him that Stark was right.

“And then there’s me. Royal Aquapolian blood. I guess that would make four keys…they’d have to be the right keys, though…”

There was a click and a rumble around them. The Tesseract started to shine brighter. “Into the center!” Kat ordered, reaching over to drag her father below the Tesseract along with Loki.

“No…no…” Adam muttered, as if he could not believe this was happening.

------------

Outside, Coulson sliced through thin air with his sword. He stared at the blade, confused. All around them, demons were disappearing. “What’s happening?!” Cap shouted, confused.

“The keys…”

Coulson and Cap turned to see Twelve. He was looking towards the Hall of Origin. “All four keys have been discovered…” He murmured.

------------
The Hall rotated around, some of its faces crumbling to reveal more of the realms behind them. Adam looked back toward Hell, his eyes wide and frightful. He was shaking, as if he could feel the pull to his very atomic structure. He turned back to Loki, his black eyes wide with terror. “Brother! Help me!”

Loki looked him straight in the eye. “I’m not your brother.”

With a terrible scream, Adam disintegrated. Loki’s sword clattered to the floor, drenched in the demon’s blood. The gate to Hell returned to normal, but this time it was fully barred. The Hall continued to circle, giving them a full view of Asgard. The rainbow bridge reformed right in front of their eyes. Loki stared out across the bridge toward his former home. The Hall started to rotate again, this time giving them a 360 degree view of Aquapolis.

“It’s being rebuilt…” Kat whispered in amazement. Stark stared in awe as the buildings between the inner and outer gates started to rise from the earth. The marble of the buildings all around them shone brighter, and the lines of blue energy sparked with light.

------------

All around the city, the Avengers watched as it rose around them. The Aquapolian army faded from view, leaving only the team and the timelords standing around, gazing in awe. Thor, as he watched, believed that not even Asgard could stand up to the beauty, majesty, and power in these mortal-made structures. He smiled as he realized just what Quamachi tried to teach him millennia ago. The Aquapolians were never to be ruled. To be ruled by immortals would tarnish the purity and beauty of their civilization. Banner was wrapped up in so many feelings, he couldn’t even speak. Even Harvey was speechless. So this was the place they were fighting for. If so…it was all for a good cause in his book. White and Coulson shared a friendly look, laughing with joy. After so many years of its people being persecuted, Aquapolis was finally back. Ten and Eleven couldn’t help but shout with joy, dancing around in place while Twelve looked on, tears in his eyes. Cap, Barton, and Mike didn’t know much how to react, so a round of high-fives and manic shouting rose up from the three Avengers.

------------

“It’s back!” Kat shouted, tears in her eyes. “It’s finally back…Now…now we can all return home!” Stark broke away from the scene in front of him to turn to his daughter, the largest smile ever planted on his face. He put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

“I wish Caroline had been here to see this…” He murmured so that only she could hear.

As the view around them faded away, she could feel his grip on her shoulder loosen. With a painful gasp, Stark fell to his knees, clutching at her armor as pain rocked through him. She could see his injury getting worse by the second. Panic seized her as she knelt beside him, grabbing his shoulders and easing him down onto his back. Loki knelt beside her, a helpless look on his face.

“Dad…Dad…” She tried to press her hand over his wound, tried to heal it, but her powers weren’t all back yet. No, no. She scrambled to call them to her, but they wouldn’t come. “Dad, please, no…” She turned to Loki.

He turned his emerald gaze toward her, shaking his head ever so slightly. “I’m sorry…the wound…it’s too deep.” He seemed to be on the verge of tears himself, frustrated that he couldn’t help her, that he couldn’t save Stark.

“Go get one of the timelords!” She said, suddenly having an idea. The timelords had healing powers. Something in the back of her mind said that they were no longer manifesting because of the reorder of things, but she refused to believe it.

As if they had heard her request, Ten and Twelve burst into the Hall, Coulson on their heels. They practically half ran half flew to where Stark was, Coulson and Ten holding back as Twelve knelt down to examine the injured warrior. “Please do something…” Kat breathed. Stark hadn’t spoken a word. He must have been in so much pain…

Twelve looked the wound over. “Who did this to you?” He asked, his voice calm and collected. If anyone could save her father, Kat knew, it would be Twelve. Memories of his healing bad wounds and injuries, of solving complex problems that stumped everyone, of calming down Uther when he was in a rage sprang to her mind.

“Ki…Killian,” Stark managed to blurt out. His jaw was clinched tight against the pain. Kat tried to see if she could at least dull the pain, but her powers in that division as well were lacking.

Twelve sat back, sighing. “A Demon General’s blade…” He turned his eyes toward Kat. A feeling of doom dawned on her as he explained to the others. “It’s extremely poisonous to mortals. He’s lucky to have made it this far…because of the time reorder…we can’t heal him.” To Kat, he said, a slight waver in his voice, “I’m sorry.”

Coulson stepped forward, shooting a look at Loki that he interpreted to mean that they should all leave Kat alone with her father. With one last comforting hand on her shoulder, Loki stood up, the timelord following his lead. “But…no…no! He can’t die!” Kat shrieked.

“Kat…” Coulson said, stepping up as the others started to walk out of the room. Loki shot one last look back at her, realizing that soon, he would have to comfort her in her time of grieving. After they left, Coulson knelt beside Stark, who was desperately trying to keep his mind lucid. “It was an honor,” Coulson murmured.

Stark tried to give him a smile. “No…honor…mine…” Coulson smiled sadly back, then rose again, nodded to Kat, and left the room.

“Dad…listen to me…” Kat said, placing her hands on either side of his head, forcing him to look over at her. “You can’t leave…” Tears started flowing down her cheeks.

“I’m…sorry…sweetheart…” He finally managed a smile, struggling until he reached up to touch her cheek. “21…years…but…I finally…able to meet…”

She sobbed. “Please don’t leave…we didn’t get that much time…”

“Stay…with…”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Yes, I’ll stay with him.”

“Good…” The light was fading in his eyes and the arc reactor in his chest. “I…love…”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence.

------------

The piercing shriek of sorrow alerted the men standing outside of the Hall of Origin that Stark was gone. “Take her…we’ll find a place for his body,” Coulson said to Loki. Loki entered the Hall first, finding Kat with her head down on Stark’s chest, sobbing loudly. He knelt beside her for a few moments before taking her by the arm.

“Come on…” He said gently. “They need to take…they need to take him away…” He lifted her to her feet. She didn’t struggle much as he led her out of the Hall and back to her room.

After they left, Coulson, Ten, and Twelve slipped into the room. “Let’s take him back to his room,” Coulson said. “Twelve…you’re up.” Twelve nodded and quickly left the Hall.

------------

Kat didn’t know if she would ever stop crying. She kept her arms wrapped around Loki, bawling into his shoulder for she didn’t know how long. He sat there quietly with her, simply giving her comfort through his warmth and presence.

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“Stark’s dead?” Cap breathed, not comprehending what Twelve was saying.
Everyone was gathered around the timelord, shocked by the news. Even Harvey turned away, trying to hide his grief and distress at the loss of a teammate.

“Yes, we’ve taken his body back to his room. In three days’ time, we’ll perform a traditional Aquapolian funeral pyre for him. Until then, just get some rest. You’ve all fought bravely.”

After Twelve left, they simply stood around, no comprehending anything. “Where’s Kat?” Mike finally asked.

“She is probably grieving…” Thor said. “Loki is most likely with her.”

There was silence for another few moments until Banner spoke up. “He WAS going on a suicide mission. Can anyone report that he killed Killian?”

“I can.” They all turned toward Ten. “I followed him to the Temple of the Timelords and helped him back to the Hall of Origin after he was wounded. He successfully slew Aldrich Killian right before my eyes.”

Barton sighed. “Well, at least he accomplished what he set out to do…and now he’s back together with his wife…”

“He was a good man,” Cap said. “A brave warrior…and an excellent father.” Everyone nodded in agreement, then split up. There was not a dry eye amongst them, and no one wanted to be around to see anyone else burst into tears. Even Thor was on the verge of starting to sob.

Ten sighed as he watched them go, then turned back to see Coulson walking toward him. “Is this really necessary?”

“Yes. In time…everything will be okay. But for now…”

Anger flashed across Ten’s face, quick as a snake. “They are grieving for their friend, their fallen comrade! Some of them will never get to see him again, even beyond death! Think of Kat! Think of how she believes she will never see her father again after so many years of wishing for parents, for a family, holding on to the belief that maybe one day she will be reunited with her true love. And sure, she has been reunited with him, but that does no excuse the fact that the one father she has in all of this world has gone where she can now follow!”

The timelord’s words echoed off of the marble walls and ancient pillars around them, a voice just as ancient as the buildings that surrounded them. Coulson was fully aware of how new he was. He was an immortal, true, but he was a newborn compared to this man, who had lived to see all of his friends and family die in the first war. It struck him that, because of his own immortality, Ten would never reunite with his family, his loved ones. Had he lost a wife? Children? Brothers? Sisters?

Without allowing Coulson to reply, Ten strode off.

------------

At first she thought she was dreaming. She was standing in the Hall of Origin. She turned around to see Stark standing on the other side of the Hall, in front of the gateway to Heaven. He was turned towards a figure there. Kat recognized her from the pictures.

Mom.

Suddenly, Caroline looked over at her, drawing Stark’s attention over to his daughter. He froze, not believing his eyes. Glancing back at Caroline, he walked over to Kat, who was on the verge of tears. For perhaps the last time, Stark wrapped his arms around his daughter, both of them too filled with emotion to say much.

“I love you, sweetheart.”

Those were his last words to her before he turned, walked back to Caroline, took her hand, and walked into the light.

------------

Kat woke with a start, wrapped in Loki’s arms. He was fast asleep, but woke when she did. “What’s wrong?” He asked as tears started to stream down her face.

“He’s gone now. He’s completely gone now,” she sobbed. Loki pulled her close as she started to wail.

------------

The ceiling came into focus after a little bit. Stark squinted, trying to make out where he was. He could tell he was on a bed…this room seemed oddly familiar. Sitting up on his elbows, he could tell it was his room in Aquapolis.

“Good morning, Tony.”

He turned to see Caroline sitting in a chair beside his bed, a sweet smile on her face. He stared at her for a bit, then asked, “Heaven looks a lot like Aquapolis, doesn’t it?”

She laughed, but didn’t answer him. “It’s good to see you again.”

“I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see you, too.”

------------

A knock on their door drew Kat and Loki’s attention there. Kat tried to get up, but Loki eased her back down into the bed. “I’ll get it,” he murmured, walking over to the door and opening it.

“I have something Kat would like to see,” Coulson said.

------------

Stark turned from happy to devastated in the blink of an eye. “I wish you could have met her,” he said, tears forming in his eyes. “She was beautiful. She looked so much like you. Strong and smart, I mean she led everyone, and…now…” He sobbed. “We’ll never get to see our daughter again…”

Caroline sighed and wrapped her arms around Stark, not saying a word. The door opened behind her, but she didn’t turn to see who entered. There was a sharp gasp, and Stark looked up.

It was Kat.

“Kat?”

Wide-eyed with disbelief, she walked over to where her parents were sitting. Caroline sat down on the bed beside Stark, a smile starting to form on her face. “How is this possible?” Kat asked.

“Because of the prophecy.”

Coulson and Loki had slipped into the room behind them. “Everything’s been healed. Apparently, the law banning immortals from heaven has also been repealed. But, more importently…The prophecy of the Battle of New Aquapolis stated that the group of soldiers that fought beside the Chosen One would all be given immortal life after they died. Unfortunately, Caroline and I passed before the fight, but that was supposed to happen.”

“You mean…” Stark turned to his wife. “You’ve been alive for the past two decades?”

“Yes…just not in this time period…”

“I had to leave the island to conduct things at SHIELD,” Coulson explained. “So I asked the timelords to take her back with them on their travels.”

“But…why couldn’t she have just stayed here?” Stark asked, a little hurt. “Everything would have been better if she had just stayed here.”

“Time doesn’t work that way, Stark,” Coulson replied calmly. “You would have been on the run your entire lives. One of the reasons SHIELD backed off from you and Kat was because the two of you were split apart. It’s sad, but true.”

“So everyone in the team will become immortal once they die?” Stark asked.

“Yes,” Coulson nodded. “Which means this gives us a great opportunity. To rebuild Aquapolis, we need to gain recognition on the three other sides of the universe. Now, we just beat Hell into submission…but Asgard and Heaven need to regard us as well. We need to rebuild our reputation…which means these new immortals can become the first ever Aquapolian court of immortals. We won’t rule the people who come to live here. They can set up their own system of government. But we will act as diplomats to the other three realms.”

“How are we going to get people to come here and settle down?” Caroline asked.

“With the death of Killian, the old management of SHIELD has collapsed. I am going to take it back over and redo the entire mission of the organization back to what Howard Stark, Eric Selvig, and Bill Baron originally established it as. We will help the Aquapoian people.”

“We’re going to need a leader for this court,” Loki pointed out.

“Of course,” Coulson said, turning to him. “Do you remember when I told you that one day, I would give you a crown?”

Loki frowned. “No…”

“It was after the agent stabbed me and freed you on the helicarrier. I told you two things: don’t forget about Kat and that I would give you your crown.”

“I can’t…”

“Two brothers standing on either side of the universe…leading two different courts, both united in their beliefs that the Aquapolians will rule themselves. It’s the best vision we could ever have for our country. As the new director of the Aquapolis Project, I’m asking you, for all of us…” He glanced back at the Starks. “Please lead this court.”

Loki thought about this for a moment before he spoke. “I can’t lead the entire court.”

Coulson was confused for a moment until he turned to Kat. “Of course. There are some people who bow to no one…and no one bows to them.”

------------
The rest of the Avengers were gathered and told the news that one day, they would all become immortals. Of course, the news was moot for Thor, but the others were stunned, shocked, speechless. White was the closest out of the rest of the group to dying. His cancer had come back, giving him only a few more months to live. His worst worry was that he would never be able to see his family again. Coulson assured his old friend that he would. In fact, since their enemies were long gone, he could perhaps even spend his few remaining days as a mortal with them.

Others had a similar question: when our mortal loves ones pass on, will we be allowed to visit them in Heaven? Once again, the answer was a joyous yes.

For really, that is the great catch with immortality. The ancient Aquapolians were amongst the few mortal civilizations who never strove for immortality. They knew the secret: to become immortal meant to say good-bye to your loved ones once they died.

But now no more.