Thor Fic: "In the shadows of the crossroads" (Loki, Avengers, R), 4b/10
LINK TO BEGINNING OF CHAPTER
*
“You’re coming armed to this?” Steve had to remark, bemused, as he watched both Barton and Romanov checking over their weapons.
“Better safe than sorry,” was Barton’s abrupt response. He slid another extra arrow shaft into his quiver, eliciting a sharp, brief mechanical sound as he made the practiced movement over his shoulder.
The other agent glanced up from where she’d been bending forward to pull an extra ammo clip from her boot, meeting Steve’s eyes. Her response was more serious; “We don’t know what we’re walking into. This could be a trick of Loki’s.”
“I doubt that.” Stark gave a grunt of dismissal, shrugging. “He wasn’t even there for what all happened. After Selene broke out of her cage, he beat pavement.”
“He did what?” Thor looked to him, puzzled.
Stark sighed, opened his mouth briefly, and then seemingly just decided to ignore him.
“Still.” Romanov straightened, giving her belt and gauntlets one final adjustment. “Until we’ve a better idea what’s going on, like Clint said - better safe than sorry.”
“Words to live by,” Steve was forced to agree.
Turning towards the hallway he gave one last look across the others.
“Everybody ready?”
“As we’ll ever be.” Dr. Banner waved a hand in a gesture to indicate they should start walking. “Let’s go. This should be very interesting.”
The six of them started moving, together. Steve stole a glance to his right and left; they weren’t exactly in a formation, but whether or not it was intentional the group had spread out so they were more or less in a staggered line, flanking him, since of course he had ended up taking point.
It was an odd visual, no doubt. The two agents suited up and Thor in his ever-present armor, but the doctor in a wrinkled button-down shirt and khakis, Stark in jeans and a t-shirt, and Steve with his cowl down, without his shield.
It was just the team, and only them. Apparently whoever Hill had spoken to had made it clear they only wanted this conference to be between one version of the team and the other.
Surprisingly, though he obviously wasn’t happy about it, Fury had decided to go along. It wasn’t quite clear whether it was the Avengers themselves as a concept or the inter-dimensional aspect that had him intimidated to a state of wariness. Either way; evidently he didn’t want to push his luck by making another version of the group of super-beings he well knew the capabilities of angry.
As they walked steadily, closing the gap to one of the strangest encounters they might ever have, Steve realized he was feeling wary himself.
Not because he thought this might be a trap or the other Avengers might turn out to be enemies. Whether or not it was optimistic of him, he felt already inclined to view them as allies.
But he was on-edge anyway, because in this situation there simply didn’t seem any other way to be. They were going face-to-face with alternate versions of themselves, of people they already knew. Yet another impossible thing he would barely even be able to dream of, and here it was happening.
It didn’t seem simple to go into this with a cool head. He didn’t know what to expect.
There was a length of corridor up ahead that was normally familiar. He must’ve walked it a hundred times, whenever he was on the Helicarrier. The stretch of wall to his right was the same. But there was a door in it, just a single unobtrusive door, where it shouldn’t have been. Where there had never been a door before.
“This must be it.” Stark took in the fact they were all lingering there, uncertain, with aplomb. “Ladies first,” he offered grandly.
Romanov looked to him, and gave the cool raise of an eyebrow.
“Or not.” He coughed. “Of course, I meant Captain Rogers…”
“Knock it off,” Steve told him, irate but subdued. They were all anxious, their nerves on high alert; they knew each other well enough he could see it at a glance.
“Maybe we should take a moment to prepare ourselves for the likely possibility we’re about to be dealing with two Tonys at once,” Banner pointed out mildly.
Tony brightened as at the same time Romanov’s eyes became shuttered, Thor grimaced and Barton audibly groaned. “Hey now, that’s right. There’s a thought.”
“Well we won’t find out standing out here.” Steve did his best to sound decisive. “Come on.”
The doorknob turned easily under his hand. One step, and just like that, they were in.
He honestly wished he could’ve had his wits about him to try and make a better first impression. But the truth of it was, the first thing Steve did was only stand there, blinking stupidly.
Finding themselves suddenly in what appeared to be an exact duplicate of the carrier’s command center wasn’t something he had anticipated. He couldn’t be sure, but he was pretty sure the same went for the others as well.
“Well, this is a little underwhelming.” Tony strolled past one of the computer terminals, and then stopped in his tracks, doing a double-take. “I take that right back,” he said excitedly, pointing. “Bruce, come look at this. Is that…?”
What came next was a long stream of pure technobabble that Steve didn’t even try to translate. The overview he was getting seemed to be that the technology in this room was far advanced compared to where they were at with the present day. But he honestly couldn’t tell - too much was still alien-looking to him, especially when it came to SHIELD technology.
“A glad welcome to you, Avengers of the neighboring realm!”
At the disconcertingly familiar voice, Steve turned and beheld a second version of Thor standing there, waving one arm with a smile on his face. He looked exactly like the one they already knew except his hair was shorter, coming only just about to his shoulders, and his armor was much grander and more ornate.
“Oh. Hey there.” Stark looked up from whatever he and Bruce had been bending over to give the second Asgardian a look of his own. “Well. This is gonna be interesting.”
Thor himself - the one from their reality - was gazing at his counterpart, speechless. Following his gaze Steve was struck that he seemed to be mainly focused on the golden inlays of the other Thor’s armor. He appeared almost awed.
Maybe, Steve considered, there was some significance to that. Perhaps there was a denotation of rank in the design, the way the military used bars on their uniforms.
Romanov meanwhile was taking a few steps forward, her attitude as cool and composed as if something like this happened every day. “I take it you’re the ones who called us here.”
“Yeah. Isn’t it spectacular?” This time it was a second version of Tony Stark who spoke. He was wearing a turtleneck and slacks, hands tucked in his pockets casually as he came forward to meet them. His remark seemed to be directed at his own double, who he smiled at and gestured to. “Go on. Take a look around. Drink it all in.”
“Oh, I’m drinking, believe me.” The Stark of their world responded to the other in a way that was positively animated. “Was it my - I mean, your tech that you used to pull this off? Or was it SHIELD’s?”
“Little of column A, little of column B.” The other Stark laid a finger to the side of his nose and winked. “Never could’ve done it without me, of course, but I had to borrow a few of their resources.”
Bruce smiled, only mildly bemused. “I see.”
“The command deck of the Helicarrier was the easiest space to rig for cross-dimensional transport. Plus, we figured it’d be a good idea to set this conference in a place that’d be more familiar to you.” Other Stark glanced over his shoulder, addressing a blonde woman leaning over a set of controls. “How’s she doing there, Danvers?”
“Readings coming back all consistent and stable. I’d say she’s holding steady, cap’n.”
With a bright look in her eyes and cheery smirk, the woman pivoted around gracefully and walked over to meet them. She wore a black cat-suit of a combat uniform, with bare arms, black gloves, and a bright red sash around her waist. Her curtain of straight blonde hair fell around a face half-hidden behind a black mask. She had a tall proud bearing, a posture that transmitted confidence loud and clear.
Positioning herself near Steve, she met his eyes and offered a professional salute.
“Carol Danvers. Air Force,” she introduced herself smartly. “The civilians know me mainly as Ms. Marvel.”
Steve returned the salute, finding her immediately likable. “Pleasure to meet you, Captain Danvers,” he said, guessing at her rank. He wasn’t corrected, so he must’ve gotten it in one.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw white and blue - he prepared himself as he turned around, asking, “So, your version of the team is a little different than from our own.”
Sure enough, he was face to face with…himself. Even concealed underneath a slightly different Captain America uniform (less emphasis on the stars and stripes, a little more dark in color) was the serum-augmented face and body he had gotten used to seeing in the mirror.
The other Steve Rogers stood with his arms crossed, his expression slightly sympathetic; as if knew they both were probably feeling a little uneasy right about now.
“I think it’s more likely that we started with the same team, and there have been changes over time,” he offered as explanation.
Stark took a step closer to the other Stark, pointing at him. “I knew it. I thought you looked older.”
“Yeah.” Other Stark nodded. “By our best guess, you guys are probably, what…2012, 2013? Not long after the original team came together? We’re from a good…two decades into the future.”
“Two decades,” Stark repeated. He squinted as he leaned in closer to the older version, eyeing him more like a statue or a specimen than another person. “My god. I’ve aged well.”
Carol Danvers stood with her arms behind her back, one wrist clasped in the other hand, right next to where the other Steve still stood with his arms folded. At the repartee between the two Starks, they exchanged a dry, ‘doesn’t it just figure’ kind of look.
“I know, right?” The other Stark grinned, completely unbothered. “Well. Extremis helps with that.”
“Extremis?” Tony blinked. “What’s Extremis?”
The other Stark paused for a second, startled. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then gave his counterpart a scrutinizing, conspiratorial look.
“You and I, we should…talk later, if we get a chance.”
“Friend Anthony,” other Thor objected loudly, sounding disappointed but not very surprised. “What did we discuss beforehand about meddling in the development of another world’s science or future?”
“Come on; he’d probably get there eventually! I’m just giving a little boost…” He trailed off at the look other Steve was giving him. “No? Fine, then. You’re no fun.”
“Wow.” Stark looked to his own version of Steve, sardonically. “The more things change…”
Steve didn’t feel that warranted a response. He scowled back at him.
“Hang on here,” Barton demanded, frowning, as he dialed the conversation back. “So not just parallel dimensions, but time travel?”
“Is that really so outlandish?” Banner remarked. “All the properties and components that would have to line up in order to produce such a similar reality, the odds aren’t that good they’d also occupy a similar space in the fourth dimension.”
He shrugged, holding out one hand.
“Basic particle theory allows for the existence of other realities. It’s a simple as extrapolating from the string theorem - everything is connected. And atoms can, multiplied out into infinity, create only so many patterns in space. So if you take that and posit that every time in life someone makes a decision and undergoes an event, for every choice they make, no matter how inconsequential, there is created another practically identical reality where the alternative action was taken. Each reality continues on down its own path, and over time more and more splinter off in a similar manner…if you take that all in as possibility, then you have academically-based support for the multiverse.”
“Y’know, you are so dreamy when you do that,” Tony quipped.
“Careful, though.” Another woman’s voice spoke up. “Let him keep going, and he’s going to spring a full-fledged lecture on you, I’ll bet.”
Dr. Banner turned, and immediately fell silent, the color drained from his face.
Steve couldn’t blame him. The woman that was addressing him, though she had a calm enough look on her face, was well over six feet tall. Her body was a solid mass of toned muscle, and every inch of her was the same distinct green coloring of the Hulk.
He honestly had no idea how he’d missed seeing her before now. He must’ve just been too distracted by his own double and the ones for Thor and Stark. Though Barton and Romanov were the only ones who didn’t look shocked - either it was better concealed, or they’d noticed the green woman before and hadn’t bothered to say anything.
Steve found himself thinking they really should have said something.
“Um,” was all that Banner could apparently manage to say, staring up and up at the statuesque figure.
Tony was agog. But he also looked positively thrilled. “It’s a lady Bruce! A femme-Banner. A…Other Gal. A Her-”
“She-Hulk,” she interrupted him, politely. Standing there with her hands on her hips she looked intimidating enough, but then she stretched out a hand and offered it to Stark for a shake. Her fingers and palm practically dwarfed his head. “Also known as Jennifer Walters.”
“Not Banner?” Stark queried, as he gamely took that offered handshake after only a moment’s hesitance. She did her obvious best to be gentle with him, and not squash his bones flat.
“Nope. I’m Bruce’s younger cousin.” She tossed her head absently, stirring a wave of thick green hair. “A few years’ back I was in an accident, and I needed a blood transfusion. There was only one available choice.”
“I see that worked out well,” Stark observed. Banner, at last, managed a smile, though it was nervous and strange.
“I do have a cousin named Jennifer,” he offered. “But she’s never been in any accident, as far as I know.”
“You can still…you know: talk,” Barton put it, carefully. “And you’re aware of what’s going on around you.”
“Without any aggression or personality differences,” Romanov added, looking at her with shrewd interest.
“Yeah. No one can really explain it. The best theory is by the time it got to me, the original process had become more diluted.” She shrugged, and then grinned. “But, hey, the good news is, it worked out pretty good for me. My biggest problem is not shulking-out in a courtroom.” Off their puzzled glances she added, “I’m a lawyer. Top of my class at UCLA!”
“Best lawyer ever,” Stark abruptly declared.
“Well this is all…fascinating.” Steve cleared his throat. “And I really do mean that. But I think it’s time we moved past this and onto the more glaring part. What are the five of you doing here?”
“Yeah,” Tony interjected, “and how come it’s only you guys?” Steve shot an exasperated look this way, because more questions were not helping. “Why not the whole team? Or is this…what there is of the team, now?”
“No,” the other Steve reassured him, quickly. “There have been a few changes to group over the years, sure. But most of the originals have stayed.”
“And while new players have come and gone, me and Carol are the only ones you wouldn’t be familiar with that are around right now,” Miss Walters added.
“And Wanda,” Captain Danvers reminded her. “Oh, I wish you guys could get to meet Wanda. She is amazing. She’d blow your mind.”
“Wanda?” Steve asked, despite himself.
“Scarlet Witch,” the other Stark explained. “She’s a mutant with the power to play with the laws of probability.”
“I don’t get it,” Barton said. “How is that impressive?”
“She’s also been ranked as having an Omega-class power level.”
That didn’t mean much of anything to Steve, but Stark and Banner openly gaped.
“Wait…wouldn’t that mean-?”
“Yeah,” the other Stark finished before his counterpart had to, deadpan. “It means exactly what you think it does.” Before anyone could ask any more questions, though, he hurried on: “The point is…we weren’t sure whether bringing Wanda along might cause a slight…instability, in the fabric between our neighboring dimensions.” He weaved his fingers together, as if to illustrate. “Same reason we brought the new girls along and kept the familiar faces to a minimum. Less covalent subatomic flux.”
“Also we figured it’d be less disorienting,” the other Steve added.
“Good call,” Barton had to admit. He looked back and forth between where the two Thors were locked in a staring contest, the one from their own dimension overwhelmed while the other one seemed more just perplexed. “Because I gotta say, this is all weird enough as it is.”
Banner was still giving his ‘cousin’ a side-eye. “Yeah. No kidding.”
“You wear the armor of a ruler.”
They all jumped a bit without realizing when their Thor suddenly spoke. It hit Steve that he hadn’t said a word since their arrival - a fact which made everything seem awkward and overly silent. Thor wasn’t as bad as Stark, but he was hardly the type to hang back and say nothing either.
His voice though seemed quieter than usual. There was still that touch of awe in his face, bordered by disbelief. He gazed upon his older double with wide blue eyes as he continued.
“It is raiment that could be worthy only of a king of Asgard.” He met the other Thor’s eyes, softly questioning, a mixture of hopeful and troubled. “Does…this mean-?”
“Aye,” the other confirmed with a solemn smile. “Though he does yet still live, some years before Father stepped down, and I rose to inherit the throne from him.” He raised his gaze a bit towards the heavens, and stated in a voice that could only be called regal, “I now stand, sole ruler of the Realm Eternal.”
Thor was struck. Barton gave a low whistle. Stark reached forward to pat the Asgardian on the shoulder.
“Wow,” he commented. “Promotion. Congratulations.”
“I am only glad to hear that it did not come on the wake of my father’s passing,” Thor said, humbly.
The other Thor said nothing but gave an understanding smile. Though he looked no older physically, it did explain how he seemed to carry himself with a more serious air. Why he seemed so…well, kingly.
“Understandably, perhaps, I spend less time on Earth with the others now than I would like.” The other Thor looked to the Avengers that had come with him, a gaze both fierce and fond. “But they know, should any true evil ever threaten their world with harm, I will be there to lend aid in stopping it.”
“Yeah.” The other Tony toyed with his silver-streaked hair indifferently. “That’s pretty much the way it stands with all of us. I mean, we’re hardly the only hero game in the business, these days. Our signal goes out strictly for end-of-the-world stuff.”
He pointed to Bruce. “With the exception of our friend here, I’m afraid. Our version of Big Green went on sabbatical awhile back. Decided to go walk the wilderness and re-isolate himself. Part of the reason why we tapped Jenny here to replace him.”
“I see,” Dr. Banner said quietly. The face of the Tony standing right next to him was temporarily unreadable.
“But what we saw when we gazed into your realm across the veil,” Thor questioned, in a tone that made Steve wonder if he was trying to be distracting as much as he was actually interested. “It can be hard to tell, with your kind, but as Stark pointed out, none of you seem to have gotten much older. For myself, I understand; it takes many years to age an Asgardian, but…”
“Well Stark already explained that, for himself,” Steve reminded them, more than glad to keep the conversation moving. “And for me I can only assume it has to do with the super-soldier formula.”
It was something he wasn’t really surprised by, though he tried not to think about it, because it made him sick to think he might never grow old. But he’d already gathered or guessed that the rate his body changed been severely slowed down. So in twenty years, he supposed, it might make sense that he’d look barely any different.
“The Red Room did more than augment me mentally,” Romanov put in, coolly. “They altered my cells. I probably age more slowly, now, also.”
Wordlessly the five of them turned to look at Barton. But he shook his head, evidently as much at a loss for an explanation as they were.
“Well.” The other Steve coughed, then spoke in a voice Steve himself recognized: it was what he sounded like when he really didn’t want to talk about something. “Clint was actually dead for a couple of years. So he didn’t age for those.”
“Oh.” Barton sounded completely unbothered by the implications of that statement. “Yeah. I guess that explains it.”
Banner and Thor both stared at him, and Stark raised a finger as well as an eyebrow. “Now, wait just a second…”
“No.” Steve spoke up firmly at first, though he had to swallow around the dryness in his throat. “I understand we’re all curious, and reasonably so. But if we stand around comparing notes we’ll be here forever.”
“The Captain’s right,” Agent Romanov backed him. “We’ve already spent a lot of time talking. I’m guessing your group went to a lot of trouble to come here because you had to tell us something important.”
Tony made a sound, underwhelmed by her words. “You can say that again.” He raised an arm, indicating the equipment around them. “Jury-rigging a space, even a small isolated one, for hip-hopping between dimensions? I don’t get many chances to say this, but considering the source I have no qualms about it - I am spectacularly impressed.”
He looked to his other-worldly counterpart, who gave a far from humble half-bow.
“Thank you, thank you. You’re too kind. Well…no, go on.”
“Ah, geeze.” Steve placed his fingertips on the bridge of his nose, pinching his eyes shut.
“The part that I don’t get though is how you managed to do all of it so fast,” Stark continued, earnestly, thinking aloud. “I mean the basic set-up is one thing. But the coordinates? How’d you fine-tune it? Not to mention, the power-source…by conventional thermodynamics, it’d have to be astronomical. How’d you find a way around that?”
Steve was bracing for a barrage of yet more scientific words and phrases he didn’t understand. So it was to his complete surprise when the other Stark fell silent. He looked back up.
The other Stark didn’t appear so cocky anymore. He had a subdued, sheepish look on his face.
The rest of his Avengers had grown quiet as well. They exchanged quick glances with another, conferring wordlessly over some unknown subject. The other Thor in particular looked anxious - and the other version of Steve held his ground like he was bracing for something.
“Actually.” Other Stark sighed, guiltily. “For that part, I needed some help.”
“From whom?” Steve asked, nerves on edge. Everyone was acting like they were about to say something they knew the others wouldn’t like to hear.
There was an odd sound, a muffled crack like a firecracker going off from far away. And then the air shifted; for a fraction of a second everyone felt suddenly colder.
The other Thor took a reluctant, sliding step, moving a little to one side. And there in the space behind him - where Steve at once realized his eyes had kept drifting away from, unconsciously, the whole time without him noticing - there was a patch of shadow in what should have been an area well-lit by the surrounding lights.
The shadows moved and wavered, disappearing gradually before them, like layers of a curtain being peeled away.
And once the shadows were gone a figure was revealed. A tall figure dressed in green and gold.
Steve felt an instinctive, revolted sense of recognition, like a surprise punch low in the gut.
Loki lifted his eyes and gazed back at all of them, evenly.
The team reacted in an instant, faster than any of them could even form a train of thought.
“Oh, you have gotta be kidding me.” Stark’s voice was low, a scoffing and displeased sound. Steve swiftly and warily planted his feet; from the corner of his eye he spotted Romanov raising her arms in a defensive stance, expression guarded and ready.
Thor was visibly astonished but he had set his mouth grimly, and his hammer jumped to his hand. The look he gave Loki was fraught with complexity and pain. But it was a far from loving one.
Dr. Banner moved back, like he was trying to get out of the way of potential danger. But he leaned like on the verge of going into a crouch, and for a moment his eyes flashed quickly green.
“You son of a bitch,” Barton swore. He already had his bow up and was drawing back an arrow.
But in response to their reactions, the other version of the Avengers reacted fast as well.
With alarmed looks, both of the younger women on the team took up battle-ready positions. Walters put herself in a spot where she was ready to tackle either Thor or Bruce. Danvers rushed out to the apex between the two groups and held out her arm, palm flat and aimed like it was a weapon. Steve noticed a bright golden glow starting to emerge from her fingertips.
Meanwhile, the three doppelganger Avengers were speaking all at once.
“No, no,” the other Thor shouted, moving back again so his brother’s body was partially shielded by his own. “You do not understand!”
The other Steve had also moved in, planting himself between Loki and his counterpart with one hand lifted in a pacifying gesture. “Now hang on!”
“Whoa. Whoa!” It was the other Stark who dove in the middle between everyone, yelling, an arm stretched out to either side like he was trying to force them all back. “Stop! Everyone just cool it for a minute, all right?”
Head turning sharply he looked back and forth at both parties, willing them to stand down.
For about twenty seconds it was nothing but tense silence, darting eyes, the sounds of people breathing hard.
It was Loki, at last, who spoke without preamble, his voice soft but otherwise toneless. “You don’t imagine I intend to do anything to hurt you, do I - not with all of them standing as they are in my way?”
A few of them twitched - but it was a good point. Steve lowered his fists; he sensed more than saw the others on his team doing the same. The only one who didn’t move was Barton.
Danvers had her focus on him. “Don’t make me hurt you, Clint,” she told him, warningly. That glow was still coming from her outstretched palm. “What’s it gonna be?”
The archer didn’t give any sign he even heard her. His gaze was entirely on Loki, across the room, and he never blinked.
But in the next second a breath went out of him, and he lowered his weapon back down with a disgruntled look on his face.
Steve waited before he felt better assured everyone was relatively calm before turning to meet the eyes of his other version. He figured if there was anyone he could hold accountable for this, it was himself.
He demanded, brusquely, “What’s the meaning of this?”
The other Steve squared his shoulders. His body moved like he was giving out a sigh. But he didn’t say anything; it was the other Stark who answered.
“He’s here because we needed his help,” the man explained, in an adamant, overly-reasonable type of voice. “You asked how we could put this whole thing together so fast, and there’s your answer. Maybe I could’ve worked it out with the tech alone but we didn’t have the time.” He flicked his fingers. “It took a combo platter of magic and science to pull this whole act off.”
“So you made a deal with the devil?” Banner quipped.
The other Stark blinked. And then he turned aside to give Loki a bemused expression.
“Wow. Guess your PR here is in even worse shape.” He hesitated. “Or…better, depending on what you’re going for.”
The would-be god’s gaze moved sideways and downwards, throat working as he pensively avoided meeting anyone’s eyes.
“Believe me, this is not what I am ‘going for’. And it hasn’t been for a long time.”
A beat of silence followed as Steve and his allies stared incredulously.
“Wait. What?” Stark said slowly. “Are you telling me…?”
“Yeah.” The other version pointed a thumb at the man in question over his shoulder. “Loki’s not on the public enemy list anymore. He got his bad-guy card revoked, sheesh, a while back.”
“Relatively long,” Loki remarked flatly, looking up again.
“That’s not exactly helping your case,” the other Stark stage-muttered.
“We’ve never even fought him.” Danvers indicated herself and Miss Walters, who nodded to back her up. “Only heard about him by reputation. But he was ancient history from the Avengers’ rogues gallery by the time I showed up. Hell, he’s even pinch-hit with us a couple of times! When Wanda’s not enough to magic missile something into oblivion.”
“Or that Dr. Strange guy can’t be reached on speed-dial,” Walters chimed in.
“The point is, I don’t know what the state of things is in your world,” the other Steve spoke up, resolute and serious, “but you have nothing to fear from him. Loki - this Loki, our Loki, stopped attacking people on Earth a long time ago.”
Steve held his double’s gaze for a minute or two, not certain what to feel about that. His other self returned the look without falter. After a bit he gave slight movement, a nod of his head - ‘Trust me’.
Sure. Easily enough said. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t believe what his other self and the rest of them were saying. But it was…grating, in a way, to see it acted out. To watch Loki and him, and Thor, and Tony, all standing around together like nothing had ever been wrong.
After everything Loki had done to the city, to people Steve knew and cared about, to humanity in general. Somehow it felt on a base level like an insult, a dishonor to the memory of those things, to have Loki so simply vindicated, his crimes of what was still very recent past set aside.
Everyone, Steve supposed, deserved a second chance. But looking at it without the benefit of those intervening years between them, it didn’t seem real. Or right.
“Well. You know what, that’s just great.” Tony made a point of taking a few steps backward, turning around only to have to twist at the waist to look back at them again. “Terrific. Glad to hear that everything works out for you!”
The other version of Stark stared at him, offended and somewhat puzzled. Like he couldn’t think of why his counterpart in particular was taking this so hard.
“All right then,” the other Steve said, with a kind of resignation. Then a particularly jarring sight, at least for Steve personally, happened when his double addressed Loki briefly, resting a friendly hand on his shoulder.
“You gonna be okay?” he asked, voice quiet.
Loki brushed him off, but in non-combative fashion, and spoke in a manner indicating equal amiability. “That is not important. We can’t stay here much longer,” he addressed the group at large, more firmly. “I kept quiet while you had your other matters to settle, but enough is enough. Please. We must reach the reason we had to come.”
Romanov had put her guns away and had her arms crossed uniformly. She was keeping an eye on Loki, observing, reading him carefully.
“That reason being why I assume you got involved,” she gathered. “The threat they wanted to warn us about.”
Both teams of Avengers eyed her with varying degrees of surprise at her coming to that conclusion, but it was easy to see from the faces of the visitors that she was exactly right.
The secret agent almost, almost smiled. But her eyes were devoid of any warmth.
“Selene,” she finished, still looking at Loki. “This is about you.”
“Well, yeah,” the other Stark admitted, finally, after a pause. “From a close-up perspective, yes, it is about him. But in a bigger picture sense? Not so much.”
“I don’t believe this,” Barton said. Coming from almost anyone else he would’ve sounded calm - but for him his voice was low, dark, hard; practically a growl. The muscles around his jaw had tightened, subtly, in anger, and the grip on his bow was like a vice.
“You’re telling me that this, all this, is about him?” He jerked his chin in Loki’s direction, the motion so quick it was more like a spasm. Like he hated to even spare that much of an effort. “You guys put out the call and made us all come running, risking who knows what kind of interdimensional backlash, and for what? To tell us the earth-shattering news that somebody is pissed off at this guy?”
He pointed, the rest of his body language shifting. Steve swore it looked like he was on the verge of walking out of the room.
“It was barely worth registering when we thought this woman was after our own, homegrown version of this psychopath. If you guys are on such great terms now, then that’s perfect: you look out for him, if he’s the one she’s really after.” He exhaled tightly, mouth dropping even further into a frown. “I don’t see how any of this is any of our problem.”
Romanov had shifted her position, facing her partner while not turning away from her initial direction. She’d lowered her head, so that she watched Barton’s outburst from half-lidded, upturned eyes.
But she didn’t say anything. No one else, certainly Steve least of all, seemed to know what to say either.
After a beat, Loki tried, “I imagine you must certainly have your reasons for feeling as you do about me-”
“Shut up,” Barton cut him off, sharp and disdainful. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Hey,” the other Steve protested in an angry, instinctive sort of way. The whole thing was giving Steve a sick twinge of pain in his chest.
But Barton continued like he hadn’t spoken. “You don’t ‘imagine’ anything,” he hurled at Loki. “You either know what you did, or you don’t. Either way there’s nothing you can do about it.”
The other Thor came closer forward, his face darkening in a warning. “The man in the land at my back who shares your face and name is one I consider a lifelong friend and a worthy ally. But take care, Sir Barton. My brother is not here for you to insult so lightly.”
“Trust me,” their own Thor broke in, his face in just as serious a scowl. “He does nothing lightly. And the words he speaks on this matter are more than fitting.”
The Thor who was a king stared back at the younger one, taken aback, matching righteous anger with righteous indignation. For an incredibly tense moment it looked like the two would fly at each other, and the worst possible kind of a fight would break forward.
But Loki took a step bringing him nearly next to the other Thor. He reached out to grasp him tightly by the wrist, holding him back.
“No, brother,” he hissed intently, warning. “Don’t.”
Still frowning, the other Thor glanced at him, but visibly began calming down right there as he listened.
As to their own version of Thor he physically flinched, his expression stricken, staring at how the two brothers interacted with such a wide, haunted look in his eyes.
Loki…no, Steve realized; the other Loki. For he was as distinctly different and separate a man from the one they knew as their own counterparts, if not even more so.
Now that he was really looking at the Asgardian he could see how much had changed. If that Thor seemed somehow older, then that Loki almost seemed to be younger - there was a quiet earnestness about him that Steve had never known the Loki he’d fought to possess.
He wore the same color scheme they were used to seeing, and an outfit just as oddly-designed and complicated, but it had no padding, no metal - just a few strips of leather. It couldn’t even properly be called ‘armor’. It hit Steve that it was probably what in their world served as his civvies, as everyday clothes. His hair was much shorter, neater; still long by modern Earth standards but kept combed smoothly back. His face was pale but a healthy pale - the Loki they knew better always looked malnourished or sickly.
And that Loki constantly burned with a manic, dangerous energy. You could see his rage, his sadistic tendencies in every line of his expression, like he didn’t know how to hide what he was, or simply didn’t care. He was always sneering, or glaring, or grinning with an abnormal light dancing in his eyes.
But this Loki was calm. Collected. He carried himself with the same kind of ingrained dignity that Thor did, and none of violent overconfidence Steve was so used to seeing.
He stood there quiet with his mouth set in a line. Barring a little weariness his expression was composed; still and patient, even almost graceful for how perfect his composure. The only time he had frowned was when Barton had aimed recriminations at him. And then, it was with an air of resignation.
Sure, Loki was first and foremost incapable of trustworthiness. He lived to deceive. But it didn’t seem possible even he was that good an actor.
It came over Steve slowly, dawning on him bit by bit until it started to sink in and turned into a sweeping realization. Could this have been what the Loki from their dimension used to be like?
Had they successfully turned back the clock now that he’d been rehabilitated? Or maybe he’d never gone so far bad at the start?
As much as he had sympathized with his teammate before, Steve thought he finally understood. If this was what Thor was clinging to the ghost of every time he looked at his destructive, delusional, utterly ravaged brother…no wonder he found it so hard, letting go.
“Let them talk.” The words fell from Steve’s mouth before he had time to think about it. “We might as well.”
The other Stark nodded in swift, wordless thanks. “Look, you really don’t understand,” he told the others. “Sure, it’s true, it all has got to do with Loki. But it’s about so much more than that.”
“Like what?” For quite some time now Bruce had been hanging back to the rear of the group, rubbing his hands together in an absent, nervous gesture. It was something of a relief to see he was still hanging on to the conversation.
“The moment Thor told us he spotted a version of Selene in your universe, we knew you were in danger,” other Steve stated. “How much have you learned about her?”
“Probably all the Cliff notes.” Stark shrugged. “She’s supposed to be incredibly powerful, and she’s definitely incredibly pissed off. At Loki.” He used his whole hand to indicate the Asgardian. “From what we’ve gathered she must originally from your world, where the two of you fought at some point before. Now she’s trying to find her way back home for revenge, and she’s using the corpses of every Loki she comes across in the process as her stepping stones.”
“You know the breadth of the matter, but not the depth,” Loki had to say in reply. “She is far more dangerous than you seem to realize. I am her goal, and she will target my counterpart in your realm to get to me, yes. But she will not stop there.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Barton demanded.
The other Thor came forward once more, drawing himself up as so as to demand attention. It was something their own Thor seemed to do at times unconsciously. With this one it was much more practiced and purposeful.
“Selene is no mere sorceress. She is not to be underestimated.” The thunder god stressed every word, face beneath his thick beard taut with anxiety and somberness and anger. “She is thousands of years old; older than my brother is, older than myself. She fought against our father in his youth.”
“Your father,” Banner repeated. “As in, Odin who is so old, the ancient Vikings said he must have created all things?”
The gravity of what the others were trying to tell them was definitely weighing on them all now.
“She’s empowered by darkest magic.” Loki’s voice was softly intense, making his words seem less like hyperbole and more a deadly warning. “She is a creature that feeds on the essence of others. You will know her as a psychic vampire. Do not let her near you. Don’t let her touch you, if it can be helped. She’ll destroy you, and in the process make herself stronger.”
Tony’s voice was hoarsely strained. “What in the hell did you do to send her after you in the first place?”
Loki’s mouth twitched in a note of irony. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We fought. I tried to kill her. But I could not. I failed; instead I was forced to send her away, imprison her out of time and out of mind.”
“Did you think you’d never have to face her again?” Romanov asked. It was impossible to tell if she was suspicious or merely curious.
“I imagined she would most likely escape, eventually. Though I expected it would take much longer.”
Steve looked away from him and back to the others. Banner and Stark were lost in thought. Thor was watching the double of his brother carefully, his expression closely guarded. Romanov hadn’t moved. Barton had retreated away from everyone and to a corner, watching them all through narrowed eyes.
“All right,” Steve said, at last. “It’s much worse than we thought. There’s more to it, and we have to be careful. But why come all the way to give us the warning?”
“They call Selene the ‘Kinslayer’ back on Asgard,” the other version of Stark broke in. “Care to guess why?”
There was a knot in Steve’s throat, again. “I think I have a feeling.”
“When the All-Father and one of his mortal allies fought Selene,” other Thor’s voice was almost musical in his empathetic grief, “between them they lost a love, a sibling, and two friends. Like a true monster, it isn’t enough to slaughter her victims - she must attack them at the heart as well.”
“Our version of Loki doesn’t give a damn about anyone other than himself,” Stark said bluntly.
It took the Loki that was present a moment to respond to that. When he did, it looked as if his smile was forced.
“Ah, but Selene might not know that.”
“Well that’s just…isn’t that wonderful.” Stark made a sardonic noise, face twisted into a bitterly amused expression. “So you’re telling us that we might as well have targets on our backs, because of a connection to a guy who would gladly kill us all himself?”
“I don’t know.” Loki was clearly restraining his temper. “Believe me if I had any solid answers, I wouldn’t be wasting your time. I’d be doing something about it.”
“So what are you doing, then?” Barton straightened up. “With whatever ‘answers’ you do have.”
Loki didn’t respond verbally. He stared back unblinkingly, not quite a glare but close, exhaling so heavily his shoulders gradually lowered.
“Look, maybe nothing will come of all this,” the other Steve spoke up again. “Selene might not come after anyone but Loki; we don’t really know what she’s been up to in the other worlds she’s visited, besides the obvious. But now that she knows you’re adjacent to the one place she does want to reach, it seems likely she’s gonna be coming your way.”
“You guys can finger-point all you want,” Captain Danvers burst in, eyes wide and brows raised behind her mask. “But if you think what’s happening here has nothing to do with you, you’re taking a big chance. When she arrives this woman is going to rip through your world like a hurricane. It’s in everyone’s best interests to get ready.”
“So what do you suggest we do?” Agent Romanov asked them.
The other Stark, Thor, Steve and Loki all exchanged a glance. “Keep an eye out for her,” the first man offered. “Don’t engage, if you don’t have to. But don’t give her the chance to plant any daggers in your back.”
“I assume your team will be doing the same from your side?” Steve didn’t ask as much as infer.
“Yeah. But unless she finds a back door it still looks like she’ll be coming to you first. You’re in the middle of her route.”
“SHIELD certainly has the surveillance resources,” Romanov said easily. “It shouldn’t be too much of a task for them to start looking for her as well, once Director Fury is advised of the gravity of the situation.”
“Ah, SHIELD under Nick Fury,” the other Stark commented lightly, a nostalgic look on his face as he quirked his head the other Steve’s direction. The second man’s mouth moved in a half-smile in response, nodding to show he remembered. “Now those were the days.”
“They were certainly something.” The other Thor chuckled.
“Do you guys still work with SHIELD all the time?” Dr. Banner was prompted to ask curiously, pointing.
“Ah. Well. We’re still on pretty good terms,” other Tony remarked conversationally. “There are a lot of partnerships - Ms. Marvelous here was actually one of their agents for a while.”
“Yeah.” Her voice was dry. “But we did not part on good terms.”
Miss Walters raised her hand. “And I was never on good terms with them to begin with. At one point, they were trying to hunt me down just like Bruce. I’m to understand it’s a slightly different place under Maria Hill.”
“Uh oh, Hill took over.” Tony came back to full alertness, glancing first to Banner and then to Steve. “You owe me a fifty.”
“That was never an official bet,” Steve grumbled.
“Yeah, well.” Other Stark smacked his palms together, speaking with partial reluctance. “If you want to know the truth, what I think really made most of us lose interest was Coulson retiring.” Another look to the other Steve, who nodded with a sound of agreement. “It’s really almost not even worth dealing with them, anymore.”
Steve felt a river of ice slide down his back. The blood rushed away from his ears.
“What did you just say?”
He could feel the fixed eyes of the others behind him. To a one they all stood temporarily speechless.
Barton at last found a reason worth moving in closer.
“Phil Coulson. Special agent for SHIELD. You said your version of him…retired?”
“I know, right?” Other Stark waved a hand in joking disbelief. “I honestly don’t know how they even managed it. If there ever was a guy that was married to his job-”
“Our version of Coulson is dead,” Barton spoke over him. After raising his voice abruptly to get attention, he lowered it with a note of respect. “Killed in action. Been gone nearly a year now.”
The mood of the entire room instantly shifted. Shock and dismay settled into the faces of the visitors.
“What?” The other Stark seemed stuck on the disbelief level of receiving the news. “He…? No.”
Other Thor had recovered the fastest of them, and now stood with head bowed, gaze lowered respectfully to the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” the other Steve said - an honest, heartfelt acknowledgement for the loss of a soldier. For a moment Steve had to set his teeth and shut his eyes. “Phil Coulson was a good man, and a good friend to us, for many years. I’m sure you must’ve deeply felt his loss.”
“We did,” Romanov stated in succinct, quiet truth. “It’d be fair to say we still do.”
Other Steve nodded, understanding. “Of course.”
“How did he die?” Of course it was the other version of Stark that had to ask. “I mean, what happened to him?”
No one spoke. Steve didn’t dare look in the direction of where Loki stood, right beside his brother. Neither did Dr. Banner, or Agent Romanov. Agent Barton gazed off heatedly into space.
But Tony? Tony was looking right at him; eyes bright with emotion and unblinking, his mouth barely trembling from the effort of keeping it pressed into a hard, furious line.
Between where he was looking and where the rest were pointedly not, realization gradually dawned on the faces of the others.
“Oh god,” Miss Walters breathed, softly.
With morbid curiosity Steve had to look now, because he wanted to see how this version of Loki was going to react. It sounded as if he might have even known Coulson on their world. Would the news of what happened have any impact?
The immediate answer appeared to be ‘yes’, which he supposed in itself didn’t surprise him that much. But like a lot of things with Loki the reaction was…subtle.
Steve missed what his expression might have looked like when he first heard the news. By the time eyes were back on him, Loki had that steady, brittle air about him of a man who is breathing deep and schooling his face into not giving any emotion.
He turned his head slowly to the side, as if trying to find the most unobtrusive way to hide out of sight, while his brother was staring at him aghast and with obvious concern.
Not all the Avengers were looking at Loki, though. Maybe half of them were. The other half was watching their counterparts, everyone waiting to see how everyone else would react. What anyone at this point could possibly say. The tension held a definite feeling of challenge.
“No, no,” Steve said out loud, before any of the others could make the mistake of trying to answer it. “Nobody say anything. Not a word, you hear me?” He looked not just at them but his own people as well. “There’s nothing that can be said to that.”
He shifted on his feet, standing straight and tall as he addressed the dimensional visitors, already bringing himself closer to his people.
“Thank you all, for coming. For everything you told us,” he said to them. “Now, I think we’re done here.”
The other Thor’s lips parted instinctively, as if to protest. The other Steve brushed against his forearm, a stilling gesture.
“Yes,” the other Steve agreed. “I guess we are.”
*
“You’re coming armed to this?” Steve had to remark, bemused, as he watched both Barton and Romanov checking over their weapons.
“Better safe than sorry,” was Barton’s abrupt response. He slid another extra arrow shaft into his quiver, eliciting a sharp, brief mechanical sound as he made the practiced movement over his shoulder.
The other agent glanced up from where she’d been bending forward to pull an extra ammo clip from her boot, meeting Steve’s eyes. Her response was more serious; “We don’t know what we’re walking into. This could be a trick of Loki’s.”
“I doubt that.” Stark gave a grunt of dismissal, shrugging. “He wasn’t even there for what all happened. After Selene broke out of her cage, he beat pavement.”
“He did what?” Thor looked to him, puzzled.
Stark sighed, opened his mouth briefly, and then seemingly just decided to ignore him.
“Still.” Romanov straightened, giving her belt and gauntlets one final adjustment. “Until we’ve a better idea what’s going on, like Clint said - better safe than sorry.”
“Words to live by,” Steve was forced to agree.
Turning towards the hallway he gave one last look across the others.
“Everybody ready?”
“As we’ll ever be.” Dr. Banner waved a hand in a gesture to indicate they should start walking. “Let’s go. This should be very interesting.”
The six of them started moving, together. Steve stole a glance to his right and left; they weren’t exactly in a formation, but whether or not it was intentional the group had spread out so they were more or less in a staggered line, flanking him, since of course he had ended up taking point.
It was an odd visual, no doubt. The two agents suited up and Thor in his ever-present armor, but the doctor in a wrinkled button-down shirt and khakis, Stark in jeans and a t-shirt, and Steve with his cowl down, without his shield.
It was just the team, and only them. Apparently whoever Hill had spoken to had made it clear they only wanted this conference to be between one version of the team and the other.
Surprisingly, though he obviously wasn’t happy about it, Fury had decided to go along. It wasn’t quite clear whether it was the Avengers themselves as a concept or the inter-dimensional aspect that had him intimidated to a state of wariness. Either way; evidently he didn’t want to push his luck by making another version of the group of super-beings he well knew the capabilities of angry.
As they walked steadily, closing the gap to one of the strangest encounters they might ever have, Steve realized he was feeling wary himself.
Not because he thought this might be a trap or the other Avengers might turn out to be enemies. Whether or not it was optimistic of him, he felt already inclined to view them as allies.
But he was on-edge anyway, because in this situation there simply didn’t seem any other way to be. They were going face-to-face with alternate versions of themselves, of people they already knew. Yet another impossible thing he would barely even be able to dream of, and here it was happening.
It didn’t seem simple to go into this with a cool head. He didn’t know what to expect.
There was a length of corridor up ahead that was normally familiar. He must’ve walked it a hundred times, whenever he was on the Helicarrier. The stretch of wall to his right was the same. But there was a door in it, just a single unobtrusive door, where it shouldn’t have been. Where there had never been a door before.
“This must be it.” Stark took in the fact they were all lingering there, uncertain, with aplomb. “Ladies first,” he offered grandly.
Romanov looked to him, and gave the cool raise of an eyebrow.
“Or not.” He coughed. “Of course, I meant Captain Rogers…”
“Knock it off,” Steve told him, irate but subdued. They were all anxious, their nerves on high alert; they knew each other well enough he could see it at a glance.
“Maybe we should take a moment to prepare ourselves for the likely possibility we’re about to be dealing with two Tonys at once,” Banner pointed out mildly.
Tony brightened as at the same time Romanov’s eyes became shuttered, Thor grimaced and Barton audibly groaned. “Hey now, that’s right. There’s a thought.”
“Well we won’t find out standing out here.” Steve did his best to sound decisive. “Come on.”
The doorknob turned easily under his hand. One step, and just like that, they were in.
He honestly wished he could’ve had his wits about him to try and make a better first impression. But the truth of it was, the first thing Steve did was only stand there, blinking stupidly.
Finding themselves suddenly in what appeared to be an exact duplicate of the carrier’s command center wasn’t something he had anticipated. He couldn’t be sure, but he was pretty sure the same went for the others as well.
“Well, this is a little underwhelming.” Tony strolled past one of the computer terminals, and then stopped in his tracks, doing a double-take. “I take that right back,” he said excitedly, pointing. “Bruce, come look at this. Is that…?”
What came next was a long stream of pure technobabble that Steve didn’t even try to translate. The overview he was getting seemed to be that the technology in this room was far advanced compared to where they were at with the present day. But he honestly couldn’t tell - too much was still alien-looking to him, especially when it came to SHIELD technology.
“A glad welcome to you, Avengers of the neighboring realm!”
At the disconcertingly familiar voice, Steve turned and beheld a second version of Thor standing there, waving one arm with a smile on his face. He looked exactly like the one they already knew except his hair was shorter, coming only just about to his shoulders, and his armor was much grander and more ornate.
“Oh. Hey there.” Stark looked up from whatever he and Bruce had been bending over to give the second Asgardian a look of his own. “Well. This is gonna be interesting.”
Thor himself - the one from their reality - was gazing at his counterpart, speechless. Following his gaze Steve was struck that he seemed to be mainly focused on the golden inlays of the other Thor’s armor. He appeared almost awed.
Maybe, Steve considered, there was some significance to that. Perhaps there was a denotation of rank in the design, the way the military used bars on their uniforms.
Romanov meanwhile was taking a few steps forward, her attitude as cool and composed as if something like this happened every day. “I take it you’re the ones who called us here.”
“Yeah. Isn’t it spectacular?” This time it was a second version of Tony Stark who spoke. He was wearing a turtleneck and slacks, hands tucked in his pockets casually as he came forward to meet them. His remark seemed to be directed at his own double, who he smiled at and gestured to. “Go on. Take a look around. Drink it all in.”
“Oh, I’m drinking, believe me.” The Stark of their world responded to the other in a way that was positively animated. “Was it my - I mean, your tech that you used to pull this off? Or was it SHIELD’s?”
“Little of column A, little of column B.” The other Stark laid a finger to the side of his nose and winked. “Never could’ve done it without me, of course, but I had to borrow a few of their resources.”
Bruce smiled, only mildly bemused. “I see.”
“The command deck of the Helicarrier was the easiest space to rig for cross-dimensional transport. Plus, we figured it’d be a good idea to set this conference in a place that’d be more familiar to you.” Other Stark glanced over his shoulder, addressing a blonde woman leaning over a set of controls. “How’s she doing there, Danvers?”
“Readings coming back all consistent and stable. I’d say she’s holding steady, cap’n.”
With a bright look in her eyes and cheery smirk, the woman pivoted around gracefully and walked over to meet them. She wore a black cat-suit of a combat uniform, with bare arms, black gloves, and a bright red sash around her waist. Her curtain of straight blonde hair fell around a face half-hidden behind a black mask. She had a tall proud bearing, a posture that transmitted confidence loud and clear.
Positioning herself near Steve, she met his eyes and offered a professional salute.
“Carol Danvers. Air Force,” she introduced herself smartly. “The civilians know me mainly as Ms. Marvel.”
Steve returned the salute, finding her immediately likable. “Pleasure to meet you, Captain Danvers,” he said, guessing at her rank. He wasn’t corrected, so he must’ve gotten it in one.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw white and blue - he prepared himself as he turned around, asking, “So, your version of the team is a little different than from our own.”
Sure enough, he was face to face with…himself. Even concealed underneath a slightly different Captain America uniform (less emphasis on the stars and stripes, a little more dark in color) was the serum-augmented face and body he had gotten used to seeing in the mirror.
The other Steve Rogers stood with his arms crossed, his expression slightly sympathetic; as if knew they both were probably feeling a little uneasy right about now.
“I think it’s more likely that we started with the same team, and there have been changes over time,” he offered as explanation.
Stark took a step closer to the other Stark, pointing at him. “I knew it. I thought you looked older.”
“Yeah.” Other Stark nodded. “By our best guess, you guys are probably, what…2012, 2013? Not long after the original team came together? We’re from a good…two decades into the future.”
“Two decades,” Stark repeated. He squinted as he leaned in closer to the older version, eyeing him more like a statue or a specimen than another person. “My god. I’ve aged well.”
Carol Danvers stood with her arms behind her back, one wrist clasped in the other hand, right next to where the other Steve still stood with his arms folded. At the repartee between the two Starks, they exchanged a dry, ‘doesn’t it just figure’ kind of look.
“I know, right?” The other Stark grinned, completely unbothered. “Well. Extremis helps with that.”
“Extremis?” Tony blinked. “What’s Extremis?”
The other Stark paused for a second, startled. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then gave his counterpart a scrutinizing, conspiratorial look.
“You and I, we should…talk later, if we get a chance.”
“Friend Anthony,” other Thor objected loudly, sounding disappointed but not very surprised. “What did we discuss beforehand about meddling in the development of another world’s science or future?”
“Come on; he’d probably get there eventually! I’m just giving a little boost…” He trailed off at the look other Steve was giving him. “No? Fine, then. You’re no fun.”
“Wow.” Stark looked to his own version of Steve, sardonically. “The more things change…”
Steve didn’t feel that warranted a response. He scowled back at him.
“Hang on here,” Barton demanded, frowning, as he dialed the conversation back. “So not just parallel dimensions, but time travel?”
“Is that really so outlandish?” Banner remarked. “All the properties and components that would have to line up in order to produce such a similar reality, the odds aren’t that good they’d also occupy a similar space in the fourth dimension.”
He shrugged, holding out one hand.
“Basic particle theory allows for the existence of other realities. It’s a simple as extrapolating from the string theorem - everything is connected. And atoms can, multiplied out into infinity, create only so many patterns in space. So if you take that and posit that every time in life someone makes a decision and undergoes an event, for every choice they make, no matter how inconsequential, there is created another practically identical reality where the alternative action was taken. Each reality continues on down its own path, and over time more and more splinter off in a similar manner…if you take that all in as possibility, then you have academically-based support for the multiverse.”
“Y’know, you are so dreamy when you do that,” Tony quipped.
“Careful, though.” Another woman’s voice spoke up. “Let him keep going, and he’s going to spring a full-fledged lecture on you, I’ll bet.”
Dr. Banner turned, and immediately fell silent, the color drained from his face.
Steve couldn’t blame him. The woman that was addressing him, though she had a calm enough look on her face, was well over six feet tall. Her body was a solid mass of toned muscle, and every inch of her was the same distinct green coloring of the Hulk.
He honestly had no idea how he’d missed seeing her before now. He must’ve just been too distracted by his own double and the ones for Thor and Stark. Though Barton and Romanov were the only ones who didn’t look shocked - either it was better concealed, or they’d noticed the green woman before and hadn’t bothered to say anything.
Steve found himself thinking they really should have said something.
“Um,” was all that Banner could apparently manage to say, staring up and up at the statuesque figure.
Tony was agog. But he also looked positively thrilled. “It’s a lady Bruce! A femme-Banner. A…Other Gal. A Her-”
“She-Hulk,” she interrupted him, politely. Standing there with her hands on her hips she looked intimidating enough, but then she stretched out a hand and offered it to Stark for a shake. Her fingers and palm practically dwarfed his head. “Also known as Jennifer Walters.”
“Not Banner?” Stark queried, as he gamely took that offered handshake after only a moment’s hesitance. She did her obvious best to be gentle with him, and not squash his bones flat.
“Nope. I’m Bruce’s younger cousin.” She tossed her head absently, stirring a wave of thick green hair. “A few years’ back I was in an accident, and I needed a blood transfusion. There was only one available choice.”
“I see that worked out well,” Stark observed. Banner, at last, managed a smile, though it was nervous and strange.
“I do have a cousin named Jennifer,” he offered. “But she’s never been in any accident, as far as I know.”
“You can still…you know: talk,” Barton put it, carefully. “And you’re aware of what’s going on around you.”
“Without any aggression or personality differences,” Romanov added, looking at her with shrewd interest.
“Yeah. No one can really explain it. The best theory is by the time it got to me, the original process had become more diluted.” She shrugged, and then grinned. “But, hey, the good news is, it worked out pretty good for me. My biggest problem is not shulking-out in a courtroom.” Off their puzzled glances she added, “I’m a lawyer. Top of my class at UCLA!”
“Best lawyer ever,” Stark abruptly declared.
“Well this is all…fascinating.” Steve cleared his throat. “And I really do mean that. But I think it’s time we moved past this and onto the more glaring part. What are the five of you doing here?”
“Yeah,” Tony interjected, “and how come it’s only you guys?” Steve shot an exasperated look this way, because more questions were not helping. “Why not the whole team? Or is this…what there is of the team, now?”
“No,” the other Steve reassured him, quickly. “There have been a few changes to group over the years, sure. But most of the originals have stayed.”
“And while new players have come and gone, me and Carol are the only ones you wouldn’t be familiar with that are around right now,” Miss Walters added.
“And Wanda,” Captain Danvers reminded her. “Oh, I wish you guys could get to meet Wanda. She is amazing. She’d blow your mind.”
“Wanda?” Steve asked, despite himself.
“Scarlet Witch,” the other Stark explained. “She’s a mutant with the power to play with the laws of probability.”
“I don’t get it,” Barton said. “How is that impressive?”
“She’s also been ranked as having an Omega-class power level.”
That didn’t mean much of anything to Steve, but Stark and Banner openly gaped.
“Wait…wouldn’t that mean-?”
“Yeah,” the other Stark finished before his counterpart had to, deadpan. “It means exactly what you think it does.” Before anyone could ask any more questions, though, he hurried on: “The point is…we weren’t sure whether bringing Wanda along might cause a slight…instability, in the fabric between our neighboring dimensions.” He weaved his fingers together, as if to illustrate. “Same reason we brought the new girls along and kept the familiar faces to a minimum. Less covalent subatomic flux.”
“Also we figured it’d be less disorienting,” the other Steve added.
“Good call,” Barton had to admit. He looked back and forth between where the two Thors were locked in a staring contest, the one from their own dimension overwhelmed while the other one seemed more just perplexed. “Because I gotta say, this is all weird enough as it is.”
Banner was still giving his ‘cousin’ a side-eye. “Yeah. No kidding.”
“You wear the armor of a ruler.”
They all jumped a bit without realizing when their Thor suddenly spoke. It hit Steve that he hadn’t said a word since their arrival - a fact which made everything seem awkward and overly silent. Thor wasn’t as bad as Stark, but he was hardly the type to hang back and say nothing either.
His voice though seemed quieter than usual. There was still that touch of awe in his face, bordered by disbelief. He gazed upon his older double with wide blue eyes as he continued.
“It is raiment that could be worthy only of a king of Asgard.” He met the other Thor’s eyes, softly questioning, a mixture of hopeful and troubled. “Does…this mean-?”
“Aye,” the other confirmed with a solemn smile. “Though he does yet still live, some years before Father stepped down, and I rose to inherit the throne from him.” He raised his gaze a bit towards the heavens, and stated in a voice that could only be called regal, “I now stand, sole ruler of the Realm Eternal.”
Thor was struck. Barton gave a low whistle. Stark reached forward to pat the Asgardian on the shoulder.
“Wow,” he commented. “Promotion. Congratulations.”
“I am only glad to hear that it did not come on the wake of my father’s passing,” Thor said, humbly.
The other Thor said nothing but gave an understanding smile. Though he looked no older physically, it did explain how he seemed to carry himself with a more serious air. Why he seemed so…well, kingly.
“Understandably, perhaps, I spend less time on Earth with the others now than I would like.” The other Thor looked to the Avengers that had come with him, a gaze both fierce and fond. “But they know, should any true evil ever threaten their world with harm, I will be there to lend aid in stopping it.”
“Yeah.” The other Tony toyed with his silver-streaked hair indifferently. “That’s pretty much the way it stands with all of us. I mean, we’re hardly the only hero game in the business, these days. Our signal goes out strictly for end-of-the-world stuff.”
He pointed to Bruce. “With the exception of our friend here, I’m afraid. Our version of Big Green went on sabbatical awhile back. Decided to go walk the wilderness and re-isolate himself. Part of the reason why we tapped Jenny here to replace him.”
“I see,” Dr. Banner said quietly. The face of the Tony standing right next to him was temporarily unreadable.
“But what we saw when we gazed into your realm across the veil,” Thor questioned, in a tone that made Steve wonder if he was trying to be distracting as much as he was actually interested. “It can be hard to tell, with your kind, but as Stark pointed out, none of you seem to have gotten much older. For myself, I understand; it takes many years to age an Asgardian, but…”
“Well Stark already explained that, for himself,” Steve reminded them, more than glad to keep the conversation moving. “And for me I can only assume it has to do with the super-soldier formula.”
It was something he wasn’t really surprised by, though he tried not to think about it, because it made him sick to think he might never grow old. But he’d already gathered or guessed that the rate his body changed been severely slowed down. So in twenty years, he supposed, it might make sense that he’d look barely any different.
“The Red Room did more than augment me mentally,” Romanov put in, coolly. “They altered my cells. I probably age more slowly, now, also.”
Wordlessly the five of them turned to look at Barton. But he shook his head, evidently as much at a loss for an explanation as they were.
“Well.” The other Steve coughed, then spoke in a voice Steve himself recognized: it was what he sounded like when he really didn’t want to talk about something. “Clint was actually dead for a couple of years. So he didn’t age for those.”
“Oh.” Barton sounded completely unbothered by the implications of that statement. “Yeah. I guess that explains it.”
Banner and Thor both stared at him, and Stark raised a finger as well as an eyebrow. “Now, wait just a second…”
“No.” Steve spoke up firmly at first, though he had to swallow around the dryness in his throat. “I understand we’re all curious, and reasonably so. But if we stand around comparing notes we’ll be here forever.”
“The Captain’s right,” Agent Romanov backed him. “We’ve already spent a lot of time talking. I’m guessing your group went to a lot of trouble to come here because you had to tell us something important.”
Tony made a sound, underwhelmed by her words. “You can say that again.” He raised an arm, indicating the equipment around them. “Jury-rigging a space, even a small isolated one, for hip-hopping between dimensions? I don’t get many chances to say this, but considering the source I have no qualms about it - I am spectacularly impressed.”
He looked to his other-worldly counterpart, who gave a far from humble half-bow.
“Thank you, thank you. You’re too kind. Well…no, go on.”
“Ah, geeze.” Steve placed his fingertips on the bridge of his nose, pinching his eyes shut.
“The part that I don’t get though is how you managed to do all of it so fast,” Stark continued, earnestly, thinking aloud. “I mean the basic set-up is one thing. But the coordinates? How’d you fine-tune it? Not to mention, the power-source…by conventional thermodynamics, it’d have to be astronomical. How’d you find a way around that?”
Steve was bracing for a barrage of yet more scientific words and phrases he didn’t understand. So it was to his complete surprise when the other Stark fell silent. He looked back up.
The other Stark didn’t appear so cocky anymore. He had a subdued, sheepish look on his face.
The rest of his Avengers had grown quiet as well. They exchanged quick glances with another, conferring wordlessly over some unknown subject. The other Thor in particular looked anxious - and the other version of Steve held his ground like he was bracing for something.
“Actually.” Other Stark sighed, guiltily. “For that part, I needed some help.”
“From whom?” Steve asked, nerves on edge. Everyone was acting like they were about to say something they knew the others wouldn’t like to hear.
There was an odd sound, a muffled crack like a firecracker going off from far away. And then the air shifted; for a fraction of a second everyone felt suddenly colder.
The other Thor took a reluctant, sliding step, moving a little to one side. And there in the space behind him - where Steve at once realized his eyes had kept drifting away from, unconsciously, the whole time without him noticing - there was a patch of shadow in what should have been an area well-lit by the surrounding lights.
The shadows moved and wavered, disappearing gradually before them, like layers of a curtain being peeled away.
And once the shadows were gone a figure was revealed. A tall figure dressed in green and gold.
Steve felt an instinctive, revolted sense of recognition, like a surprise punch low in the gut.
Loki lifted his eyes and gazed back at all of them, evenly.
The team reacted in an instant, faster than any of them could even form a train of thought.
“Oh, you have gotta be kidding me.” Stark’s voice was low, a scoffing and displeased sound. Steve swiftly and warily planted his feet; from the corner of his eye he spotted Romanov raising her arms in a defensive stance, expression guarded and ready.
Thor was visibly astonished but he had set his mouth grimly, and his hammer jumped to his hand. The look he gave Loki was fraught with complexity and pain. But it was a far from loving one.
Dr. Banner moved back, like he was trying to get out of the way of potential danger. But he leaned like on the verge of going into a crouch, and for a moment his eyes flashed quickly green.
“You son of a bitch,” Barton swore. He already had his bow up and was drawing back an arrow.
But in response to their reactions, the other version of the Avengers reacted fast as well.
With alarmed looks, both of the younger women on the team took up battle-ready positions. Walters put herself in a spot where she was ready to tackle either Thor or Bruce. Danvers rushed out to the apex between the two groups and held out her arm, palm flat and aimed like it was a weapon. Steve noticed a bright golden glow starting to emerge from her fingertips.
Meanwhile, the three doppelganger Avengers were speaking all at once.
“No, no,” the other Thor shouted, moving back again so his brother’s body was partially shielded by his own. “You do not understand!”
The other Steve had also moved in, planting himself between Loki and his counterpart with one hand lifted in a pacifying gesture. “Now hang on!”
“Whoa. Whoa!” It was the other Stark who dove in the middle between everyone, yelling, an arm stretched out to either side like he was trying to force them all back. “Stop! Everyone just cool it for a minute, all right?”
Head turning sharply he looked back and forth at both parties, willing them to stand down.
For about twenty seconds it was nothing but tense silence, darting eyes, the sounds of people breathing hard.
It was Loki, at last, who spoke without preamble, his voice soft but otherwise toneless. “You don’t imagine I intend to do anything to hurt you, do I - not with all of them standing as they are in my way?”
A few of them twitched - but it was a good point. Steve lowered his fists; he sensed more than saw the others on his team doing the same. The only one who didn’t move was Barton.
Danvers had her focus on him. “Don’t make me hurt you, Clint,” she told him, warningly. That glow was still coming from her outstretched palm. “What’s it gonna be?”
The archer didn’t give any sign he even heard her. His gaze was entirely on Loki, across the room, and he never blinked.
But in the next second a breath went out of him, and he lowered his weapon back down with a disgruntled look on his face.
Steve waited before he felt better assured everyone was relatively calm before turning to meet the eyes of his other version. He figured if there was anyone he could hold accountable for this, it was himself.
He demanded, brusquely, “What’s the meaning of this?”
The other Steve squared his shoulders. His body moved like he was giving out a sigh. But he didn’t say anything; it was the other Stark who answered.
“He’s here because we needed his help,” the man explained, in an adamant, overly-reasonable type of voice. “You asked how we could put this whole thing together so fast, and there’s your answer. Maybe I could’ve worked it out with the tech alone but we didn’t have the time.” He flicked his fingers. “It took a combo platter of magic and science to pull this whole act off.”
“So you made a deal with the devil?” Banner quipped.
The other Stark blinked. And then he turned aside to give Loki a bemused expression.
“Wow. Guess your PR here is in even worse shape.” He hesitated. “Or…better, depending on what you’re going for.”
The would-be god’s gaze moved sideways and downwards, throat working as he pensively avoided meeting anyone’s eyes.
“Believe me, this is not what I am ‘going for’. And it hasn’t been for a long time.”
A beat of silence followed as Steve and his allies stared incredulously.
“Wait. What?” Stark said slowly. “Are you telling me…?”
“Yeah.” The other version pointed a thumb at the man in question over his shoulder. “Loki’s not on the public enemy list anymore. He got his bad-guy card revoked, sheesh, a while back.”
“Relatively long,” Loki remarked flatly, looking up again.
“That’s not exactly helping your case,” the other Stark stage-muttered.
“We’ve never even fought him.” Danvers indicated herself and Miss Walters, who nodded to back her up. “Only heard about him by reputation. But he was ancient history from the Avengers’ rogues gallery by the time I showed up. Hell, he’s even pinch-hit with us a couple of times! When Wanda’s not enough to magic missile something into oblivion.”
“Or that Dr. Strange guy can’t be reached on speed-dial,” Walters chimed in.
“The point is, I don’t know what the state of things is in your world,” the other Steve spoke up, resolute and serious, “but you have nothing to fear from him. Loki - this Loki, our Loki, stopped attacking people on Earth a long time ago.”
Steve held his double’s gaze for a minute or two, not certain what to feel about that. His other self returned the look without falter. After a bit he gave slight movement, a nod of his head - ‘Trust me’.
Sure. Easily enough said. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t believe what his other self and the rest of them were saying. But it was…grating, in a way, to see it acted out. To watch Loki and him, and Thor, and Tony, all standing around together like nothing had ever been wrong.
After everything Loki had done to the city, to people Steve knew and cared about, to humanity in general. Somehow it felt on a base level like an insult, a dishonor to the memory of those things, to have Loki so simply vindicated, his crimes of what was still very recent past set aside.
Everyone, Steve supposed, deserved a second chance. But looking at it without the benefit of those intervening years between them, it didn’t seem real. Or right.
“Well. You know what, that’s just great.” Tony made a point of taking a few steps backward, turning around only to have to twist at the waist to look back at them again. “Terrific. Glad to hear that everything works out for you!”
The other version of Stark stared at him, offended and somewhat puzzled. Like he couldn’t think of why his counterpart in particular was taking this so hard.
“All right then,” the other Steve said, with a kind of resignation. Then a particularly jarring sight, at least for Steve personally, happened when his double addressed Loki briefly, resting a friendly hand on his shoulder.
“You gonna be okay?” he asked, voice quiet.
Loki brushed him off, but in non-combative fashion, and spoke in a manner indicating equal amiability. “That is not important. We can’t stay here much longer,” he addressed the group at large, more firmly. “I kept quiet while you had your other matters to settle, but enough is enough. Please. We must reach the reason we had to come.”
Romanov had put her guns away and had her arms crossed uniformly. She was keeping an eye on Loki, observing, reading him carefully.
“That reason being why I assume you got involved,” she gathered. “The threat they wanted to warn us about.”
Both teams of Avengers eyed her with varying degrees of surprise at her coming to that conclusion, but it was easy to see from the faces of the visitors that she was exactly right.
The secret agent almost, almost smiled. But her eyes were devoid of any warmth.
“Selene,” she finished, still looking at Loki. “This is about you.”
“Well, yeah,” the other Stark admitted, finally, after a pause. “From a close-up perspective, yes, it is about him. But in a bigger picture sense? Not so much.”
“I don’t believe this,” Barton said. Coming from almost anyone else he would’ve sounded calm - but for him his voice was low, dark, hard; practically a growl. The muscles around his jaw had tightened, subtly, in anger, and the grip on his bow was like a vice.
“You’re telling me that this, all this, is about him?” He jerked his chin in Loki’s direction, the motion so quick it was more like a spasm. Like he hated to even spare that much of an effort. “You guys put out the call and made us all come running, risking who knows what kind of interdimensional backlash, and for what? To tell us the earth-shattering news that somebody is pissed off at this guy?”
He pointed, the rest of his body language shifting. Steve swore it looked like he was on the verge of walking out of the room.
“It was barely worth registering when we thought this woman was after our own, homegrown version of this psychopath. If you guys are on such great terms now, then that’s perfect: you look out for him, if he’s the one she’s really after.” He exhaled tightly, mouth dropping even further into a frown. “I don’t see how any of this is any of our problem.”
Romanov had shifted her position, facing her partner while not turning away from her initial direction. She’d lowered her head, so that she watched Barton’s outburst from half-lidded, upturned eyes.
But she didn’t say anything. No one else, certainly Steve least of all, seemed to know what to say either.
After a beat, Loki tried, “I imagine you must certainly have your reasons for feeling as you do about me-”
“Shut up,” Barton cut him off, sharp and disdainful. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Hey,” the other Steve protested in an angry, instinctive sort of way. The whole thing was giving Steve a sick twinge of pain in his chest.
But Barton continued like he hadn’t spoken. “You don’t ‘imagine’ anything,” he hurled at Loki. “You either know what you did, or you don’t. Either way there’s nothing you can do about it.”
The other Thor came closer forward, his face darkening in a warning. “The man in the land at my back who shares your face and name is one I consider a lifelong friend and a worthy ally. But take care, Sir Barton. My brother is not here for you to insult so lightly.”
“Trust me,” their own Thor broke in, his face in just as serious a scowl. “He does nothing lightly. And the words he speaks on this matter are more than fitting.”
The Thor who was a king stared back at the younger one, taken aback, matching righteous anger with righteous indignation. For an incredibly tense moment it looked like the two would fly at each other, and the worst possible kind of a fight would break forward.
But Loki took a step bringing him nearly next to the other Thor. He reached out to grasp him tightly by the wrist, holding him back.
“No, brother,” he hissed intently, warning. “Don’t.”
Still frowning, the other Thor glanced at him, but visibly began calming down right there as he listened.
As to their own version of Thor he physically flinched, his expression stricken, staring at how the two brothers interacted with such a wide, haunted look in his eyes.
Loki…no, Steve realized; the other Loki. For he was as distinctly different and separate a man from the one they knew as their own counterparts, if not even more so.
Now that he was really looking at the Asgardian he could see how much had changed. If that Thor seemed somehow older, then that Loki almost seemed to be younger - there was a quiet earnestness about him that Steve had never known the Loki he’d fought to possess.
He wore the same color scheme they were used to seeing, and an outfit just as oddly-designed and complicated, but it had no padding, no metal - just a few strips of leather. It couldn’t even properly be called ‘armor’. It hit Steve that it was probably what in their world served as his civvies, as everyday clothes. His hair was much shorter, neater; still long by modern Earth standards but kept combed smoothly back. His face was pale but a healthy pale - the Loki they knew better always looked malnourished or sickly.
And that Loki constantly burned with a manic, dangerous energy. You could see his rage, his sadistic tendencies in every line of his expression, like he didn’t know how to hide what he was, or simply didn’t care. He was always sneering, or glaring, or grinning with an abnormal light dancing in his eyes.
But this Loki was calm. Collected. He carried himself with the same kind of ingrained dignity that Thor did, and none of violent overconfidence Steve was so used to seeing.
He stood there quiet with his mouth set in a line. Barring a little weariness his expression was composed; still and patient, even almost graceful for how perfect his composure. The only time he had frowned was when Barton had aimed recriminations at him. And then, it was with an air of resignation.
Sure, Loki was first and foremost incapable of trustworthiness. He lived to deceive. But it didn’t seem possible even he was that good an actor.
It came over Steve slowly, dawning on him bit by bit until it started to sink in and turned into a sweeping realization. Could this have been what the Loki from their dimension used to be like?
Had they successfully turned back the clock now that he’d been rehabilitated? Or maybe he’d never gone so far bad at the start?
As much as he had sympathized with his teammate before, Steve thought he finally understood. If this was what Thor was clinging to the ghost of every time he looked at his destructive, delusional, utterly ravaged brother…no wonder he found it so hard, letting go.
“Let them talk.” The words fell from Steve’s mouth before he had time to think about it. “We might as well.”
The other Stark nodded in swift, wordless thanks. “Look, you really don’t understand,” he told the others. “Sure, it’s true, it all has got to do with Loki. But it’s about so much more than that.”
“Like what?” For quite some time now Bruce had been hanging back to the rear of the group, rubbing his hands together in an absent, nervous gesture. It was something of a relief to see he was still hanging on to the conversation.
“The moment Thor told us he spotted a version of Selene in your universe, we knew you were in danger,” other Steve stated. “How much have you learned about her?”
“Probably all the Cliff notes.” Stark shrugged. “She’s supposed to be incredibly powerful, and she’s definitely incredibly pissed off. At Loki.” He used his whole hand to indicate the Asgardian. “From what we’ve gathered she must originally from your world, where the two of you fought at some point before. Now she’s trying to find her way back home for revenge, and she’s using the corpses of every Loki she comes across in the process as her stepping stones.”
“You know the breadth of the matter, but not the depth,” Loki had to say in reply. “She is far more dangerous than you seem to realize. I am her goal, and she will target my counterpart in your realm to get to me, yes. But she will not stop there.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Barton demanded.
The other Thor came forward once more, drawing himself up as so as to demand attention. It was something their own Thor seemed to do at times unconsciously. With this one it was much more practiced and purposeful.
“Selene is no mere sorceress. She is not to be underestimated.” The thunder god stressed every word, face beneath his thick beard taut with anxiety and somberness and anger. “She is thousands of years old; older than my brother is, older than myself. She fought against our father in his youth.”
“Your father,” Banner repeated. “As in, Odin who is so old, the ancient Vikings said he must have created all things?”
The gravity of what the others were trying to tell them was definitely weighing on them all now.
“She’s empowered by darkest magic.” Loki’s voice was softly intense, making his words seem less like hyperbole and more a deadly warning. “She is a creature that feeds on the essence of others. You will know her as a psychic vampire. Do not let her near you. Don’t let her touch you, if it can be helped. She’ll destroy you, and in the process make herself stronger.”
Tony’s voice was hoarsely strained. “What in the hell did you do to send her after you in the first place?”
Loki’s mouth twitched in a note of irony. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We fought. I tried to kill her. But I could not. I failed; instead I was forced to send her away, imprison her out of time and out of mind.”
“Did you think you’d never have to face her again?” Romanov asked. It was impossible to tell if she was suspicious or merely curious.
“I imagined she would most likely escape, eventually. Though I expected it would take much longer.”
Steve looked away from him and back to the others. Banner and Stark were lost in thought. Thor was watching the double of his brother carefully, his expression closely guarded. Romanov hadn’t moved. Barton had retreated away from everyone and to a corner, watching them all through narrowed eyes.
“All right,” Steve said, at last. “It’s much worse than we thought. There’s more to it, and we have to be careful. But why come all the way to give us the warning?”
“They call Selene the ‘Kinslayer’ back on Asgard,” the other version of Stark broke in. “Care to guess why?”
There was a knot in Steve’s throat, again. “I think I have a feeling.”
“When the All-Father and one of his mortal allies fought Selene,” other Thor’s voice was almost musical in his empathetic grief, “between them they lost a love, a sibling, and two friends. Like a true monster, it isn’t enough to slaughter her victims - she must attack them at the heart as well.”
“Our version of Loki doesn’t give a damn about anyone other than himself,” Stark said bluntly.
It took the Loki that was present a moment to respond to that. When he did, it looked as if his smile was forced.
“Ah, but Selene might not know that.”
“Well that’s just…isn’t that wonderful.” Stark made a sardonic noise, face twisted into a bitterly amused expression. “So you’re telling us that we might as well have targets on our backs, because of a connection to a guy who would gladly kill us all himself?”
“I don’t know.” Loki was clearly restraining his temper. “Believe me if I had any solid answers, I wouldn’t be wasting your time. I’d be doing something about it.”
“So what are you doing, then?” Barton straightened up. “With whatever ‘answers’ you do have.”
Loki didn’t respond verbally. He stared back unblinkingly, not quite a glare but close, exhaling so heavily his shoulders gradually lowered.
“Look, maybe nothing will come of all this,” the other Steve spoke up again. “Selene might not come after anyone but Loki; we don’t really know what she’s been up to in the other worlds she’s visited, besides the obvious. But now that she knows you’re adjacent to the one place she does want to reach, it seems likely she’s gonna be coming your way.”
“You guys can finger-point all you want,” Captain Danvers burst in, eyes wide and brows raised behind her mask. “But if you think what’s happening here has nothing to do with you, you’re taking a big chance. When she arrives this woman is going to rip through your world like a hurricane. It’s in everyone’s best interests to get ready.”
“So what do you suggest we do?” Agent Romanov asked them.
The other Stark, Thor, Steve and Loki all exchanged a glance. “Keep an eye out for her,” the first man offered. “Don’t engage, if you don’t have to. But don’t give her the chance to plant any daggers in your back.”
“I assume your team will be doing the same from your side?” Steve didn’t ask as much as infer.
“Yeah. But unless she finds a back door it still looks like she’ll be coming to you first. You’re in the middle of her route.”
“SHIELD certainly has the surveillance resources,” Romanov said easily. “It shouldn’t be too much of a task for them to start looking for her as well, once Director Fury is advised of the gravity of the situation.”
“Ah, SHIELD under Nick Fury,” the other Stark commented lightly, a nostalgic look on his face as he quirked his head the other Steve’s direction. The second man’s mouth moved in a half-smile in response, nodding to show he remembered. “Now those were the days.”
“They were certainly something.” The other Thor chuckled.
“Do you guys still work with SHIELD all the time?” Dr. Banner was prompted to ask curiously, pointing.
“Ah. Well. We’re still on pretty good terms,” other Tony remarked conversationally. “There are a lot of partnerships - Ms. Marvelous here was actually one of their agents for a while.”
“Yeah.” Her voice was dry. “But we did not part on good terms.”
Miss Walters raised her hand. “And I was never on good terms with them to begin with. At one point, they were trying to hunt me down just like Bruce. I’m to understand it’s a slightly different place under Maria Hill.”
“Uh oh, Hill took over.” Tony came back to full alertness, glancing first to Banner and then to Steve. “You owe me a fifty.”
“That was never an official bet,” Steve grumbled.
“Yeah, well.” Other Stark smacked his palms together, speaking with partial reluctance. “If you want to know the truth, what I think really made most of us lose interest was Coulson retiring.” Another look to the other Steve, who nodded with a sound of agreement. “It’s really almost not even worth dealing with them, anymore.”
Steve felt a river of ice slide down his back. The blood rushed away from his ears.
“What did you just say?”
He could feel the fixed eyes of the others behind him. To a one they all stood temporarily speechless.
Barton at last found a reason worth moving in closer.
“Phil Coulson. Special agent for SHIELD. You said your version of him…retired?”
“I know, right?” Other Stark waved a hand in joking disbelief. “I honestly don’t know how they even managed it. If there ever was a guy that was married to his job-”
“Our version of Coulson is dead,” Barton spoke over him. After raising his voice abruptly to get attention, he lowered it with a note of respect. “Killed in action. Been gone nearly a year now.”
The mood of the entire room instantly shifted. Shock and dismay settled into the faces of the visitors.
“What?” The other Stark seemed stuck on the disbelief level of receiving the news. “He…? No.”
Other Thor had recovered the fastest of them, and now stood with head bowed, gaze lowered respectfully to the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” the other Steve said - an honest, heartfelt acknowledgement for the loss of a soldier. For a moment Steve had to set his teeth and shut his eyes. “Phil Coulson was a good man, and a good friend to us, for many years. I’m sure you must’ve deeply felt his loss.”
“We did,” Romanov stated in succinct, quiet truth. “It’d be fair to say we still do.”
Other Steve nodded, understanding. “Of course.”
“How did he die?” Of course it was the other version of Stark that had to ask. “I mean, what happened to him?”
No one spoke. Steve didn’t dare look in the direction of where Loki stood, right beside his brother. Neither did Dr. Banner, or Agent Romanov. Agent Barton gazed off heatedly into space.
But Tony? Tony was looking right at him; eyes bright with emotion and unblinking, his mouth barely trembling from the effort of keeping it pressed into a hard, furious line.
Between where he was looking and where the rest were pointedly not, realization gradually dawned on the faces of the others.
“Oh god,” Miss Walters breathed, softly.
With morbid curiosity Steve had to look now, because he wanted to see how this version of Loki was going to react. It sounded as if he might have even known Coulson on their world. Would the news of what happened have any impact?
The immediate answer appeared to be ‘yes’, which he supposed in itself didn’t surprise him that much. But like a lot of things with Loki the reaction was…subtle.
Steve missed what his expression might have looked like when he first heard the news. By the time eyes were back on him, Loki had that steady, brittle air about him of a man who is breathing deep and schooling his face into not giving any emotion.
He turned his head slowly to the side, as if trying to find the most unobtrusive way to hide out of sight, while his brother was staring at him aghast and with obvious concern.
Not all the Avengers were looking at Loki, though. Maybe half of them were. The other half was watching their counterparts, everyone waiting to see how everyone else would react. What anyone at this point could possibly say. The tension held a definite feeling of challenge.
“No, no,” Steve said out loud, before any of the others could make the mistake of trying to answer it. “Nobody say anything. Not a word, you hear me?” He looked not just at them but his own people as well. “There’s nothing that can be said to that.”
He shifted on his feet, standing straight and tall as he addressed the dimensional visitors, already bringing himself closer to his people.
“Thank you all, for coming. For everything you told us,” he said to them. “Now, I think we’re done here.”
The other Thor’s lips parted instinctively, as if to protest. The other Steve brushed against his forearm, a stilling gesture.
“Yes,” the other Steve agreed. “I guess we are.”