Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers 1. Wife of Coul

I don't own Thor, the Avengers, Agents of SHIELD... in few words, anything of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (they all are, as should be obvious, Marvel's). I don't own either shows/movies/books like HEX, X-Men, Wanted, Scandal, Fast and Furious, the Covenant, and any other that I might mention here, or its characters. It's just part of the mess of a crossover I turned my series into; each has its own owners. I'm not writing any of this for money, I'm not making a dime on it, though what reviews, kudos, etc., I may get are worth for me much more than any money; still, don't sue, I have nothing to pay you with!

So, having said that, please enjoy the final part of the Menel series!

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><p><span>Meneliel<span>

(Part 4 of the Menel Series)

_By: Lalaith Quetzalli _

_She's a Child of Chaos, one of those prophecized as Harbingers of Ragnarok... when the bell for the End of Days tolls, she will have to decide who she truly is, and where it is she truly belongs. How strong are the bonds of Family when the destiny of the universe is in the balance?_

**Chapter 1. Wife of Coul**

At the end of June, a month after Phil's proposal, Skye was standing in the middle of their shared bedroom in the living quarters of the Playground, getting ready for the wedding that was about to begin. She was in a gorgeous perfectly white off-the shoulder, long-sleeved dress, with a several inch train. In fact the dress itself had two layers. A perfectly solid-white, silk one which was completely strapless and reached to the floor (even though she was wearing low heels); and on top of that was a translucent layer made of diaphanous material, it was also what the very loose sleeves were made of, and the train. The style was elvish, a reminder of her mother's traditions, it was also why she was wearing no veil; and on her feet were delicate silver sandals with delicate straps around her ankles. Her hair was mostly loose (how Phil liked it) except for a few locks twisted together to keep the rest in place, and to hold the mithril tiara with the blue diamond in the middle. Aside from her mother's necklace (which settled perfectly just above the dress), she wore only the Konstantin earring, no bracelets to show off the family tattoos on the inside of her wrists; and there was, of course, the engagement ring, made of the purest silver that could be found on Earth, with an odd blue-violet diamond on the top.

"So, do we have everything?" Darcy asked, from beside her.

She was wearing a blue-violet knee-length dress with short sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, silver pumps, and all silver jewelry, except for her wedding band. She was Skye's Matron of Honor. While Natalia, Jemma, Melinda, Wanda and Pepper were her bridesmaids (while Pepper had never been exactly close to Skye, Phil considered her a very dear friend), all wearing dresses of the same color, but with variations in the style to suit their figures.

Maggie was in the room too, in a dress of the same color only the style was more like that of a 'Disney-princess'. She was to be the flower-girl (which made the five-year-old really proud).

"Yes." Skye answered Darcy's question. "The dress is new, the necklace is old, the stone in the tiara is blue..."

"And the garter is borrowed." Darcy finished for her.

It was true; much as it might make the bride blush. Truth was, Skye had been focused so much on the elven tints the wedding ceremony would have, she had forgotten some of the more human ones (and while the ceremony itself would be an elven-styled handfasting, afterwards they would be signing a marriage certificate to make it legal on Earth, and would have a normal reception). Darcy though it was all extremely funny, she was also the one to insist most on the garter... and on Phil taking it off Skye with his teeth...

"I cannot believe you're getting married..." Jemma murmured emotionally.

"You've been married for years." Melinda pointed out.

"And you'll be married someday!" Jemma retorted brightly.

Melinda didn't answer, just turning away, discreetly playing with the sturdy chain that went from her neck and got lost in her cleavage, where no one could see the gold ring, in the form of a dragon reaching for its own tail as it circled around a perfect red diamond (Melinda's favorite stone, though few knew it). She thought it was completely secret, the fact that Wesley had asked her (more than once) to marry him, and the last time she'd finally allowed him to give her the ring. She loved it, the ring, the proposal, Wesley (of course), but after the failure that was her last marriage she just wasn't sure... And then she saw the people around her, Jemma and Leo had been married for four years already, Darcy and Clint for one, Hela and Azazeal... well they were a whole other matter entirely (500 years, really?). Even Tony Stark, after so many years being known all around the world as a playboy who probably would never settle down, he had, he was married to Pepper, completely loyal (and extraordinarily romantic when in private, if she was to be believed), he also had two daughters, whom he loved with all he was and was doing his best to spoil rotten at every opportunity! Maybe one day she'd finally give marriage another chance, until then, she and Wesley were happy enough as they were.

"And did you all finally decided who is going to walk you down the isle?" Pepper inquired.

That, had really been a mess. With both Thor and Dominic presenting very convincing cases; so much had changed after Thor learnt the truth about her:

_It had been a few days since the battle and all the warriors were still around, having turned their focus to helping the city get back to normal, help the people get back on their feet. The X-Men specially, were gaining a lot of support, with the variety of things they could do to help; some like Nightcrawler or Shadowcat, who would get into places where people had been trapped and get them out without risk to anyone, not even themselves. Others had their own abilities, and even people like MJ (who was actually Gwen Stacy, whom everyone believed to have died almost five years before), while they did not have actual powers, she was trained to use her husband's web-shooters, and did so well-enough using them to create security webs before the rescuers went into half-collapsed buildings; that way, if rocks fell, the web would block them from falling onto any person walking by. _

_SHIELD had pretty much taken control of the situation, leading the different groups of rescuers, paramedics, firefighters and the like. Skye herself had dressed like a volunteer (she didn't want people to treat her like an Agent at the moment, all she wanted was to help). She mainly used her empathy to track down people who might be trapped and no one noticed before; while her telekinesis helped in moving debris around. Other psychics did the same, and when one sole person didn't have the necessary power, they would team up. _

_There were those like Quicksilver, who did not have the ability to help with any rescues himself, but he was instead working as a runner, getting paramedics what they needed in instants; he helped save a lot of lives like that. _

_Also, the Consortium had gotten the government to allow the Solomon drug for the time-being, it helped save many people who had been beyond the help of natural medicine already. _

_There were so many of them working that three days later reconstruction of the affected buildings began; mostly with sponsorship from the Consortium and some help from all the heroes involved. Even some of the children (especially mutants) who'd been too young to be involved in the battle, helped in the rescue and the rebuilding, allowing the humans to see the truth about them. _

_Trask Industries was out for the count, Josef had taken great glee in destroying the company, the same with the man and his reputation; even if, in the end, he had to share the task and pride with Alec and Tony. Their work those days 'sealed the deal' so-to-speak; as by the end of it the public simply loved mutants. Kids wanted to be like them, adults respected them, everything they did to help. It was Professor X's every wish come true (as hard as it was for Magneto to admit it). _

_Exactly one week after the battle had taken place the Consortium offered what for some looked like a city-wide party. Buildings in different areas from New York belonging to every company gave free food, drink, as well as boxes with the basics for everyone who went looking for them, all to help NY get back on his feet. It was a lot of money but, like Josef said: most of them had so much money that even living to be a thousand wouldn't be enough to spend it all, and considering that they wouldn't stop making money in all that time either... Everything they did would help cut their taxes, of course, but they were doing it to help, not for the benefit it would report them, and they knew that (even if some of the most cynic people in the world might never believe it). _

_In the end, it was a week later, Hela, being a mother herself, was one of the people in charge of the kids' area in Stark Tower. Ever since she'd arrived to Midgard, gotten to see her son, to live with both him and her match she'd been so happy; she didn't think anything before had filled her with so much joy as laying eyes on both Azazeal and Malachi every day, and the prospect of being able to do that for the rest of her life just made her happier. _

_In that moment Malachi was happily playing with some blocks, along with Maggie and Robbie, they seemed to be building a castle. Connor was nearby, sitting on the floor, working on his favorite coloring book, one about heroes like his Daddy, his uncles and aunts and his Mama Skye (he knew she was more an aunt than a mom -and he already had his daddy and his papa-, but it didn't matter, he loved her very much all the same). _

_Cassie and John were chatting, laughing and playing with a small flame in between their hands, manipulating it a little, to see who did the most extravagant tricks. The whole thing was keeping the attention of several of the older kids too. Bobby remained to the side, ready to extinguish the flame at a moment's notice if it became necessary, though it hadn't thus far. He still found it strange for there to be other people with abilities besides the mutants, and for them all to be able to use them so openly. For many it was liberating, but for a few (like him) it was so strange it didn't quite feel right yet. _

_Bobby was actually the first to notice the very tall, broad-shouldered blonde man in jeans and a red-plaid shirt with pulled-over sleeves. Bobby knew who he was, Thor Odinson, the norse god of thunder, and while few truly believe him to be a deity of any kind, he was at least an alien and with as much (if not more) power over weather as Storm. He didn't see anything wrong when he approached the raven-haired storm-eyed woman watching over the youngest kids; Agent Helena Avery, Bobby had heard her to be called; and then he noticed the way she tensed the moment the blonde demi-god touched her. A second later he noticed how Casarmi let go of the flame, making John gesture wildly for a couple of seconds in an attempt to get it back under his full control (they had begun getting so wild in their manipulations it was not an easy task) before finally vanishing it altogether. _

"_Hela..." _

_The moment she heard her birth-name, Hela knew something was really wrong. No one but her closest family knew her real name; and even those who did, they all called her Helena, mostly so as not to confuse the kids with several names (Skye was bad enough). So there was really only one person who would call her that in Stark Tower... _

"_Uncle Thor..." She whispered, without turning around. _

_It seemed like Thor did not like being ignored, he placed a hand on Hela's arm, intending to use it to pull her around, but before he could do it a blonde girl was suddenly there, she looked barely older then a teenager (which meant painfully young in Thor's eyes) but there was nothing childish about the look in her eyes, or the way she held a flame floating just above her hand, and in front of his face. _

"_Step back." She ordered, steel in her voice. _

"_This is not your business, little girl." Thor told her. "Leave." _

"_This is not Asgard, and you don't give me orders." The girl stated hardly. "Now take your hand off Helena and step back. If you don't cooperate I will force you." _

"_And do you think you have what is needed to force me, girl?" Thor couldn't help but challenge her, there was something about such a young girl acting like that... _

"_I might not be strong enough to take you, but I just need a little time..." _

_Thor didn't get the chance to ask what she meant, he didn't need to either, for a snap-second later a tall, dark-haired steel-eyed man in a stark-white shirt and dark-suit was standing right beside the blonde girl; Thor recognized him instantly. _

"_Azazeal..." The Asgardian prince was really shocked. "I thought you dead..." _

"_Why?" Azazeal couldn't help but taunt him a bit. "You didn't believe anyone could survive after being in exile for so long?" He snorted. "I imagine you couldn't have. No, you had it hard enough with just a few days, and even then you weren't alone, you had that pretty scientist to help you; whatever would you have done, deprived of the only home you know, of your family, for five hundred years?" _

_Thor had no answer for that and, thankfully, Azazeal wasn't expecting one. _

"_What do you really want Thor?" The leader of the 'Nephilim' asked in a tired tone. _

"_I want to know what Hela is doing in this world." Thor stated, as strongly as she could. "She should be in Helheim!" _

"_What do you think she's doing?" Azazeal asked, brow arched, before calling softly. "Malachi..." _

_The boy reacted the instant his name was called. He dropped the blocks, rushed to his feet and then ran around the small wall that was placed to mark the children's area to reach his parents. _

"_Papa! Mama! Auntie Cas!" He called excitedly. _

_Thor could only watch the boy as he held tightly onto Azazeal's legs. He had his mother's (and Loki's) eyes, his father's dark hair, and Thor could sense he was somehow also connected to the blonde girl who'd defended Hela. _

"_This is impossible..." Thor gasped, shocked. _

"_Why? Because Odin did everything in his power to make it that way?" A new voice challenged. _

_Thor couldn't help but stepping back at the presence of the new-arrival. She was young (though not quite as young as the blonde), with loose curls of honey brown hair to the middle of her back, dressed in a purple ¾ sleeved top with a dark-denim sleeveless vest, tight dark jeans and low black-leather boots. _

_It took Thor a few seconds to connect her to the Warrior-lady in the violet riding-dress who had fought, and eventually killed, Amora. Then, he noticed her eyes, the same stormy blue-green-gray as the little boy Malachi, Hela and, most importantly, Loki. _

"_Lady Meneliel Lokidottir..." Thor named her. _

"_That is one of my names yes, though not the one I'm most known for." Skye nodded. "Most call me Skye. Or you could call me Agent Astrid Avery, if you prefer; I know you've met my sister Helena, her husband Ian McBain, their son Malachi, and Ian's sister Casarmi." _

_She purposefully was using their 'human' names, and they all knew it. _

"_I know who they really are, Lady Meneliel." Thor insisted. "Though I've yet to understand how you figure in the picture. In any case, Hela shouldn't be here, it was decreed centuries ago that she was to remain in Helheim to the End of Days, for Yggdrassil's balance." _

"_I have not done you the disservice of pretending to be someone I'm not, or that you're blind and therefore unable to see the truth; please do not do me, do us all, the disservice of pretending like what Odin did was in any way meant to be for our benefit." Skye retorted stonily. _

"_I'm afraid I do not understand, my lady." Thor admitted. _

"_I know that almost everyone has been lead to believe that something happened that night, five hundred years ago, that lead to Fenrir and Jörmungandr being imprisoned, as well as Hela and Azazeal being exiled, to different realms mind you. Not to mention that no one seemed to mind that their son, my nephew, had just been killed, before he even had a chance to be born!" Skye hissed at him in a barely controlled tone, though anyone with the slightest degree of empathy would have been able to see through her facade quite easily. "Yet tell me, what exactly did they all do that was so bad? What's more, what could they have possibly done that was so evil as to deserve that, yet not so much as to end up executed? That would have to be something very specific, don't you think?" _

"_It was said they were using the black arts." Thor answered, almost automatically. _

"_Right... and what exactly are the black arts?" The brunette inquired next. "And if the next word out of mouth is: magic, might I remind you that your mother, Lady Frigga was well known for being the most accomplished Spell-weaver in all realms?" _

"_I have yet to understand how you enter the picture, lady." Thor chose to change the topic a bit, when lacking an answer to the last question. "You claim to be Loki's daughter, and I believe that, I can see your eyes... yet I've known my brother only to have one wife, and she was no elven-lady; as yours must have been, judging by your name and looks..." _

_Menel hadn't even noticed when she'd shifted her looks into those of her elven-self (though she hadn't shifted her clothes, leaving her still dressed as her human identity). However, that wasn't exactly important, so she ignored the detail and focused on the conversation with Thor. _

"_Shows how little you know about the man you insist on calling brother." She stated coldly. "My mother, Tawariel from the House of the Midnight Blossom is, indeed, an elven-lady, as well as wife and match to my father: Loki Friggason." _

"_My brother cannot possibly have married and us not known!" Thor insisted. _

"_That, at least, is true enough." Menel replied. "While I do not believe Lady Frigga was fully aware of things, the Allfather was. As a matter of fact, he did everything he could to stop the match from happening, and later on, to ruin all of our lives." _

"_How can you possibly say that!" Thor almost snarled. "My Father is a noble man..." _

"_Odin Allfather is a self-righteous, egotistical, evil bastard!" Menel didn't shout, in fact her voice got very low, and somehow, more powerful because of it. "And before you even try and say that is not true, let me tell you it is. And I know because that same bastard has been trying to kill me since before I was even born; he went as far as torturing both my parents, slaying almost two full SHIELD tactical teams and all the inhabitants of a small town in China, in an attempt to get to me. He failed, of course, but the threat remained." _

"_How could you possibly know that?" Thor refused to believe it, though he could see too much feeling in the brunette for it all to be a lie. _

_Menel knew she'd reached shaky ground. Thor did not know Loki had survived the battle in Svartalfheim, much less that he was pretending to be the Allfather and sitting on the throne of Asgard, and he couldn't, it was just too risky. _

"_One of the gifts I've inherited from my parents allows me to see into the past, and not only my own, but also that of those connected to me." She answered as honestly as she could. "I have seen Adar save your life, and the lives of your friends, time and again during your foolish quests, I mean, going after a dragon simply for some unknown treasure, really? And how about actually getting into the treasure without stopping to consider that it might be cursed, or worse?" _

"_But it wasn't!" Thor tried to defend himself. _

"_Yes it was!" Menel snapped. "Loki broke the enchantments!" _

"_He never said anything!" _

"_What for? You had already criticized him for not wanting to go on that so-called quest in the first place, for staying in the back of the group, for choosing to use his magic for shields rather than fight directly like the rest of you did... never mind that all of you would have become ashes if it weren't for his shields!" _

"_Dude, even I know that's stupid." John commented from the side. _

"_True, you never undermine someone else's powers, even when they are so completely different from yours you think they're useless, because sooner or later you might end up needing them, they might even end up saving your life." Bobby offered his own piece of knowledge. _

"_I..." Thor couldn't help but be truly embarrassed, how a pair of boys, little more than kids, could so easily understand and accept something that had taken him a thousand years... "Loki, he's just so different from all of us... I never understood him." _

"_You never even tried." Hela spoke, for the first time. "My father adored you, you know? You were his role model, his hero. Odin hardly ever paid attention to him, and almost always to berate him or belittle him in some way. When you were little you would always protect him, and he wanted nothing more than to make you proud... and then you began insulting his slight body, his magic, his choice of weapons, everything about him. Even when he saved your life, you never thanked him, you only found new ways of making fun of him!" _

"_There's one memory in particular I'll never forget." Menel spoke once again. "You and Adar were little, in the Weapon's Vault, and the Allfather had just finished telling you a story related to the inter-dimensional war with Jotunheim. Do you remember what you said then?" Thor watched her with mute horror, but she kept talking. "Let me remind you, you said, and I quote 'When I'm King I'll hunt the monsters down and slay them all!' End-quote." _

_At that point it was no longer just Thor who was left speechless and horrified, but everyone else too. Even Jane, who'd approached them at some point, curious about what they might all have been talking about. _

"_After hearing something like that, and after spending a thousand years hearing what everyone in Asgard had to say about Jotun, how do you think Adar felt the day he discovered he was one himself?" Menel asked, her voice so quiet it was actually scary. "Oh, and lets not forget he found out while in Jotunheim, fighting for his life and yours, and the rest of your friends... once again, something that happened because of your rash decisions and your pride!" _

"_None of that explains why the Allfather would attempt to hurt you." By that point Thor was pretty much grasping as straws in an attempt to defend his father. _

"_No, not hurting, my parents were hurt, pretty much tortured, he wanted to kill me!" Menel corrected. "Matter of fact, I'm quite sure he still does. The only reason more people haven't died in the crossfire is because he doesn't know I'm here, or even alive for that matter." Her eyes narrowed. "Which brings us back to you..." _

"_Me?" Thor asked, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. _

"_Yes you." Menel nodded solemnly. "I would rather know right now, instead of risking someone else, innocents. Will I have to run?" At Thor's uncomprehending look she specified. "Will I have to run before Odin sends his assassins after me and the people I love end up hurt because of it?! Already once hundreds of people died. Beginning with an old-lady and a fourteen-year-old girl whose only fault were to be kind-hearted enough to help my mother and I. I was a newborn back then, not even a week-old. But now, now it's different. I'm an adult, I know who and what I am. If assassins are sent after me, I'll fight them... though, all the same, I'd rather not put innocent civilians in danger." _

_For several seconds, not a word was said, as if Thor was thinking his answer carefully. _

"_If someone is ever sent after you, it will not be because of me, Lady Meneliel..." He vowed in his most solemn tone. _

"_Friends and family call me Skye." She declared, though with more warmth than before. _

"_I would like that, my niece." He nodded. _

_When he hugged her, tight and warm, it was like a piece of the puzzle finally fitting together, after so long missing. One more, though not the last one, not by a long shot. It made the young woman wonder if, some day, the puzzle of her life, of her self, would finally be complete._

Things had gotten relatively better after that day. Thor did not insist on Hela returning to Helheim or why he hadn't known about Loki's marriage to Tawar earlier, and he even made an effort to get to know Menel and Malachi (it would be hard, for anyone, to do or say anything that might risk such a sweet boy as little Malachi). It was how he eventually learnt of Casarmi's connection to the boy, of the ghost-girl Thelma, always by Cassie's side; and of Skye's connections: to the Son of Coul, the Avengers, SHIELD, the X-Men, other hero teams and world-wide organizations.

Then when the plans for the wedding were being made, a disagreement formed between him and Dom, regarding who should be the one to walk her down the aisle:

"_This is absolutely ridiculous!" Skye practically snapped after nearly an hour of the same. _

"_I think it's perfectly understandable." Mia, who was visiting along with the rest of the Toretto family, offered. "Dom loves you, you're our little sister Cielo, regardless of the name you might use most of the time. He walked me down the aisle when I married Brian, and now he wants to do the same with you. It's tradition, it's what Papa taught us..." _

"_I know that, I don't think he's the one being ridiculous, Thor is!" Skye almost whined. _

"_He wants to connect with you." Jane commented. "You are twenty-nine, and only now he's learnt about you. Also, I think it's his way of showing that he will stand by you, whenever this mess with your family comes to a head..." _

_The half-elf didn't actually believe that, didn't think it was possible for Thor to choose her, her family, above his own father; but still, she had to admit it was nice to have more family who loved her, especially someone who could share with her memories, happy ones, about her Adar's past, about his own childhood... she had so many bad memories about him swimming in his head, it was nice to learn good things for a change. _

"_I am his uncle!" Thor's loud declaration called everyone's attention instantly. _

"_Yes you are her uncle, for how long?" Dom challenged. "A week? Two?" At the silence that answered his question he pushed on. "Cielo and I might not always see eye and to eye, but she's been my sister in every way that counts since she was sixteen, and while, for a variety of reasons, it was necessary for us to split for a while, we've been tighter than ever for the last three years." His voice turned abruptly quiet. "Papa loved that girl as much as he loved Mia and I, I promised him once I would be the best big brother I could. This, walking her down the aisle, it might seem like a silly tradition to you, one more thing your people know nothing of, but it's important to us, to our family." _

"_It is important to me as well." Thor answered, surprisingly polite. "Not because of Asgard, our our blood, but because it is important to her, and she's family, she's my niece. There's a lot about her I don't know, don't understand, including how she came to grew up in this realm instead of back at home; and if it's true that the Allfather hates her so, why; but that changes not the fact that she's my niece, and this is her wedding." _

"_Why don't you just both walk her down the aisle and be done with it?" Jemma blurted out. _

_The comment was so unexpected that, for several seconds, no one said a thing, until suddenly everyone was clapping and congratulating a very flushed scientist. _

"_You're a genius Jemma." Skye declared. "Absolute genius." _

Skye still thought that it was absolutely ridiculous to get so worked up over something as small as walking her down the aisle; but at the same time she understood that not only the big things were important when it came to family... in fact, for family sometimes it was the small things that mattered most. One only got married once in their lives (or at least, that was her plan) so they better make the best out of it; and she also had to admit that the little girl inside her was delighted by the prospect of such a wedding.

It was that same part of her that could only look at her reflection in wonder. The wedding dress had been made from the best materials money could buy, exclusively designed and made just for her (never before, and probably never again, would such a dress exist).

"Here we go..." Darcy announced, offering her a bouquet.

The bouquet was unique too; formed mainly by an equal number of white and red roses meant to symbolize love, purity and unity; surrounded by forget-me-nots, for forever, and white asters, to show their contentment; while in the very center there was a single purple tulip, the only sign of royalty she'd allowed herself, a hint of her true self (which most would say she was constantly carrying around, with all the purple she wore, even her elven dress and similar battle attire were in shades of that color; truth was she simply liked that color -she liked the implications too, but they weren't the main reason why she wore it-.)

Darcy's bouquet was like hers, except the tulip was pink, to show her caring; while the rest carried more simply versions of the arrangement. The petals Maggie would be throwing would be those of red and white roses.

A knock on the door announced the time had come, Thor and Dom were waiting for her.

"Are you ready?" Darcy asked his friend, offering a hand to help her step off the stool.

"I think I've been waiting for this moment my whole life..." Skye answered honestly.

If anyone had asked the teen her, even the young adult her (at any point before meeting SHIELD, before meeting Phil), she would have said she never expected to marry. As much as she'd cared for Alec, Miles had seemed like proof that a steady, heart-felt relationship wasn't for her. Then Phil and Ward found her in her van, in a back-alley in LA, and everything changed...

"Then lets get going." Darcy smiled, before opening the doors.

And with that, she was on the way to a new chapter of her life, the beginning of the rest of her life, it sounded almost poetic...

**xXx**

Phil was in the middle of one of the rooms usually reserved to visitors, as he finished getting ready for his wedding (because the girls had claimed his and his lover's room for the bride and bridesmaids to get dressed). He was in a black tux, with a white shirt and black bow-tie. The flower in his lapel was a white and red rose (a mutant girl from the Xavier Institute had used her gift to mix the two roses into one); to it was tied a small purple ribbon, in honor of his bride and her royal heritage. The final detail were the shiny cuff-links with the Konstantin symbol, the same ones Josef Kostan had given him after he was 'brought into the Clan'. He could remember quite clearly what his beloved had said that day:

"_Phil is the man I've chosen to be my match, my mate..." _

Mate... even back then, barely six months after the start of their relationship, Skye had known what she wanted of their relationship: forever. It was true they'd said that more than once, most of the time they didn't even think about it, it was simply natural. Their love did not need thinking about. Why then had it taken them that long to get married? A good question, truth was Phil had never thought about it, and he didn't think Skye had either. They already worked together, lived together, slept together; they were committed to each other in every way that mattered, what difference would a paper make? None whatsoever; though on the same line he had to admit that a part of him had felt great joy and satisfaction when she'd said yes to his proposal, and when he was able to slid that ring onto her finger... maybe it was the possessive instinct in him; maybe it was simply the desire for everyone they knew to know how much they loved each other. In the end it did not matter, they were getting married and that was that.

To most people it apparently hadn't been much of a surprise. Everyone who knew them, knew how much the two loved each other; there had been Fury of course, but he'd hardly bee around since the beginning of the Civil War with Hydra, so maybe that was understandable. He still remembered the conversation the two of them had had just a week prior:

_Phil was in the empty gym, doing some warm-up. He'd just finished with the final fitting for his wedding tux (most of the guys were still in the fitting for their suits); he was hoping James or Steve would be joining him sometime soon and they could spar, it was a good way to get rid of some tension; and standing in one place while someone poked and prodded at him with the excuse of getting perfect measurements could be cause for a lot of tension. What he wasn't expecting was when his senses alerted him of the presence of another man in the gym, one who wasn't from his family, or one of his Agents. _

"_Nick..." He called, instinctively realizing who the man must be. "It's been a long time..." _

"_It has." Nick Fury, Phil's predecessor as SHIELD's Director, agreed. _

"_What brings you here?" Phil couldn't help but ask the obvious question. _

"_Well I was in New York, talking to Maria about the recent battle in Manhattan, hearing the reports about the public's reaction to all those gifted individuals working together..." Nick began his explanation. "Was planning on coming here, see the place, the Agents, get an idea how much has changed in five years... and then I hear you were getting married! In all the years I've known you, you never seemed interest in marriage, not even with Audrey, who actually knew what you did for a living. And suddenly to hear you were not only planning but had already proposed and the ceremony was planned for the end of the month! And your bride is half your age too!" _

"_What is it that really throws you Nick?" Phil couldn't help but ask. "That Skye is half my age? That I'm getting married at all? Or that I did not invite you? And on the last one I can tell you quite honestly that's it's hard to issue and invitation when I haven't the slightest idea of where you're supposed to be. In the last five years I've hardly spoken to you every several months; ever since you made me your successor you only visited the Playground twice, and while I'm perfectly aware that our paths technically crossed more than once, you never approached us. How then should I have sent you an invitation to my wedding? And whatever would have made me believe you would come were I to invite you?" _

_Nick had no answer to those questions, he knew Phil was right. It was nothing against his successor, or even against the former Director. The simple, but very real, truth, was that Nick was so used to things remaining the same, that he really wasn't expecting it when change came. Even when Phil began dating Skye, he didn't expect it to get that far. He couldn't see the two of them having anything in common... Even after the mission in New Mexico, everything Phil and his team were able to achieve together, he hadn't realized how much his old friend was changing. He was no longer just an Agent, he'd become more. It was impossible to know what exactly was responsible for the change, maybe it was Stark, maybe the Avengers, maybe having died (and whatever happened to him on the other side), maybe his new team, or even the bride-to-be... in any case, his oldest friend had changed, and Nick was so busy 'playing spy' he didn't notice. So maybe it was no surprise that he hadn't been invited to the wedding. _

"_And about your other doubts." Phil spoke right then. "What Audrey and I had, was special, but unlike myself, it did not survive the Battle of New York. And not just because you kept from her the fact that I was back, and the way you tried to manipulate me into leaving everyone behind. Truth was, if I'd loved her as much as I once thought I did, as much as she deserved, I would have sought her out, and damned anyone who tried to stop me, yourself included. I did that for Clint and Natasha, after all. But once my head was clear, I knew I did not love Audrey the way a man ought to love the woman he intends to spend the rest of his life with. She's very special indeed, but simply not meant for me." _

"_She's married now." Nick offered the last he'd heard of her. _

"_I know, her husband is a famous composer called August Rush, Skye and I went to a concert they gave, along with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Central Park." Phil nodded. "Audrey is pregnant too, six months." He smiled softly. "I'm happy for her. She moved on, and is happy now with her life. As am I. I have everything I ever wished for..." _

"_You have everything... yet you're still marrying a woman half your age..." _

"_Skye is part of that everything Nick, I thought it would have been obvious. I've felt this... bond with her, this connection, for almost as long as we've known each other. Even before I knew I was in love with her, because I was convinced I could trust her, I knew she was meant to be there, in that team, to be with me." He got melancholic all of a sudden. "I still remember that day, after Raina kidnapped me, and that awful machine she tried to use to force my memories back. My mind wasn't ready for them yet, and the workings of that thing could have broken it in an attempt to force things. It hurt, just being there, the fragments I could see, it felt like I was being torn apart... and then she was there. Even before she spoke, before she touched me, I could feel her, I knew she was there. She'd come for me... and I couldn't disappoint her. I had to return, for her if for no one and nothing else." _

_Nick was speechless, never before had he heard his oldest friend talk like that, about anyone, not Audrey, and not any of his previous girlfriends, or friends, no one had ever meant as much to Phil as that hacker did... _

"_You keep focusing on the fact that she's half my age, but age matters very little in our line of work." Phil went on. "You know that as well as I do, Nick. So many Agents have lost their lives, many much younger than us. Age, experience, power, none of that is guarantee of success or even of survival. We've all seen moments when experience has given one an advantage, and others when age has worked against them. Doing what we do, death has become an integral part of our lives. I'm not going to let things like death, age, or anything else, get in the way of us having whatever happiness we can." _

_There was also the fact that with them being a half-elven half-jotun princess and a human-Eihenjar they were essentially immortal... Nick didn't need to know that kind of thing just yet. Maybe someday... _

"_I suppose all I can do then is wish you the best Phil." Nick offered eventually. "Truth is, so few of us Agents are capable of having a good, healthy relationship... but if anyone can do it, I'm sure you can. And I suppose if your relationship with this girl has survived this long..." _

_Nick would never know just how much his relationship with Skye had already survived, and that was probably for the best... maybe one day, maybe not; they would have to deal with the ever-present threat from Odin first, probably. _

"_Then I will be very happy to have you at my wedding Nick." Phil nodded with his usual smile. _

He wasn't sure if the day would actually ever come, for him to be that honest with Nick. As much as the man might be his friend, might have been for longer than either of them had been a part of SHIELD, the man was also very set in his ways. He was the reason why the old SHIELD had lacked the kind of contacts the new one had, as he'd never been able to deal with individuals that possessed great gifts and refused to be under government control; he was also the one who had pushed forward the protocol that forbid family members and romantic partners from working together, stating that it was a risk because they would always put the people they loved first, rather than the mission (not that it had stopped Clint and Natasha during their brief affair, shortly after her arrival, or a few others; though it had stopped anything serious from being allowed to take place, like Maria's relationship with Victoria).

In the end Nick wasn't only going to be present in the wedding, he was one of those who would be marrying the couple; he was in charge of the legal version of the ceremony, while Hela and Azazeal would be leading the hand-fasting ceremony.

Aside from them Phil would have Clint standing with him as his Best-Man, while Steve, Leo, Wesley, James and Tony would be Groomsmen.

"Sirs, it is time." JARVIS's voice was heard from the small speakers that were scattered all around the base.

Phil rolled his eyes, not even surprised that Tony had taken the first opportunity to infiltrate the Playground's systems with JARVIS. In any case, it might even be helpful in the long run.

"Well, lets go, lets get moving, before little Skye realizes who it is she's marrying and runs for the hills!" Tony couldn't help but crack a joke.

"You mean like Pepper forgot to do the day of your wedding?" James asked with a smirk.

"I'll have you know that Pepper never so much as considered running away." Tony stated, looking half offended, and half... something else no one could quite grasp.

"I bet you were the one with the cold feet!" Wesley joked.

"Well, if you must know, yes." Tony's admittance surprised everyone. "Though not because I wanted anything other than to marry her. Pepper is the most wonderful woman I've ever met. And therein lies the problem. Because I'm a mess of a person, and someone who could never hope to deserve her, not in a thousand years..."

For several seconds no one said a word and then, surprisingly, it was Steve who did.

"I think none of us ever do." The captain commented quietly. "I believe that the more we love someone, the less we beieve we deserve them. And yet, trying to pull away would be punishing them as much as ourselves, so there's nothing we can do but stay."

"Stay and do our best to make sure they'll never regret marrying us!" Clint added.

"Well, now you've got us all somber... this is supposed to be a wedding!" Leo stated as brightly as he could.

It was the truth. All of them, in one way or another, had at least once felt they did not deserve the love of the women who had bestowed theirs upon them, who'd chosen to stand by them no matter what; and yet they couldn't just push them away, it wouldn't be right... that and, truth be told, they just loved them too much to even try that.

"We need to go now." James declared, being the first to recover. "Because while I know the Little Cloud would never run, she might get impatient enough to come seek us out herself."

Now that, definitely sounded like Skye.

"What are we waiting for then?" Clint inquired as we went to open the door. "Lets get this wedding on the way!"

**xXx**

The ceremony was celebrated on a hill, by the Western end of the island where the Playground was located, it ended on a cliff and, at that time of the day, the view was spectacular (the sun was just about to set; in fact, if they'd timed it right, it would be setting exactly as the ceremony reached the final part).

Like in a traditional wedding the Groom was standing by the altar, waiting for everyone else. What was different from usual wedding was the fact that in the altar, arranged in the cardinal points were a glass of water (representing its own element), a fistful of salt (earth), a candle (fire) and some incense (air). Nick Fury, standing on the opposite side of the altar had taken a look at it all, arched a brow, but said nothing. He had known already that the bride wasn't exactly normal, and as it had already been proved that Phil was more than a little crazy in love with her...

Hela and Azazeal began playing Mendelssohn's wedding march (she in violin, he in piano), as Natalia walked down the aisle, on Steve's arm, followed by Melinda and Wesley, Jemma and Leo, Wanda and James, Pepper and Tony, and finally Darcy and Clint. There was a slight change in melody and then Maggie began walking down the aisle, flanked by Connor and Malachi (they were there to escort the girl, as she had asked why all the older girls were being escorted by boys and not her, and since both boys had wanted to be part of their aunt's wedding); she moved slowly, throwing down petals the way she'd been taught by the others.

Finally, after one more change in the music, Skye appeared. She was a vision in her white dress, with Thor on one side and Dom in the other; both of them wearing completely black suits (to contrast her, without looking like the groom).

The moment the bride reached the front of the room Azazeal and Hela left their instruments and went to stand on their side of the altar (some people suspected they must have used magic, with how fast they moved).

"We have come together here in celebration of the joining together of Astrid Skye Avery and Philip James Coulson." Fury said his part with his usual solemnity. "Two people who we can count as agents, friends, and family."

Nick would probably deny it to his dying day, but he honestly meant every word he'd just said.

They were using that specific name for Skye because it combined her two most common names, it represented her more than any other name except Menel, and it was one that most of those present would understand better than any other.

"There are many things to say about marriage." Azazeal began the rite itself. "Much wisdom concerning the joining together of two souls has come our way through all paths of belief, and from many cultures."

"With each union, more knowledge is gained and more wisdom gathered." Hela continued smoothly. "Though we are unable to give all this knowledge to these two, who stand before us, we can hope to leave with them the knowledge of love and its strengths and the anticipation of the wisdom that comes with time."

"The law of life is love unto all beings." Azazeal went on. "Without love, life is nothing, without love, death has no redemption. Love is anterior to Life, posterior to Death, initial of Creation and the exponent of Earth."

"If we learn no more in life, let it be this:" Hela added. "Marriage is a bond to be entered into only after considerable thought and reflection. As with any aspect of life, it has its cycles, its ups and its downs, its trials and its triumphs."

"With full understanding of this, Philip and Skye have come here today to be joined as one in marriage." Azazeal declared.

"Others would ask, at this time, who gives the bride in marriage, but, as a woman is not property to be bought and sold, given and taken, we ask simply if she comes of her own will and if she has her family's blessing." Hela stated.

"Skye, is it true that you come of your own free will and accord?" Azazeal asked her.

"Yes, it is true." Skye nodded solemnly.

"With whom do you come and whose blessings accompany you?" Hela took over again.

"She comes with me, her brother..." Dominic began.

"And with me, her uncle..." Thor interjected.

"And is accompanied by all of her family's blessings." The two finished almost in unison.

The 'Aye' could be heard coming from almost every direction. So many people were present that Skye considered family: brothers, sisters, cousins, friends; humans, mutants, metas, vampires...

At a nod from Hela and Azazeal the two men went to take their places beside their wives.

"Please join hands with your betrothed and listen to that which I am about to say." Azazeal stated. "Above you are the stars, below you are the stones, as time doth pass, remember..."

The two began speaking in unison then, with a harmony of voices and motions that only two people who had known each other for as long as they had, and were as in tune with each other as they were, could achieve:

"Like a stone should your love be firm like a star should your love be constant. Let the powers of the mind and of the intellect guide you in your marriage, let the strength of your wills bind you together, let the power of love and desire make you happy, and the strength of your dedication make you inseparable. Be close, but not too close. Possess one another, yet be understanding. Have patience with one another, for storms will come, but they will pass quickly. Be free in giving affection and warmth. Have no fear and let not the ways of the unenlightened give you unease, for God is with you always."

"Philip, we have not the right to bind thee to Skye, only you have this right." Hela told him. "If it be your wish, say so at this time and place your ring in her hand."

"It is my wish." Phil nodded with a smile, reaching for the ring Clint was offering to him before handing it over to his lover.

It was different from what would be done in a normal ceremony, but they liked it. Offering themselves, for the other to bind themselves.

The band was of an alloy made of mithril and vibranium (to mix both their heritages); and it had only been achieved thanks to Erik Lehnsherr's help (Charles Xavier had helped convince him).

"Skye, if it be your wish for Philip to be bound to you, place the ring on his finger." Hela told her.

Skye did, a smile so bright on her face it was as if she could light up the sky (no pun intended).

"Skye, I have not the right to bind thee to Phil only you have this right." Azazeal continued with his part. "If it be your wish, say so at this time and place your ring in his hand."

"It is my wish." Skye nodded, offering her beloved the ring Darcy gave her.

"Phil, if it be your wish for Skye to be bound to you, place the ring on her finger." Azazeal said.

Phil did so, his hand never trembling, neither had hers for that matter. Regardless of any comment that may have been made, truth was that they wanted that wedding so much... and a part of them felt like they were already married, had been for years, which made the whole ceremony so easy, as if it was something they were always meant to do.

Ready for what came next, the two lovers stood facing each other, joining hands in silence, right to right and left to left, creating a figure eight, a symbol of eternity... forever, just like their union was meant to be:

"With this cord we now bind you." The couple acting as priest and priestess stated in unison. " However this binding is not tied, so that neither is restricted by the other, and the binding is only enforced by both their wills."

The cord was special, made by Mia and a few others who Skye called family, and blessed by everyone in the group who had magic. It went around the couple's joint wrists, carefully arranged in such a way it made the illusion of being tied, even when it wasn't.

Nick Fury stepped forward, to say his next part:

"Skye and Phil have chosen to say their own vows, part of a tradition older than either of theirs, than any in this world." He said what he'd been told to, even if he didn't fully understand it all.

It was true; while the traditional vows for the handfasting ceremony (of which they'd actually found a number of versions with small variations) were quite beautiful, the two couldn't help but want something more. Then Skye had dreamt her parent's own wedding... it seemed almost fated, though the idea was actually Phil's (he'd shared the dream). It seemed just perfect. When Hela had heard what they were planning, she'd explained to them that those particular vows were part of a very specific ceremony, older than any world, one meant only for lovers who were willing to be together till the end of time. Phil and Skye had only loved the idea all the more after that.

"From this day on, you will be my only one." Phil went first. "I shall look at no other the way I look at you, I shall think of no other the way I think about you, I shall talk to no other the way I talk to you, I shall desire no other the way I desire you, and I shall lay with no other the way I lay with you. I shall be with no other for you are now and forever shall be my one and only; my friend, my lover, my partner, my match…"

"From this day on, you will be my only one." Skye repeated the same. "I shall look at no other the way I look at you, I shall think of no other the way I think about you, I shall talk to no other the way I talk to you, I shall desire no other the way I desire you, and I shall lay with no other the way I lay with you. I shall be with no other for you are now and forever shall be my one and only; my friend, my lover, my partner, my match…"

The words were the same, pronounced by different mouths, and while to some they were nothing more than words, those who had the slightest supernatural senses (which were actually many of those present) could sense, some could almost see the ribbons of colorful light as they wound around the two lovers, binding them together to the end of time, in a manner more absolute than any rope or chain.

The two then finished their vows in unison, doing their best to join their voices and feelings the same way Hela and Azazeal did:

"Heart to thee, Soul to thee, Body to thee, Forever and always, So mote it be..."

"So mote it be." Hela and Azazeal echoed.

The rest of those present (even those that didn't fully understand the ceremony) followed.

Nick took that as a signal for the next part that corresponded to him, as he placed the marriage certificate on the table (the empty spot bellow the elements), offering an elegant fountain pen for Skye to sign, then Phil, and finally their witnesses.

"By the power vested in me by the United States, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife." Nick stated with no little satisfaction.

Phil was truly one of his dearest friends, probably the greatest he'd ever had; and even if he didn't exactly show it, it did him good to see how happy he was (even if the whole marriage ceremony had been far stranger than any Nick had witnessed before, and he'd seen some pretty strange things in his life and working with SHIELD).

"With the Lord and Lady as our witness, the blessing of the Higher Powers and by the power granted to us by those who Know and Believe, we now pronounce you, Husband and Wife." Azazeal and Hela chorused.

For a second nothing happened, no one move or spoke and then.

"You can kiss her now, you know?" Darcy quipped.

Laughter followed, though Phil did follow the advice and kissed his bride... his wife...

"Amin mela lle, Arwenamin..." Phil whispered quietly against her lips.

They were the very words delicately engraved in the inside of their wedding bands.

"Amin mela lle, Aratoamin..." Skye echoed the sentiment with the same fervor.

They kissed again, the second of many such expressions of love to come, for they were together then, a match, and would remain so to the end of time.

* * *

><p>Yes, I started with the wedding... imagine what that means for the rest of the fic.<p>

As always, full-sized poster and accompanying wallpaper can be found in my Deviant-Art account (Princess-Lalaith). I particularly like how these ones turned out!

Every story in this series, the chapter titles have had a constant: in Lokidottir they were all about the pieces of Skye's identity; in Avery they were about the end of the old SHIELD, the beginning of the new one and the pieces of the prophecy that announced the change; in Astrid it was about a phrase relevant to each fandom I was making crossovers with; this time we're going back to the basics, it's once again about Skye, her identity, though not her past but her present, and in some ways, her future too. It's all in the summary... who is she really? And where does she truly belong?

See ya next week!


	2. Lady Infinity

The one where they get a surprise, an unexpected visitor and more than a few revelations. After five years leading the new SHIELD some people might have thought they were ready for anything that came their way... they couldn't have been more wrong.

Time for the mystery of the woman in black to be revealed! And if you don't know what 'mystery' I'm speaking of, you have the cover for this fic right here (and the image in full size, along with the accompanying wallpaper in my deviant-Art account).

References to characters and plot from the final two episodes of the third season of Scandal (don't worry, you don't need to have watched the show to understand it). This was done to fulfill a wish from the person who identified the people I'd connected to Darcy's history. I hope you like it!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2. Lady Infinity <strong>

The new Mr. and Mrs. Coulson spent two weeks on a beach-house in the Canary Islands (it was Dom's place there, where he'd lived with Elena during the year between the Heist in Rio and Letty being found working with Shaw). Those were also the two weeks Skye usually took off to visit her blood family, though after learning of the upcoming wedding (through a convenient vision from Tawar), both parents had insisted that Skye take that time to enjoy being a newlywed, she could always visit them in January; and hopefully one day they would get the chance to visit her instead, get to know all her extended family... and Malachi...

Things had also more-or-less gone back to normal in the Playground during that time. Most of the wedding guests had returned to their homes (all those who didn't pretty much live in the island, at least). Truth was, there had been offers from more than one government to return SHIELD's main quarters to the mainland; US and the UK seemed to be the most interested (probably because they were the countries the previous incarnation of the organization had come from). With the United States in particular it had been the president himself making the offer, probably an attempt at thanking them for 'services rendered'; though SHIELD explained more than once that it wasn't in any way necessary, and the only reason they got involved at all was as a personal favor.

The situation specifically had been the capture of the international terrorist Marie Wallace who, unknown to most, had once been also known by the name of Maya Lewis... sister of Darcy's father (or the one Darcy had believed for twenty-five years to be her father), it was pretty much how they'd gotten involved; when Maya/Marie's daughter: Olivia Pope, had called on her cousin for help with a 'situation'.

_Darcy was the last person to join a group formed by not only her not-cousin, but also her legal team, her father: Rowan Pope, and a former soldier Darcy knew was called Jake Ballard (newest Command of B-613 and, according to the paparazzi, Olivia's boyfriend -which meant, of course, it was all a lie, her cousin knew how to play the media too well-). _

_The most disappointing part was that no one other than two of the 'agents' of the highly-illegal and controversial program of B-613 even noticed she was there for the longest time. _

"_You want me to stay?" Rowan demanded in a fake, if dramatic manner, right then. "He goes." _

_Ballard scoffed, though Olivia didn't immediately answer, it looked like she actually had to think about it, and then: _

"_Who are you?" Several people demanded at once, finally noticing Darcy at the door. _

"_Darcy?" The two Popes called at the same time (though only one seemed happy to see her). _

"_Hey Livvie." Darcy smiled, she actually liked seeing her cousin, it had been a while; her tone turned somewhat stiff before adding. "Uncle Rowan..." _

"_What are you doing here?" Rowan demanded. _

"_Livvie called me a couple of hours ago." Darcy answered honestly. "It seemed urgent so I took the first plane available and high-tailed it here." _

"_There's no way you could have made it here all the way from Arizona in a couple of hours." Rowan said in a suspicious tone. _

_Arizona... because after getting out of NY, following Hydra's initial attack, Darcy had made it seem like she'd gone back to live to her mother's old place (not like she could explain the truth of where she was, or who she worked for). _

"_I was actually in NY, for work, when the call came in." Darcy shrugged. _

_That was true too, she'd been meeting with the four heads of OsCorp regarding Spider-Man's and the Goblin's recent 'adventures' and how the company itself was doing their best to help in the aftermath of the battles. _

"_It doesn't matter." Jake interrupted. "I have no idea who you are, but if you're here for a family visit you will have to come back later, we're in the middle of something here." _

"_I know that Mr. Ballard." Darcy couldn't help but enjoy his shock at her knowledge. "That's actually why I'm here. As to who I am, My name is Darcy Lewis, Olivia is my cousin... and this is not a family visit. It's entirely professional." Having said that, she focused straight on Olivia as she explained things. "My team's working on it, you can be sure they'll have a... Marie Wallace and the rest of the terrorist cell found before the end of the day." _

"_That's impossible!" Jake snorted. "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but there is no way such a thing can be done." _

"_Oh it can when the team is as good as mine." Darcy smirked at him. _

"_Your team..." Jake repeated, scandalized. "I though we had agreed not to get government agencies involved in this?!" _

"_I haven't..." Olivia began. _

"_She didn't call any agency, she called me." Darcy clarified. "You can consider this a personal favor, for my favorite cousin. We have no interest in Marie Wallace, or in the rest of the terrorists she's pulled together. They'll be all yours as soon as we have them." _

"_There's no way any Agency would allow that." Charlie denied. "Deny themselves the chance to say they captured one of the most wanted criminals, from several countries?!" _

"_You work for SHIELD..." Rowan said abruptly, calling everyone's attention. "That's why you are so sure this can be done. Ever since the new Director came to power, it's like the whole Organization has gone nuts. Working with aliens, mutants, with freaks of nature..." _

_He didn't get to finish his tirade, the sound of flesh hitting flesh interrupted him; and everyone else could only watch in shock, at the woman who had just slapped a man who was, arguably, the most feared by everyone else present. _

"_You will not insult my friends, my family, in such a way." She said, steel in her voice. "I will not allow it. I understand you think you have all this power, because you're a bad-ass assassin, and have lead dozens of such spies and assassins for years, but, newsflash! I'm not afraid of you. One of my best friends is Agent Romanoff, the Black-Widow, the Winter Soldier is part of my team, I have had the pleasure of working with metas, mutants, witches, and many other amazingly gifted individuals, I pretty much fought a veritable war in the last several years. Compared to that, you're nothing..." She took a deep breath, calming herself down. "Now, as I was saying. I have no interest in any of you, or your little war-games; neither does SHIELD. We will capture Marie Wallace because that's what my cousin, whom I deeply care for, has asked me to do; then, once she's in your custody, we'll leave, and she'll be your problem. We have far bigger threats to worry about that one woman." _

_Before anyone else got a chance to say a word, Darcy's phone rang, she pulled it out of her pocket, giving the coded answer that was to be used during missions: _

"_Agent Mockingjay speaking..." So she was a fan of the Hunger Games, so what? It was actually appropriate, in a sense, with Tony always calling Clint 'Katniss' (or Legolas, but she wasn't focusing on that one). "Yes... yes... Very well... Thank you Agent Yasha, please tell Hawkeye I will meet him at the rendezvous point as soon as the package has been received... Yes." She snapped the phone shut before turning to the others. "It's done." _

"_That's impossible!" Several of those present cried out at the same time. _

"_It's not." Darcy smirked widely. "I told you, my team is that good...Now, lets get going already so you can take her into custody and I can leave with my team already. If we take too long my boyfriend is going to get antsy, and that won't be good." She began babbling almost without noticing. "He didn't like me coming alone in the first place, but I told him Livvie was going to be here, and I trusted Livvie, even if I don't trust anyone else in this room, especially not Uncle Rowan and soldier-boy... Dad, of course doesn't know I'm here, he would have a coronary if he did... or he would fly all the way here from California and make a mess of everything!" _

"_Excuse me, did you just say dad?" Olivia asked, shocked. _

_Darcy actually froze at that. _

"_Right, it's kind of a long story..." The younger not-cousin hesitated for a second before saying: "We're not actually cousins Livvie, at least not by blood, though in my heart you'll always me my cous, you must know that. Turns out George Lewis wasn't my father... I'm sure Uncle Rowan knew this already. Though I'm also sure he doesn't know who my real father is. Mother only revealed it to me on her death-bed..." She shook her head. "We're not ready to make it public just yet; but you'll find out, eventually." _

_Olivia just nodded, finally taking her bag and coat and following Darcy out the office, Rowan and Jake after them. _

_An hour later Marie Wallace, Adnan Salif, Dominic Bell and a number of other international terrorists were under custody of B-613, the moment they all were in vans Darcy officially washed her hands off the whole thing. _

"_Well, that's that." She declared, satisfied. "Livvie, don't be a stranger. Even if we're not blood-family, we're still family where it counts, ok? If you ever need me, just call me. And even if you don't! I'm always game for a girls' night out." _

"_I will." Olivia nodded, embracing her cousin tightly. "I promise Darcy." _

Three days later Darcy had phoned Livvie after Destiny got in contact with her to let her know that someone was going to kill the president's son. The warning came too late to stop the attack from happening, but Darcy'd had a backup plan and one of their local agents arrived to the hospital with a dose of the Solomon drug right on time. They had no idea who exactly had tried to kill the teen (well, they had some idea... put no proof, so it was irrelevant); at least the boy was saved, that was all that really mattered (the traitor from the secret service that had injected him with the virus was imprisoned, but he refused to give the name of his boss).

It was actually for that last fact that the president (who had won the re-election two days later) had tried so hard to convince SHIELD to return to the United States, which they had really no intention of doing. Phil had put it quite clearly:

"_We were once a government Agency, Mr. President." The Director had said. "Created from the team-up of Division X and the SSR, we served both the United States and the United Kingdom. And yet, in 2014, when Hydra revealed its presence among our ranks, it wasn't only our own people, our co-workers, that turned against us; the governments of the two countries we'd served loyally for years turned against us as well. For months we were persecuted, referred to in every media as criminals, traitors, terrorists, when we were anything but; and even when the persecution mostly ended, we were seen as little more than vigilantes! Only when the Civil War was over, and when we made it all public, did it stop. But was there ever an apology for the way we were treated for years? No! Nothing at all. You all chose to brush it away, sweep it under the rug, where no one would see it. I have agents, good people, who were forced to spend almost five years separated from their families, their friends, their lives! Out of fear that loyalists like Col. Talbot or Gral. Ross would go after them and their loved ones, simply for their conviction in helping SHIELD protect everyone..." He shook his head. "So, in few words. The answer is no Mr. President. We won't be taking our HQs back to the US, or the UK, or any other country for that matter, we're much better keeping ourselves away from any one country's territory. After all, we're not a government organization anymore, we don't serve any one nation anymore, we serve the world. And that's the way it's going to stay." _

No one had even been able to complain about that. How could they with everything SHIELD had done and was still doing? And though eventually people like Talbot and Ross lost their power, and public statements were made regarding the status of everyone working for SHIELD, nothing could have ever made Phil change his mind. At least his agents had the chance to go back to their places of origin whenever they wanted; even if most still chose to spend some time back in the Playground, even when not on mission. It had simply become habit.

Still, it wasn't like during the War, most of the bedrooms were only filled when there was a long-term mission happening, or during certain cycles as the agents kept their training up. Exceptions were people like Phil, Skye and their teams, who chose to stay on the island whenever not on a mission elsewhere, or visiting family; and the Koenig twins, who'd lived for duty for so long they didn't actually have a life outside of SHIELD anymore...

**xXx**

Two months after the wedding, and six weeks after the couple's return from their honeymoon things had gone pretty much back to normal. With Hydra's defeat, and the number of people that worked together to keep the world safe it was hardly necessary for those living in the Playground to go on missions anymore; except when it was something really huge, like an alien invasion, and that kind of thing didn't really happen that often (the last one had been the Enchantress's sisters attack on NY, three months prior).

That day Skye was sitting on the edge of the cliff where she and Phil were married, looking out at the sea. Life was good, so good... and that was pretty much what terrified her. In twenty-nine years of life she'd never had it easy (and that wasn't a complaint, just a matter of fact), even when things were good, like when she was with the Torettos, with Karen, in college or with SHIELD, there had always been something going on that kept her on-guard (knowing she would be moved soon, having had to run for weeks and live on the streets, the fear that the lies that allowed her the scholarship could be discovered at any moment, the fights that could at any moment mean their lives...). And yet in that moment, the war was over, she had the man she loved most in the world, a huge family, lots of amazing friends, and even though she couldn't give Phil a child of their own blood and that hurt, they'd begun talking about adopting, maybe one of the gifted children human parents had so much trouble understanding...

*Menel!*

Skye's eyes snapped open abruptly as all her senses sharpened into focus. She had no idea where that voice was coming from, only that she wasn't picking up on it with her ears, it was extremely important, and it did not belong to her husband or direct family (which, technically, were the only ones who could call her Menel...). Half on instinct she reached with her her right hand for the elven pendant hanging from her neck; she got a sense of fear, downright terror, so intense that she nearly passed out on that alone.

"Naneth!" She screamed, half-hysterical.

It was like the exact opposite of the day she'd nearly died, when her sharp feelings and the magic in the pendant allowed her to unconsciously reach for her mother, even a realm away... this time she was the one feeling her mother's emotions, and they weren't good.

As if that weren't enough, in that exact moment Skye became aware of two new presences, right as two objects appeared beside her, people: two black haired, brown eyed toddlers in pale-green and light-blue pjs whom she identified in an instant:

"Vali?! Narvi?!" She called, beyond shocked, then she screamed. "Hela!"

Her older sister was beside her in less than two seconds, looking half lost and extremely shocked by her little sister's hysterics... until she too noticed the two toddlers, and then her mood darkened as well. While Hela had never seen her two youngest half-siblings, Menel had shared enough memories about them, the fact that the two were in that moment in Midgard, in their sleeping-clothes, alone, with no explanation whatsoever, was more than enough reason to know, without a doubt, that something really bad was happening on Asgard.

"We need to find out what's going on..." Hela decided.

Skye still wasn't talking, she just kept looking at her little brothers with a mix of confusion and fear, her right hand grasping her pendant with all her strength... she was still getting feedback from her mother's emotions.

"We need to talk to Uncle Thor..." Hela kept going on. "It would be safer for him to find out what exactly is happening on Asgard right now... even if that means revealing to him the truth about our Father on the throne..."

Eventually Hela's voice managed to pull Skye's attention back to the present. It took great effort but she took her hand away from the pendant, making it drop against her shirt, no direct contact with her skin (if it did she would begin feeling it all again).

"We need to get moving..." She whispered, at once reaching for one of the boys.

Hela took hold of the other, following her younger sister down the hill (it would have been too dangerous to try and teleport with them, besides which, Hela just wasn't sure Menel had the needed focus to do magic safely at the moment). Even with how bad the situation had to be, the Queen of the Dead couldn't help but take a moment to look at the little boy in her arms. It had been so long since she had seen something like that... not since Jormungandr left his childhood behind; Malachi was aging like a human, which meant she'd missed those stages with him, and she hadn't seen Menel until she was an adult. The twins, on the other hand, were aging like elves and asgardians do, slowly, which was why they still looked like toddlers even though they were around five years old.

Things were no better when the two sisters got to the living quarters of the Playground, in fact they only got worse when Cassie rushed to the group with her own news:

"Jane just called!" She declared in a nervous hurry. "She said Thor just left for Asgard. He did not say why or anything, only that he was being called back and Heimdall seemed to believe it was urgent for whatever the reason and..."

She cut off her rant the moment she noticed the two little boys in Skye's and Helena's arms.

"Are those who I think they are?" Azazeal asked, completely serious.

"This is Narvi." The older Lokidottir said of the blue-clad boy in her arms. "The one in Skye's arms in Vali. They're our youngest siblings..."

"Something definitely has happened in Asgard..." Phil murmured, not liking it.

Truth was, no one liked it. They might not have had the slightest idea of what was going on exactly, but just the fact that the twins had been sent on a trip across realms, on their own and with no warning, was telling.

"It gets worse." Helena admitted grimly. "Skye got feedback from her mother earlier, it was nothing good..."

"Skye..." Phil called to his beloved, fearing for her as much as for her family.

"Naneth is so terrified..." The half-elf admitted quietly. "I cannot get a sense of anything beyond that, absolute terror. If I so much as graze the pendant I feel like I might drown in it... it's awful."

"We need to find out what exactly is going on." Azazeal decided. "We know something's wrong, but until we know what exactly, and why, there's nothing we can do to help..."

There was, of course, the chance that even if/when they found out the truth, they wouldn't be able to help, but that was one option neither of them wanted to contemplate.

For a second or two not a word was said, and then they all became aware of a new presence at the same time. With the tension as high as it was, the reaction was instantaneous as the two sisters held the little boys tightly against their chests in protective stances, their husbands moved to cover them at the same time they raised their respective weapons (one an ICER, the other a ritual knife), shooting in the direction of the new presence without even stopping to consider it beyond the fact that it wasn't anyone familiar. Casarmi, in the room as well, dropped to her knees, curling her body around Malachi, while at the same time keeping her head up and a hand ready to call on her powers; Thelma, standing beside her, kept an eye on everything. Skye used her own telekinesis to make her gun levitate, even as her arms remained on her little brother; however, before she could fire, something about the stranger called her attention.

"You don't have a presence..." She blurted out, confused. "Why don't you have a presence?"

"It would be too dangerous to time-travel and allow my aura free, if it were to connect in any way with that of my past-self the effect would be catastrophic." The newcomer answered in a low, somewhat haunting voice, the attacks having done nothing to her.

"Past-self...?" Darcy repeated in shock.

"Time travel?" Phil repeated almost at the same time, turning to look at his wife for a moment before adding. "Again?"

"How?" Azazeal asked instead. "Messing with time isn't easy. I was surprised that the mutants managed to do it, though the conditions were harsh enough on that front, and even then, it was only a mind that traveled back. You... you just implied that you're here physically, that there is another you in this time... which means a lot more..."

"Who are you?" Several people asked at the same time.

"Where I come from names don't matter, they stopped mattering many years ago... around the same time the universe as a whole pretty much went to hell..." The unknown made a pause before turning in Hela's direction. "No offense intended."

"You know who I am, yet you won't tell us anything about yourself." Hela insisted.

"You may call me Infinity." The time-traveler answered, finally stepping out of the shadows. "It's one of the last names anyone called me by, and I mind it less than the other one..."

The figure was finally revealed then. It was a woman, around six feet tall, with golden skin, dark cloudy eyes and brown hair so dark it was almost black; she was also wearing a black dress made in two layers: a sleeveless, floor-length, solid black one with a sweet-heart neckline, and on top one with long sleeves, an elegant hood and several extra inches on the ground, made completely of black lace; a dark gold sash marked her waist.

"Why are you here?" Phil asked, still not lowering his gun. "You say you're from the future, and your past-self is somewhere around... but why here? Why now? Why us?"

"As should be obvious I've traveled back because there's something that needs to be changed, as for why here, now, you... because here is the right place, now was the best time for the change that needs to be made, and you are the ones that can make it..."

"You do realize that changing the past will mean destroying your timeline, possibly yourself, right?" Azazeal asked, eyebrow arched.

"I am perfectly conscious of the consequences of my actions." The visitor stated in a very no-nonsense tone.

"This has something to do with Asgard, doesn't it?" Skye asked abruptly, moving to stand beside her husband rather than behind him. "Whatever's going on over there, with our family, whatever made it necessary for the twins to be sent here... it's bad, really bad..."

"Worse than you could ever imagine." The black lady stated soberly.

It wasn't the first time Skye heard those words, she liked them then even less than the last time.

"We need to talk, time is short and there is much to do." The visitor declared.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Hela demanded.

"Because, Hela Lokidottir, wife of Azazeal, mother of Malachi, Queen of Helheim, Ragnarok is coming, and unless we all do something about it the results will be disastrous."

The word 'Ragnarok' was enough to put everyone on high-alert, though for entirely different reasons. If Doomsday was really a risk in that moment, they really needed to do anything they could to stop it.

"I trust her." Skye stated quietly. "I don't know why, but I do."

Phil nodded, he agreed with her every word, even if he didn't dare actually say it. It didn't sit right with him, being willing to trust someone he didn't know, but in their situation it was necessary.

"We should go inside." Casarmi offered, getting back on her feet, though without letting go of Malachi. "Something tells me we will all need to be sitting down for this one."

The lady in black just nodded, following everyone else into the visitor's building (there was no way they were taking a complete stranger, especially one they'd no idea how she'd gotten onto the island, into the living areas of the base). Once there Helena and Skye placed the infants on a blanket on the floor, surrounded by cushions, Casarmi promising quietly to look after them and Malachi (Thelma too); while the rest took seats around the small sitting room.

"Now, who are you? Where do you come from? And what are you doing here?" Phil fired off what he considered were the three most important questions in that moment.

"Like I said before, I'm here to change the past, to try and prevent the universal hell my time has turned into." The lady stated solemnly. "I come from the future, though the specific realm is unimportant, half of them collapsed and most of the rest stopped mattering after the war razed them all to the ground. There's nothing left of what they once were. Finally, as for my identity. Like I said, you can call me Infinity, it's a title more than a name, but at least I earned that one..." She hesitated before adding. "Some people called me Black Queen... though I do not think I really earned that one, and anyway, one can hardly be a Queen when there's nothing left of your kingdom, or your people, right?"

There was so much sadness in her every word, so much grief, it almost pained Skye, even though she still wasn't getting anything from the black-clad lady (she could only imagine what her senses would be picking up then, it wouldn't be good).

"As you've managed to deduce, something is wrong and it's connected to Asgard." Infinity began the actual explanations. "The simplest way to put it is: Odin is awake."

"What?!" Skye's deep rooted horror at that one thing echoed all around.

"What happened?" Phil asked, trying to remain focused.

After all, they couldn't really solve anything unless they knew every detail.

"The Gatekeeper saw the end of your battle in New York, earlier this summer." Infinity explained grimly. "I know not how it happened exactly, but he did. For some reason he became aware the moment Lorelei was slayed, he then turned his eyes on Midgard right on time to see Amora fall, to get a glimpse of your power."

"He's been seeing me for years, that was never a problem." Skye replied, shifting in discomfort.

"He's seen you train with Sif, and your magic, but never had his eyes laid on you as you Shadow Walked... that talent..." She shook her head. "Only one person in all the universe has the power to travel the worlds without the use of the Bifrost, or the Tesseract. Even with the Hidden Paths, few people know of them, even less can travel them effectively, and there has only ever been one who knows more them all... even if he favors other traveling methods more."

"Loki." Azazeal and Loki spoke at the same time.

"It's why he's called Sky-Treader." Helena nodded.

"It's why Uncle Thor got him out of prison after Grandmother's death, so they could get to Svartalfheim and confront Malekith." Skye offered. "Adar is the only one who knew how to make such travels."

"Indeed." Infinity nodded sagely. "Even the Allfather, with all his years and experience, couldn't have done it, not without help. And that's only considering the Hidden Paths. Shadow Walking is a talent that belonged to a race long ago lost. You see, the Shadow Plane exists where the edge of each realm touches the edge of the abyss, those are very specific paths, hard to navigate. You need a lot of power even to get in there, even more to be able to keep control. And, as if all that weren't hard enough, the Shadow Plane is so deeply entrenched in the abyss itself that most people wouldn't be able to survive long there, not with so little oxygen... just like most people could never survive in the abyss, in what midgardians refer to as open-space."

"Except Father has, he fell off the Rainbow Bridge once, after all." Helena muttered.

"Exactly." The visitor nodded.

"I too can travel the Shadow Paths, or I could." Helena went on. "The Allfather bound that ability in me after me and my brothers were accused of using the Dark Arts..." She snorted. "It's why in the end I needed to use the Hidden Paths to get here..." She shook her head. "In any case, I can do that because I'm his daughter, which means..."

"Which means me doing it showed that I am Lokidottir as well." Skye finished for her. "I gave myself away, just like that."

Still, she couldn't say she regretted it; she'd done what was necessary to keep someone she loved safe... and deep down she'd always known Odin would be waking up some day.

"At first Heimdall did not realize what it all meant." Infinity went back to her story. "But he kept an eye out, until eventually he figured it out. I know not who exactly he got to help him, but it finally came to a head last night. Odin was found and Loki was taken into custody. It took them a while to be able to take him, which is what allowed Lady Tawariel to send the twins away, even if neither of them had the chance to alert you of what was going on."

"So, in summary, both of my parents are prisoners of Odin right now... again." Skye couldn't help but bite her lip at the idea. "What can we do about it?"

"I cannot tell you what to do." Infinity denied. "What I can tell you is what you did once, and how things turned out..."

"Well, it obviously didn't go well, but lets hear it." Skye nodded grimly.

"The first time around you spent most of the day making calls, to your teams and your contacts, you wanted to know if whatever was going on was limited to Asgard or bigger." Infinity said. "Nothing came of it, until you got a call from Destiny. She told you that Loki and Tawar had been found. It's why Thor was called, to see what he knew; he was shocked by the revelation that his brother was alive, but he could see something wasn't right about his father's attitude, so he didn't say anything about Menel, Hela or their family on Midgard. The Allfather didn't even know about the twins. Finally, she (Destiny) warned you that Odin was sending his best Hunter after you. It was then that you decided to run..."

"What?!" No one could believe that, they didn't want to, except...

"For the children..." Casarmi whispered in understanding.

"What?" They all turned to look at her.

"You ran to protect the boys." The blonde explained. "If it had been just you, you probably would have fought to the end, but with Malachi, Vali and Narvi... you knew you had to think about them first, had to keep them safe. That's why you ran..."

No one answered, though they all knew she was right. They were all proud, Warriors, but their family would always be more important, and the boys were innocent...

"What then?" Azazeal asked.

"You left before dawn, with help of several of your contacts, some hacking and magic, it was as if you'd vanished from the face of the Earth..." The Black Queen admitted with a sigh.

"What about SHIELD?" Phil couldn't help but worry. "Who took our places?"

"No one." Infinity answered. "Your teams... at first they weren't ready for someone taking your places; and then they just feared that if someone did they would try to change things again, that they would undo everything the two of you did... So they refused to have a new Director and Deputy; instead they formed a council of sorts, and together made the decisions that needed to be made to allow SHIELD to work properly." She made a pause. "The decision actually allowed them to hide your departure for a while, I don't know how long. Though eventually things began falling, piece by piece. While SHIELD itself continued working, following the guidelines you'd set, the Alliances didn't stand... not without you. It was... it was as if without the two of you the groups simply didn't know how to work together anymore. Someone said it once: the Alliance followed you, not SHIELD..."

Skye did not say a word, but Phil remembered well when Wolverine had said something to that effect; he'd been talking about the other world, the one where Sentinels had eventually caused the end of everything... and even back then Phil hadn't been able to stop feeling that it might be the same in their own timeline... well, it appeared he was right.

"How long did it last?" Skye couldn't but ask. "After we left, how long before it all... how long before we were found?"

"Three years." Infinity answered honestly.

"Prior to the apocalypse three freezing winters would follow each other with no summers in-between." Casarmi whispered quietly.

Since learning the truth about Azazeal, about the boy she'd given birth to, and the family she was connected to she'd researched all she could of the Norse gods. Talks with Skye, Azazeal, and later on Hela had shown her that a lot of what humans knew of 'Asgard' was wrong (though she had realized some of that when it'd come to Malachi); and yet they'd managed to somehow get Ragnarok right... or at least part of it.

"Exactly." Infinity nodded. "As the third winter was approaching its end a... you were found. The Hunter was after Malachi, following the Allfather's belief that if the boy died Hela's tether to this world would be lost and she would end up trapped in Helheim again. What He never counted on was the one willing to surrender their life for the boy..."

"Me." There was no hesitation in Casarmi's voice as he spoke.

"Yes." Infinity inclined her head respectfully at the blonde girl. "There... you did something, I know not what. When the Hunter tried again, his power turned against him..."

"It worked!" Despite the revelations, Casarmi smiled.

"You know what your future self did?" Helena asked, very interested.

"It's a spell I'm still working on right now." Cassie nodded with a small smile. "It's something to protect Malachi... though it can only be used as a last resource because... well..."

"It's powered by your death." Helena finished for her.

"Yes." The blonde didn't even bothered trying to deny it. "A spell this strong, it will only work if I put the whole of my soul behind it..."

"And you would..." Azazeal was speechless in his shock.

It had been something for the girl to be willing to carry his baby and give birth to him despite the danger that put her in; then she'd chosen to stick around, be part of Malachi's life, even if she couldn't be his mom, she was an aunt; then she was going to be willing to give up her life, and to know it wasn't a spur of the moment, but even right then, before they even knew there was a very real danger coming their way, she'd been preparing something like that, a spell powered by her very soul, meant to keep the boy safe no matter what... no one had any words for a sacrifice of that level, for a love like that...

Helena got on her feet then, silently shifting into her real image, kneeling before the blonde young woman and pressing their foreheads together in a loving gesture.

"Takk, søster-gruven (Thank you, sister-mine)." Hela whispered in a thick accent.

Casarmi didn't answer, she wouldn't have known what to say even if she'd tried; so instead she just allowed Hela's magic to touch her, basking in the love of a sister, which she could have never imagined during the first eighteen years of her life. While the words of her unfinished spell echoed inside a corner of her mind:

"_My power to thee, my love unto thee; my blood thy blessing, my life thy shield..." _

Infinity allowed the peaceful moment to continue for a little while longer, before she went back to her story. For a moment it looked like she might have liked to say something else, concerning Casarmi's revelation, but in the end she focused on all that needed to be revealed if they stood a chance at changing things.

"Azazeal killed the Hunter when he got distracted by his failed attempts to kill Malachi." Infinity went back to the story.

"Was it Halle?" Azazeal couldn't help but ask.

"No." The traveler shook her head. "W... You later learnt that she was already dead by that point, the Hunter killed her when he found out she knew where HQs were, had known for years, yet never so much as attempted to kill the boy..."

That one they weren't expecting. So many years, centuries, seeing Halle (or Ella Dee, as she'd re-named herself) as an 'enemy' (which had never been easy considering she'd once been Fenrir's lover), so many lives Volstagg's daughter had taken, innocent lives, of so many girls whose only sin had been to be compassionate enough to be willing to help Azazeal; only for her to die in the end for choosing not to try and kill a little boy...

"There's one thing I don't understand." Thelma abruptly chose to speak up. "Don't take this the wrong way but, why are they always sent to kill Malachi, or girls like Cassie, but never Azazeal? I mean, technically he was the problem..."

"Indeed..." Somehow no one was surprised that Infinity could hear and see Thelma. "But Odin cannot hurt or order someone else to hurt Azazeal..."

"Why not?" Cassie and Thelma asked, confused.

"Because he's an Eihenjar." Phil and Skye answered in unison.

"Exactly." Infinity nodded. "Eihenjar are Warriors who've been blessed by Valhala. Even if by becoming part of the Asgardian Army they technically fall under Odin's rule, they still have favor in a certain way. Only the Higher Powers could undo that blessing... and that's never been known to happen, never."

"It's why we... the Nephelim, were exiled, rather than executed..." Azazeal realized.

So long he'd believed it'd been only because of Lady Frigga, and yet there had been something else... Odin really couldn't kill him. And that meant he couldn't kill Phil either.

"You can still die, of course, but the Allfather cannot order you dead." Infinity clarified.

"What happened then?" Hela inquired.

"It was a terrible tragedy." The black-clad woman admitted. "There was this young man, a warlock, he belonged to a small coven in Massachusetts called 'the Sons of Ipswich'. Everyone knew he was courting Casarmi, though no one knew how serious they had been, the fact that he intended to ask for her hand soon... he went to pieces after he learnt what had happened. He didn't blame Malachi, or anyone else from the family, he knew how much Casarmi loved the boy, loved everyone... losing her... it destroyed him. He tried to use his own power to lessen his grief, his pain, but it only made things worse. He became addicted... until eventually the Power itself destroyed him completely."

No one knew what to say, especially Cassie. Ever since giving birth to Malachi she'd devoted herself to that, to the boy, even if she couldn't really be his mother, Malachi was her family, and from him everyone else, they, and Thelma, were all she had (she'd learnt, less than a year after the birth, that her mother had died, multiple organ failure, in the psychiatric hospital...). To think that at some point in the next three years she'd found (would find) someone; someone with magic, and who would truly love her, enough to want to marry her, enough that the loss of her would utterly destroy him... she wasn't sure if she should feel honored or appalled...

"Things happened very quickly after that." Infinity continued. "None of you were willing to take Casarmi's death lying down. You decided something needed to be done. And so you left the boys with people you trusted, family, got Jormungandr, and all of you together you traveled to Asgard. There..." She hesitated, her voice catching. "First you got Sleipnir, that one was relatively easy; he'd been left alone for years and no one noticed him missing at first. Then you went for Fenrir... you found the body of Lady Sif beside him. Apparently she'd been visiting him for years, the two were very close... something had happened that made her decide to take the risk of freeing him, but she couldn't finish the task. The magic in the chains killed her before she could break the last chain. You finished the task before going in search of A... your Father..." Her voice caught once again. "What you found was food for your worst nightmares. Loki was chained against a rock, and there over his head was Öndurguô, Skathi's venomous serpent, dripping venom over his body little by little. N... Lady Tawariel was there too, looking emaciated; she'd devoted the last three years of her life to prevent as much of her match's pain as she could, holding a mithril bowl over his head to catch as much of the serpent's venom as she could. And yet, every so often she had to move, to be able to empty the bowl, during that time Loki would be in pain. It broke her heart whenever that happened, so she did her best to hurry and return..."

"Which, in turn, means that she never ate, or slept..." Phil murmured quietly.

"I think Sif did her best to help for a while, but it did not last." The Traveler admitted. "Asgard knew her as Sigyn, for reasons I know not, rather than her birth name, they began calling her the Goddess of Fidelity, for her insistence to stand by her match... I honestly believe that if it weren't for her being an elf, the way the Earth itself helped support her, she wouldn't have survived as long as she did... and yet..." Her voice broke, just for a second. "She died instants after her eyes laid on her daughter, right after hearing that her little boys were safe."

Skye let out a strangled sob... it had been bad enough to fear her mother's terror through the connection the pendant could create, but to suddenly learn that it was going to end like that... that in another timeline it already had...

"You released Loki after that." Infinity continued, though it seemed to be an effort for her. "All you wanted was for all the pain to end, for the family to be free... it didn't work like that. Eihenjar were sent after you. You won, but still, it was a signal of what was to come. It was obvious the Allfather would never leave you in peace, not after what you had already done. Also... I think A... Loki might have been broken by that point. It might have been the venom, N... Tawariel's death, everything that had happened in the previous three years... there's no way of knowing for sure. The only thing certain is that he was beyond reason. He broke the gates that sealed Muspelheim, and then it began..."

"What?" Thelma asked, completely captured by the tale...

"Ragnarok..." Everyone answered practically in unison.

"The End of Days..." Casarmi clarified for her friend.

"That's not good..." Thelma tried to quip, but even she knew the seriousness of the situation.

"The battle lasted... I have no idea how long it lasted." Infinity admitted, sounding so tired in that moment. "With Warriors who were effectively immortal, who needed very little food and drink to function. Also, it took little time for 'sides' not to matter anymore. You may have never intended for Ragnarok to come, but it did. At the end there were so very few left standing..." The black-clad woman swallowed. "Jotunheim, Muspelheim, Helheim, as well as parts of Vanaheim and Asgard were turned into black remains where nothing would grow for the rest of time. The echoes of the battle also caused terrible disasters in all the other realms, especially Midgard. I was made Queen in the Aftermath of all that... was the only one left who had any connection to the Asgardian crown anymore..."

No one needed her to clarify that meant, it was clear enough.

"I was mourning all the people I'd lost: my siblings, my parents, so many friends and... my match, my soulmate, the love of my existence..." She shook her head. "In my grief I refused to wear anything but Black... like a part of me wanted to remind all the universe of what I'd lost. I came then to be as I am even now... hence the 'Black Queen' title."

"What about the Infinity one?" Hela inquired, curious.

Skye couldn't help but think that, said like that, it had a familiar ring to it, but she couldn't remember why exactly that was.

"That one came later." The Traveler admitted. "That tragedy... as great as it was, for me and for all of Asgard, it was actually just the beginning..." She shook her head. "Too late we learnt that there was someone dwelling in the abyss, someone who'd sought to take over the universe for a very long time, and Asgard was one of the few powers standing in its way. He took advantage of our vulnerability to strike then." She let out a breath. "Only the opportune intervention of a team known as the Guardians of the Galaxy saved us. They knew about Thanos, his power and his intentions, they'd actually had a few problems with him in the past. It was their leader, a half human called Star Lord, who explained things to me. Thanos sought to take over the universe, but not only that, he also wanted to have the power of the Infinity Stones..."

"Infinity Stones..." Hela and Azazeal echoed, trying to remember where they'd heard that term.

"Before creation itself there were six singularities, then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of the old system were forged into concentrated ingots... the Infinity Stones." The black-cad woman recited as she were quoting someone. "Each Stone possesses unique capabilities capable of altering one facet of existence in ways few can comprehend... there were those who believed that if one sole individual were to ever wield all six stones at the same time they would gain the power to shape the universe itself to their will..."

"And Thanos wanted that power..." Casarmi murmured between shocked and horrified. "That is... not good just doesn't cover it, does it?"

"No, it doesn't." The Black Queen agreed. "Only beings of immense power can wield even one Infinity Stone, they're that powerful; lesser beings are destroyed, pretty much torn apart by a power they could never begin to comprehend... the only time beings not 'supreme', so-to-speak were known to wield one of the Stones was the Guardians, in a Planet called Xandar. Ronan the Accuser tried to use the Stone to destroy the planet, and the Guardians stopped him. It was his touching of the stone and surviving which alerted Star Lord to the fact that he wasn't fully human. And yet, even he could have never wielded all the stones on his own; even with the one he had the aid of his team, especially his match: Lady Gamora."

"So, he warned you of what was going on." Azazeal summarized. "Then what?"

"I did my best to coordinate what forces were left on Asgard, but it was useless in the end." The Lady admitted. "In the end Asgard was lost, along with the Stones Odin had been keeping in his vault... which I did not know about! Had I known I would have attempted to do something! It was truly a mess of epic proportions." She shook he head. "After that loss what few of us were left had to run. I went through the realms, warning everyone about was going on. Lady Thenidiel, an elven spell-weaver and prophetess asked to see me while I was in Alfheim; she was the one who told me that Thanos actions would cause the Universe to unravel unless he was stopped, and the only way to do it was to lay claim to the Stones before he could. As she explained it there were certain individuals across the worlds who carried the blood of the Celestials, the last creatures known to be able to wield the Infinity Stones. Those beings were the ones able to lay claim to them, and if one were to lay claim to all six..." She shook her head. "The claim was important, because while any being of enough power could wield it, and even those weren't many, the will of one with a claim would always supersede anyone else's order. For example, if Thanos tried to use a stone to cause destruction but my claim was on that same stone then my will to protect would cancel out his wish." She let out a breath. "There were very few people left who had the power to lay such claims. Most of those who would have been able to do such a thing were dead already: Lady Frigga, Loki, Ronan, even Malekith; there were few left, like Thanos, Star-Lord, myself and, to everyone's surprise: Lady Jane..."

"Jane Foster?!" Several people asked in shock.

"Yes." The Black Queen nodded. "Her power was very low, but it was how her body managed to assimilate the Aether, and why it did not immediately kill her. In the end, that was one of the things that saved us, because the fact that she'd laid claim to the Aether made it so Thanos could not use it, even though the Collector had passed it on to him. He couldn't use the Tesseract either, as Loki's claim was on that one, and his will had passed the claim to me before his end. Star Lord had the Orb, Nova Prime had delivered it to him when it became obvious that keeping it herself in Xandar was putting her people in too much danger. We also had to deal with the other end of that when us having the Mind Gem in the Scepter which Loki wielded during the invasion and we recovered from Baron Von Strucker's base in Siberia, was for nothing as it turned out to have the Other's claim, and from him it went to Thanos..."

It was obvious that the family was beginning to get lost by that point, so many claims, too many hands... but it really had been a mess in that and many more ways.

"Thanos brought the war to Midgard." The Traveler continued. "We knew it was going to happen, of course, but there was little else we could do at that point. One by one, this realm lost most of its Warriors, and those who were left did all they could to protect the innocents, though it wasn't easy... The 'Infinity War', the conflict was called..."

"Wait a second." Thelma interrupted. "Infinity War, Infinity Stones... you keep using that word... is that why you called yourself..."

"The name was given to me." The Black Queen corrected the ghost-girl. "Because in the end, it came to Thanos and me. Peter... Star Lord, willed me the Orb right before throwing himself in a last, suicidal attack against 'the Other', Thanos's second in command. He chose that as a way of helping me, and also because he no longer wanted to live, not after his match, Gamora, had just died, at the same time as Thanos's daughter: Nebula. It was then that we reached a stand-still, as I held the Tesseract, the Aether and the Orb, or in other words the Stones of Space, Reality and Power... one could almost say I inherited them, in a way. Thanos, for his part, held Mind, Soul and Time. It had never happened before, for so many Stones to be held by so few individuals, much less for all six of them to be in one same place. It became a battle of wills then. And in the end, I won... I don't know how. While I always knew myself to be a willful person... stubborn, my match would call me, I still never imagined I would actually win."

"Why did you keep fighting then?" Phil asked quietly.

"Because doing anything else would have been an insult such to everyone I'd ever loved I could not even begin to imagine it." The Lady admitted. "My match was a Heavenly Warrior... one who never gave up, no matter the odds. I knew that, had he been in my place, he would have kept fighting to the very end, so I couldn't do any less. I... it hurt, doing it without him, doing anything without him; but I know for a fact it would have been much worse if I'd never had him. So I chose to focus on that, on what I did have, and kept fighting."

No one said anything, but the respect was obvious in their eyes, along with a certain level of disbelief as no one there could imagine going on, fighting such a war, without their by match beside them, it was just too painful to even contemplate...

"So in the end I won." The Black Queen went back to the story. "I know not how I did it. But my will turned out to be stronger than Thanos's, and the Stones surrendered to me. Remnants of their power turned against him, considering him unworthy for having lost; nothing was left of him afterwards... probably for the best. So the war ended, and those that still remained began doing their best to rebuild."

"If you had such power in your hands couldn't you... I don't know... just undo everything the war had caused?" Casarmi asked quietly.

"Not really." The Lady admitted, and it was obvious it pained her. "I could restore the realms, and I did, but souls... even with the corresponding Stone, that's a very delicate thing. I believe Hela said it once. The souls of the dead move on, and they achieve true peace... why would they want to return after they've found that? And if you try to force them, souls are fragile constructs, and forcing them tears pieces of them. It simply wasn't fair for anyone. So I let them have their peace. They certainly earned it... I let them go, even if that meant I would never be able to join them."

"Why not?" Skye was horrified by the idea.

"Because wielding all six Stones made me effectively immortal, as well as invulnerable." The Traveler admitted. "To the end of time I will remain as I am right now... or at least until someone else comes and takes this power from me. And that's highly unlikely, even though there are a handful who could one day grow and become capable of wielding such power... I wouldn't allow them to, I wouldn't wish this curse on anyone, especially not those I love..." She shook her head. "So, you see, in the end this was my only chance. Going back in time, so that you may change things. I am in no position to tell you what to do, I made the decisions once, and you've already heard how that turned out. All I ask..." Her voice broke briefly. "All I ask is for you to make sure it never comes to this, that I never become this... this creature I am right now. I don't want to be this, I don't want to live forever, never having the chance to join those I love again, to see into the blue eyes of my beloved and get lost in them, to hear him whisper into my ear how much he loves me, how he'll always love me... This... this is torture, worst than anything any race could have ever devised, worse than death."

"And you think if we do things right, you'll never become... this..." Hela inferred.

"That's what I hope." The woman nodded. "Hope... what a fickle thing. To think I once believed I was fortunate to have avoided the end of the world... it would seem it still found me in the end... hopefully this time it'll be better."

Skye and Phil somehow knew she was referring to the Sentinel War... she knew about that, but how? It just wasn't logical, or was it?

"Please..." The Lady said one more time, this time a plea. "Do not let me become this... do not let me become the Lady Infinity..."

Skye remembered then why the word sounded so familiar to her, she recalled with almost morbid clarity the words Rokk Krin, the Warrior from the superhero group called the Legion in the future 31st century had pronounced under his breath:

"_Lady Infinity..." _

That was what he said, referring to her...

At the same time the revelation finally settled in Skye's head she noticed that they'd all gotten on their feet (she'd done it automatically), the Black Queen had too (and suddenly the title and her disregard for names made a lot more sense). It looked as if she were beginning to dissolve.

"You're ceasing to exist." Hela commented I understanding.

"Time's been changed." The Traveler confirmed.

"Lets just hope it'll be for the better." Phil declared with a small smile, trying for optimism.

"Hope..." Both Skye and her (just discovered) future self echoed quietly.

"I'm sorry..." Lady Infinity whispered abruptly.

Then, before anyone could understand what was going on she was holding Phil's face carefully in her hands and kissing him, with such intensity as to leave everyone breathless. Most actually expected Skye to react in some way, it wasn't like they did not know how possessive she could be. But Skye did not move, she just watched the scene with a look of the deepest sadness... then, as the Black Queen pulled back, her hood fell, finally revealing what Skye'd already known, the identity of the Lady infinity... was her.

"Amin mela lle..." The older Menel whispered at Coulson. "Forever..."

"Forever..." Phil echoed, still in absolute shock at the revelation.

It wasn't like he'd ever doubted his Arwenamin would love him forever, but to have such proof before him, and to know how much she'd suffered for her loss of him...

"We need to change that future." He declared with absolute conviction.

Yes, they needed to, and not only for the world, the universe as a whole; because though those would always be important to him, so was his beloved, and he never wanted to see in his match, in the woman standing by his side in that moment, the emptiness he'd seen in the eyes of that future version of her. It just hurt too much.

"We need to change the future." He repeated, not knowing if he was trying to convince everyone else, his wife, or just himself.

"We will." Hela declared.

A declaration that was followed by everyone else present. None of them would allow what they'd just heard to come to pass. They might not yet know how best to change things... but leaving them as they were definitely wasn't an option. It would never be.

**xXx**

In a corner of Asgard, Loki let out a pained hiss as a drop of acidic venom hit the already raw flesh on his chest, around the same time the just-emptied mithril bowl his match had been carrying clattered to the ground. Sif, who'd been secretly visiting the couple during her break hurried to the elven lady's side, only to have her wave in the direction of the bowl, doing her best to wordlessly convince Sif to focus on that. The Warrior Lady did; while no one but 'Lady Sigyn' was supposed to be allowed to aid the 'criminal Loki' in any way, Sif just couldn't leave them alone. Not when they needed help the most (and wasn't that a change of tune considering how much she'd once hated Loki).

She and Loki both turned back to Tawar just in time to see her raise her head to the heavens, eyes blank in her trance, as words began coming out of her mouth, a prophecy:

"Three Winters blown away by the ever-changing winds of one Fall, False Prophecies shattering like so much glass; Clouds of Truth burst forth through Fake Wisdom and Unjust Fury. Chaos, Magic, Bonds, a new universe takes form... The bell tolls, Ragnarok has come!"

* * *

><p>The whole time-travel, Lady-Infinity thing has been in the works since Astrid (probably even before that) as you can probably tell. I hope you like it. I hope you understand how and why everything was done; and while in the end my version of Ragnarok will be nothing like the original one... I decided I could still use it for something. (If there's anything you don't understand questions are welcome I'll answer anything as long as it doesn't mess with upcoming chapters).<p>

To clarify some things: The first flashback takes place before the last chapter of Avery (though I don't actually have a specific timeline for that one) it's why no one knows yet that Darcy is a Stark... the second one goes at some point during that last chapter. And here I'm working under the assumption that the Playground in a self-contained base in an island, outside of any country's jurisdiction (in the middle of nowhere, some might say).

The spell/prayer from Cassie, to protect Malachi, I originally wrote it for another fic. I was going to write a short one-shot surrounding the episode 'Death takes the mother' of season 2 of HEX, wanted to explore the possible reasons why, after trying so hard to kill him when he was an infant, Ella did not go after him again until he was already grown and in Mendeham, actively working against her. In my mind, she didn't because she couldn't, because he was protected, by Cassie.

I'm sorry that the prophecy in the last scene doesn't rhyme or anything, but poetry just isn't my thing. I just hope it made enough sense to get the message across, regarding what's coming.

Now, I probably should have said this in the last chapter... though truth is I forgot. I haven't seen anything from the new season of AoS, nor am I planning to, at least not until I finish writing Meneliel. The reasons are varied, but mainly the fact that I'm very much aware that my Skye, by this point, is probably next to nothing like the one in the show, and I don't want to get mine out of my head just yet, not until I'm done. So, no spoilers on that front please! Also, don't try to fit what I'm writing here with what's going on there, I doubt any of it fits at all.

Next chapter: meetings, plans, all cards are set on the table and our family gets ready to change destiny. It's time for the children of Loki to stand together...

P.S. I know in the tags I put the marvel versions of each child of Loki... I also hope you realized it won't be quite like that, but they're not like the myth version of them either; more like a mix of the two with a twist to fit my verse for good measure. Hope that'll be alright.

See ya next Friday!


	3. Harbinger of Ragnarok

The one where plans are made to change things and family comes together.

Yet again I forgot something. The Son of Ipswich mentioned in the previous chapter, Casarmi's (future) intended... for those who wonder I am indeed talking about the movie 'The Covenant'. As to who I mean specifically... well, there is one who was the most at risk of becoming addicted to power (those who've seen the movie will know who I mean). Aside from that it's not really that important at this point. Maybe I'll bring him/them up later, maybe not, it depends on my muse.

I'm warning you already that some things seem to have been cut-off at certain points. It's intentional, it'll all come together at the right time.

Please enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3. Harbinger of Ragnarok <strong>

A world-wide call came out just a minute after the Lady Infinity vanished. The code sent wasn't quite the 'Level 7, Defcon 2' call to arms that was used during the two alien invasions on New York (and one day they would have to wonder why it always had to be NY), but for those called it was enough to know something serious was happening. The ones called in the end (though they arrived until the next day) were all of those connected as family to Skye, which meant: Jane Foster, Wesley and Melinda May-Cross, Leo and Jemma FitzSimmons, Darcy and Clint Stark-Barton; Brian, Mia, and Jack O'Conner-Toretto, Dom and Letty Toretto, Tej and Suki Parker; Josef and Sarah Kostan, Mick and Beth St. John; Alec, Clark and Connor Kent-Solomon; Wanda and Pietro Maximoff; Natalia Yasha and James Barnes. Other people were added to the list, either by virtue of a serious connection with Phil, with someone else who'd been called in or simply because the main group believed they might be necessary; so the reunion expanded to include: Steve Rogers; Tony, Pepper and Maggie Potts-Stark; Bruce, Betty and Robbie Banner; Jimmy and Chloe Sullivan-Olsen; Peter and MJ (Gwen) Parker, Harry and Felicia Osborn; Marie D'Ancanto, Logan, Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven Xavier-Darkholme, Irene Adler; Adam and Cassie Blake-Conant, Diana Meade, Faye Chamberlaine; Tony and Ziva David-DiNozzo, Auggie and Annie Walker-Anderson, David Rossi, Luke Hobbs, Sharon Carter, Sam Wilson, Antoine Tripplet, Akela Amador, Victoria Hand, Maria Hill and Nicholas Fury.

All the children were placed in the small room that had been prepared, with the Koenig twins offering to look after them before the adults pretty much locked themselves into one of the biggest conference rooms they had.

"What the hell is going on here, Coulson?" Fury was the first to lose his patience and demand explanations. "Wanna explain why you've called all of us here? Most of the people in the room aren't even Agents!"

"They're all here because they all need to be here, we all need to be here." Skye spoke up before Phil could. "Their titles, their affiliations are irrelevant."

"Really?" Fury did not like the sound of that. "Why is that?"

He would have liked to demand what gave her the right to make that call, but he was the one who had appointed Phil as Director; who in turn had chosen her as his SIC... so that was a moot point. And while Nick knew they'd achieved amazing things with their version of SHIELD, at times it still rubbed him the wrong way. Just like it had from the first moment Captain America had decided that SHIELD (or the old version of it, as it turned out) had to go.

"Because this isn't about SHIELD, or about you, or even really about most of the people here." Skye went on, such intensity in her voice everyone was drawn to her every word. "This isn't even just a matter of Earth. There is danger coming, more than one in fact, and this time it's not just our realm at stake... it's every single one."

"Ragnarok is coming..." Several voices announced in unison, and it wasn't just the ones of those who'd been present for the revelation.

"What does that mean?" David Rossi, from the BAU, the FBI, asked, confused.

"It means that unless we do something to change things, in a few years everything we know and love will be lost." Helena answered him grimly.

"Which is why we're here." Phil declared, taking control of the reunion. "Because the very first mistake made before was keeping too many secrets." And on that one we could mean the other timeline, or the old SHIELD. "So, no secrets, we're putting all the cards on the table."

That was Skye's cue, as she went to stand in the middle of the almost full circle, allowing her human visage to be replaced by her truest form (which had only recently been revealed to her) that of her elven-princess self, only parts of her body (mostly her shoulders, collarbones, back and part of her arms) were covered in dark-cobalt tribal-like markings, the ones of her jotun form. To balance she was dressed in her 'Agent' fighting outfit, what she'd been wearing at the end of the battle against Amora (tight-fitting halter-style two-piece black and red bodysuit, knee-high black-leather boots, arm-guards and finger-less-gloves).

"My name is Menel, Daughter of Loki, the God of Mischief and Lies, the Sky-Treader and of Tawar, Elven Lady, from the House of the Midnight Blossom. I am a Child of Chaos and Magic; and according to Prophecy, I am meant to be one of the Harbingers of Ragnarok..."

Somehow the people present managed to remain quiet during her long introduction (probably the shock), but the moment the last word was pronounced, all hell broke loose.

**xXx**

It was like Phil said, they put all the cards on the table, and not just where it came to Skye's true identity and power, but also Hela's and Azazeal's and... it was just the start. It was impossible to know who exactly made the choice, or if it was even a choice at all (maybe it just seemed fair), everyone else began revealing their own truths as well. It was ironic, with all the secrets that the old SHIELD had once held, and even the new one (though most secrets were mostly held by Skye herself, rather than the organization).

All the stories were told, the main ones of course being the truth about Loki, about Skye's origins and her life, Hela, Azazeal, Malachi, Vali and Narvi, what had been happening on Asgard for the last five years and a half...

The last story concerned something that had happened that very morning:

_When they thought about what Infinity had told the about the Hunter sent after Malachi, no one ever considered how not running that very night would be enough to begin to change things already. That the Hunter would find them that soon... neither did they consider the person who would be there to save them. _

_The family was sitting at the beach, trying to enjoy what peace they had in that moment, for they knew it wasn't going to last, once their visitors arrived everything would start. Skye and Phil noticed when the alarms for the protective-wards the sorceress had placed on the Playground were triggered and decided to go check it out, they didn't say to the others, not wanting to break their moment. It turned out to be a mistake. _

_Azazeal and Hela were so lost in each other in that moment they did not notice the threatening presence going for them until it was almost too late. In the end it was Thelma's cry that warned them. Casarmi reacted to the threat automatically, curling herself around Malachi, and doing her best to draw the twins into her protection at the same time. _

_However, just before the Hunter would have reached any of them, another figure appeared. Tall (for a human), wearing a black-leather corset over a pink-sheer top, dark-washed jeans, knee-high black leather boots and a long, dark trench-coat; with red hair and dark eyes, most of those present recognized her in an instant: _

"_Ella!/Halle!" _

_It was the Huntress... _

_A short but vicious battle began between the two. No one knew for sure who was going to win. _

_Taking advantage of the distraction, though, Hela took the moment to pick the twins in her arms, while Cassie got on her feet, still mostly keeping herself as much around Malachi as she could; as long as Odin did not know about the twins Malachi was the one in true danger; and what Infinity had said before hadn't lessened in any way her willingness to do anything to protect the little boy in her arms, if anything it'd strengthened it, enough she'd finished the protection spell, when otherwise that probably wouldn't have happened for a while yet. _

_The battle was short but brutal. At some point Ella lost her grip on the two-piece short staff that was her main weapon. Thelma, being the only ones with her hands free (and since she didn't really have to worry about getting killed) rushed to pick them up and get them to Ella, who was doing her best to hold on with hand-to-hand combat. She failed eventually, the Hunter taking the first chance to rush in the direction of the blonde he could see protecting the 'abomination', believing that if she insisted on getting in the way he could just kill her first and the boy afterwards. _

_Before he could reach Casarmi Ella tripped him down, making the Hunter turn his attention back to her, furious. _

"_If you want death that much, I shall grant you that favor!" The Asgardian hissed. _

_He moved too fast for Ella, who had lost her own footing and fallen in the process of tripping him. The Hunter's knife was buried deep into her chest before she could do anything to stop it. A breathless gasp abandoned her throat, yet not a word and then she noticed Thelma holding her weapons (somehow He hadn't). _

_It took just a second for Ella to take the two pieces of the staff from the ghost's hands before snapping them together, one twist then was all that was necessary, the burst of energy disintegrated the Hunter before he even realized what was going on. _

_Everyone rushed to the fallen Huntress's side then. _

"_Oh Halle..." Hela whispered with a pain sigh. _

"_Hold on." Casarmi told her, Malachi still in her arms. "Just hold on. Skye will be here soon. She can save you." _

"_No... she can't..." The Huntress made an effort to keep talking through her pain. "No one can save me now, and that's alright... I don't want to be saved." She turned to Hela before switching to Norse in a heavy accent. "Will you tell Fenrir I'm sorry? Please... I... He loved me so much... more than I ever deserved. I... I never wanted to hurt him, I just... I guess I wasn't strong enough, I was never what he deserved... he deserves more..." _

"_I'll tell him." Hela agreed after several seconds of silence. _

_Deep inside the Queen of the Dead had pretty much hated Halle Volstaggdottir, for all the ways she'd made Fenrir suffer. For not standing by him the way Azazeal stood by her and her brothers; and beyond that, for agreeing to become a Huntress, to try by all means possible to stop Azazeal from bringing Malachi into the world. And yet... that same woman had pretty much just sacrificed her life to save her son, to save them all... _

_By the time Skye and Phil arrived (moving as fast as they could, without using the shadow-paths, after learning where the threat actually was) Ella Dee, Halle Volstaggdottir, was gone... _

A funeral pyre had been arranged shortly before the visitors began arriving in several jets.

"So, if this Black Queen is to be believed, in three years time war will break out in Asgard, and it will go on from there until most of the universe is destroyed." Hobbs summarized stoically. "Can't you just, I don't know, not release the insane man who begins the war? That would prevent the whole thing from starting..."

That was as far as he got before a punch from none other than Mia Toretto-O'Conner threw him off his chair.

"You did not just say that." She hissed at him, with an anger most would have never believed a woman with her looks capable of. "You did not just tell Cielo to allow her mother to die and her father to remain captive and tortured for the rest of his existence!"

"We're dealing with the wellfare of a lot more than one man." Hand stated solemnly. "If it is for the good of the rest of the universe..."

"Hey." Wesley interrupted abruptly. "I get what you mean. I was all for the 'kill one to save a thousand' for a while there during my time with the Fraternity as an assassin. And that's all well and good when it comes to people you don't know, total strangers. But what happens when it becomes about those you love and care for? What if they told you that to save the universe you have to kill your wife... It's not so easy then, is it? And as if that weren't enough, we aren't even talking about death here, no, we're talking about eternal captivity and torture!" He shook his head. "There are things worse than death... and if even I, with everything I've believed, wouldn't deal death to someone like that, something worse much less..." He sighed. "I think we need a better plan."

"We have it." Phil announced.

In the end they didn't explain that much of a plan: on the one hand because they simply did not have the time, the impromptu round of revelations had taken a while already; and on the other because aside from some basic ideas, they didn't really have that much of a plan. But that was alright, Phil was quite convinced they always worked better when they improvised, in any case, it was a good way not to limit themselves...

**xXx**

The small group decided to depart at sundown (the additional shadows would hopefully help them go unnoticed until the moment came to reveal their presence and intentions). At first Menel hadn't liked the idea of Phil going, of putting him in that kind of danger; but deep down she knew that it was an insult to even suggest that he stay back, besides, their bond since their wedding made it so, if one died, so would the other (which made the whole 'staying behind for his own safety' kind of pointless when he could die just as easily).

Malachi, Vali and Narvi would stay under the watchful eye of the family. Casarmi, Jane, Darcy and Clint had been appointed as primary caretakers, if the parents were not to return; though of course the rest were quite willing to help, and they all were sure (or wanted to be) that the would would be back, safe and sound, soon.

Jörmungandr was the last member of the group who would be traveling; as Skye had assured everyone she could make it work. When the huge serpent (bigger than the registered record for an anaconda) emerged from the sea at first many of those present had staggered back either in shock or fear. Surprisingly, aside from the foursome and Alec and James (who had seen Jor in Menel's memories), the only ones not to react negatively at all were FitzSimmons.

"Hey Jor!" Jemma actually called a greeting to the being with a bright smile.

And as if that weren't enough, then they went as far as caressing the serpent's scales.

"Hey man..." Tripp called, not getting too close. "Leo?"

"Yeah?" The engineer turned to look at his colleague with curiosity at his attitude. "Everything alright Trip? You look a bit... off."

"That's pretty much what I was going to say about you, man." Trip admitted, unable to stop himself from turning to look at the huge creature every so often, nervous. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go around touching that thing..."

"Jor's not a thing!" Jemma snapped at him, taking offense to the words, before turning back. "Pay no attention to him Jor, he just doesn't understand..."

"No, I don't!" Trip hissed, too confused to his own liking. "What the hell is going on? How exactly are you so comfortable with what must be a 300 ft. long snake?!"

If only he knew that Jor was usually a lot bigger than that...

"You don't know?" Leo asked, seemingly confused by something.

"Jor was the one who saved us in the Gulf, five years ago." Jemma explained, more calm when realizing Trip really did not know.

"When the whole thing in Cuba went down and we ended with Garret, Ward and Deathlok on board the Bus... Jemma and I made a run for it as soon as we had a chance, locked ourselves in the medpod... and then Ward dropped that same medpod off the Bus, straight into the ocean." Leo continued.

"Leo got a broken arm, a minor concussion, as well as several contusions and abrasions in his attempt to protect me as much as we could while we fell. I myself got all but the broken bone, though my ankle twisted." Jemma took over the story. "When I woke up Leo was making some pretty insane plans to get me out of there..."

"What about him?" Sharon Carter asked, intrigued.

Jemma didn't answer, though her sharp intake of breath along with the way her eyes watered was probably answer enough.

"I only managed to arrange for enough oxygen for one breath." Leo explained nonetheless. "She was the better swimmer, and the one who did not have a broken arm; also... I was in love with her, we'd been dating for a while, and I'd been carrying a ring around for the last few weeks, looking for the right time to propose. So there was just no way I would let her die."

"What happened then?" Sam inquired, just as entranced by the story.

Really, at some point their recount had called the attention of almost everyone present (at least everyone who did not know the story already); some had even forgotten about the huge serpent just beside FitzSimmons.

"Menel appeared." Jemma answered. "Or well, her astral self. She warned us..." she looked pointedly at her husband. "About doing anything stupid and then told us that while she couldn't do anything to help us, she'd found someone who could."

"Of course, she never bothered warning us that the help would be him." Leo pointed at Jor with fake annoyance before turning to the serpent. "No offense Jor, you know you're great, but you can certainly scare a guy when they're not expecting you. Especially in that form."

No one got the change to ask what exactly Leo meant with that, as right then the huge sea serpent seemed to collapse as if made of water; leaving in its place a very tall, athletic man with slightly pale skin, sea-green eyes and somewhat long dark hair. He was wearing a long sleeved, off-white shirt, covered by a sleeveless, lightly-armored cobalt blue tunic, black tight-pants and tanned-leather reinforced boots.

"What the...?" No one could believe what they were seeing.

"You are... are you really Jormungandr?" Trip asked, having trouble pronouncing the name.

"Yes." The man said in a cultured voice and Scandinavian accent. "You may call me Jor if you wish; or Jordao if you prefer." He offered his hand to the man, knowing it was a Midgardian custom. "It's the name in the papers my youngest sister arranged for me: Jordao Avery."

"If you have a human identity why do you remain in the sea then?" Akela inquired.

"Because, on my own, I cannot retain this form for long." Jor admitted a bit sadly. "It was part of the Allfather's punishment when I was exiled to this realm. He... almost everyone in Asgard held the belief that if I enjoyed so much spending time in this form I should stay in it forever. Maybe they thought it would make me appreciate my real body more, maybe it was just a way to torture me, it matters not. There's also the fact that if I spend too much time trying to stay like this, mingle with humans, it calls Heimdalls attention; which wasn't something I wanted, not after the first few times..." He shivered at some old memory. "Of course, since we're already going to cause more than a little mayhem..." He shook his head briefly. "Now, if you don't mind I would like to be able to see my little brothers with eyes that actually pick up colors and shapes rather than just heat wavelengths..."

**xXx**

As the waiting period came to an end Phil gave out tasks for his agents to work on while they were away; Skye made plans in case they didn't come back. Some thought she was being a bit morbid, she had one thing to say to them:

"I haven't gotten to where I am by hiding behind a curtain of denial."

She knew there was a considerable chance that she, that none of them, would return; unlike the others she was willing to do something about it rather than just seeing the mere thought as a way to jinx their whole mission. In recent years her philosophy had become 'Hope for the best, plan for the worst...' and it worked.

They left at sundown, just as planned. For the occasion Hela had changed into something other than her usual dresses; instead she was wearing a blue-grey round-necked, long-sleeved, slightly-padded shirt, with a long-sleeved chain-mail tunic on top, polished-steel arm-guards as well as some extra protection around her torso, charcoal-pants and black-leather gloves; her hair was in a tight braid, falling over one-shoulder, though she was still wearing her tiara and gold of the chains around her wrists (her favorite weapon) were a contrast with the rest of her attire. Menel was almost exactly as she'd been since she'd revealed the truth about herself to the group, only having added the finger-less black-leather gloves and reinforced arm-guards to her ensemble; along with all her weapons (compact staff and a dozen knives all over her body), as usual her only jewelry was her Kostan earring, elven pendant, wedding-rings and she'd added her own tiara to show her position. Jor had added some polished-steel armor over his own clothes, his own weapon was a long-sword and a thin circlet was upon his brow to show his own lineage. Phil and Azazeal were in their usual attires (suits in their respective styles) with some light armor and their own favored weapons.

"Explain one thing to me, please." Darcy said, looking at the group carefully. "How exactly are all of you going to get to another world, using a method most of you cannot actually use?"

"Because I can access it for them." Menel answered honestly, hesitating just a second before explaining. "I think that might be one of the reasons why Odin was so against me being born, against Adar ever having a child with an elf. Because elves can feed directly from the earth... it's not perfect, and not exactly a substitute for real food and water; but it boosts them. Elves are connected to the earth (and I mean that in the ground, world, sense, rather than in the Midgard, sense) in a way no other race could ever be. I can cal on that power to help me boost my own magic, therefore getting enough to get all of us into the Shadow Paths."

"You could use the Hidden Roads." Cassie murmured. "Wouldn't that be safer?"

"Maybe, but it would take too long." Hela answered honestly. "If we have any hope of doing this before Asgard can actually be ready for us it needs to be done now, tonight."

"We're actually taking a little detour before we actually get to Asgard." Menel announced quietly, just to the ones going with her.

"What...?" No one was expecting that. "Why?"

"It's been suggested that I might want to get in touch with a Lady Thenidiel in Alfheim before it all goes down." Menel explained in a whisper, looking at Irene from the corner of her eye. "It would seem that she has some kind of information that would be useful to us."

"And she'll just share that information with you?" Jor didn't quite believe that. "Why?"

"I don't know." The half-elf answered honestly. "I just know that it was thanks to her that Nana managed to get to this realm unnoticed when pregnant with me, and already in another timeline she helped. So maybe this is one thing that needs to happen."

"Hopefully whatever information she holds will help us make things better." Phil offered.

Menel nodded, it was what she was hoping too.

After a last round of goodbyes and good-luck-s (and a few hugs from people like Casarmi, Darcy and Malachi) the five gave a step forward, (dramatically looking as if they were about to step off the cliff) in unison before dropping into the shadows.

It had begun.

**xXx**

The group of five stepped out of the shadows and straight into a shadowed corner of the biggest forest in Alfheim. Hela automatically conjured cloaks for all of them, knowing that their attires would call attention if noticed (though it was a tossup whether the siblings' battle attire or the two Eihenjar's midgardian suits would call the most attention).

They'd been walking through the darkened forests for a quarter of an hour or so when suddenly someone found them.

"Who goes there?" A strong voice asked in elvish.

"My name is Meneliel, daughter of Tawariel, from the House of the Midnight Blossom, and with me stands my family." Menel took charge of things. "I have reason to believe we are expected."

"Daughter of Tawariel?" A voice called abruptly. "That's impossible. My sister was lost to us many years ago."

"Sister..." Phil and Jor mumbled at the same time in shock.

"She is who she says she is." A melodic female voice called then.

The woman looked ageless (all elves did, in fact), she was tall, slim, with light-blue eyes and waist-length, wavy, pale blonde hair, an intricate mithril tiara sat on her head and she was wearing a completely white dress. Menel knew instinctively who she was.

"Lady Thenidiel, I presume." The brunette said even as she curtsied respectfully.

"That's right, aranel (princess)..." The woman nodded.

"I was told by one with the Sight that you would be expecting me." Menel went straight to the point, knowing there was no time to waste.

"Indeed." Thenidiel made a pause before saying: "I know what it is you intend to do, and while I cannot tell you the best way to do it, there are things I do know that might help you make a more informed decision..."

"What could you know that we don't?" Jor couldn't help but blurt out. "I mean, we even know the things Odin Allfather tried to erase from everyone's mind, Father got those memories back years ago, and Menel has seen a lot of it."

"What I know goes beyond that, before any of that." Thenidiel explained solemnly. "I know why Odin chose to take Loki, your father, from the temple in Jotunheim that day..."

**xXx**

An hour or so later the group were about ready to leave for Asgard, though one of the older elves had asked them to wait a little longer, as he had something he wanted to give to Menel. He sent someone to get whatever it was, and meanwhile approached the young half-elf. He was tall and lithe, like all the elves, with hair so dark it was almost black and brown eyes; his features were sharp, unlike those of Lady Thenidiel; Menel identified him instantly.

"Lord Arphenion." She bowed her head respectfully.

"I would rather you call me uncle, if you agree, Daughter of Tawar." The much older elf replied.

"I would." Menel smiled softly at him. "I'm never against gaining some more family." She got a bit nostalgic. "It's almost funny, in fact, how I once had no one and now there are so many people I consider family, people for whom I would do anything, give anything..."

"And would they do the same for you?" Arphenion couldn't help but ask.

"I have no doubt about that." She answered automatically.

"It does my soul good to see you, sister's-daughter." The elven lord admitted. "When Tawariel disavowed herself it was hard on us, though deep down I... probably most of us, understood why she would have believed that was the only way to get out of the marriage Atar had arranged. Then when she disappeared completely a century later..." He shook his head. "I never forgave myself. The thought that my beautiful, loving sister might have died alone, because her brothers wouldn't stand for her."

"She didn't want to leave you." Menel told him quietly. "She loved all of you dearly, though you especially, I think. But..."

"I told Atar that the marriage contract was a bad idea." Arphenion nodded, knowing what she meant. "Naneth would have never approved. She believed that we, as the children of the stars, are blessed with one true match, a connection that cannot be forced, or ignored. It was a kind of connection Atar believed in once too... I think he forgot, after he lost her."

"So you believe on such things too..." Menel murmured brightly.

"You know what I speak of!" He seemed marveled by the idea.

"Few people know, though h...midgardians blessed with magic and the Sight have named it the 'Silver Cord'." She explained to him. "Asgardians call it a 'match', other mortals, in their fiction, have called it 'soul-mates' or a 'match made in heaven'; it all amounts to the same thing: a perfect pair, eternal love." She hesitated before signaling to Phil to join her. "This is Phillip, Son of Coul, he is my husband, and my match."

Arphenion looked taken aback just for a moment before he nodded.

"I may not have Naneth's sight, but I can sense the connection you share." He declared, taking Menel's hand and kissing it briefly. "You are indeed fortunate, Meneliel. As is your mother. Loki, son of Frigga, might not be the husband Atar would have chosen for her, but what you've told us so far makes me believe that she chose right, in the end. I believe Nana would have approved and blessed the match as well."

"I know being with Adar has caused her much suffering..." Menel began.

"A suffering born out of love is no suffering at all." Arphenion interrupted her with a kind smile. "It's just one more test for that love to be proven true. It's just one more thing to make both parts of the pairing strong." He let out a little sigh. "My muinthêl (sister) was always a strong woman, and I can see her in you Menel... you do our House proud."

Menel couldn't help herself, she smiled brightly at those words, the compliment, and the pride. Even if she hardly knew Arphenion, and he had more than a few people she considered family and whom had shown themselves to be proud of her in more than one occasion, she still felt good, hearing that.

It was around then that the boy (at least he looked like a boy) Arphenion had sent on an errand returned. Menel's uncle took the package from his hands, unwrapping it carefully, revealing folded cloth that, once extended was revealed to be a tunic: it was wide and somewhat loose on the shoulders, with a straight-neckline, with tight sleeves that would reach as far as the elbow, the sides were open but could be tied up with a number of almost invisible strings (which would also allow the tunic to adapt to the wearer's size) and the color was an almost silvery-violet.

"It's beautiful..." Menel whispered, marveled.

"It belonged to the Lady Santiel," Her uncle explained. "Our grandmother, the last official Lady of the Midnight Blossom."

Menel could see it, there on the front, in dark-purple thread was the same symbol from her pendant, beautifully embroidered.

"It's valuable, and not just because of its aesthetic beauty." Arphenion announced, before turning the piece over.

The inside looked almost completely silver. It took Menel a handful of second, but suddenly she got it, and the realization made her gasp.

"It's mithril..." She whispered in shock.

"It's completely mithril-lined on the inside." Her uncle confirmed. "Grandfather had it made this way so as to protect his wife. Those were hard times for all, and with the power Lady Santiel wielded... she was the greatest spell-weaver before Thenidiel... before you..."

No comment had been made about her ability with magic, but the mere fact that she'd been able to transport herself and four more through the Shadow Paths without being detected by anyone except the one who'd 'seen' beforehand the group was coming, was telling enough as far as everyone was concerned.

"It's an amazing piece." Menel nodded, caressing the embroidery softly.

"It's yours now." Arphenion announced unexpectedly.

"What...?!" Menel had no words for that.

"This tunic, it was meant to be worn, not just kept in storage." He explained to her. "I know that if she could have, Naneth would have passed this on to Tawariel. She's not here, and maybe it wouldn't really have been right for her, as she's no warrior-lady... but you are. Also, what better reason than for the revelation of the new Lady of the Midnight Blossom, who is also on her way to change history, to rewrite destiny?"

"Diola lle (Thank you)..." She whispered, marveled.

She slipped the tunic on with no hesitation, before allowing her uncle to tie the strings for her. The garment was lose on her shoulders, allowing the skin and the markings on her shoulders and collarbone to be seen; it fit to her body on the rest of her torso, falling past the end of her shorts, slightly past the top of her boots.

"Vanimle sila tiri (Your beauty shines bright)." Arphenion declared in a low but heartfelt tone.

Even before her mind processed what the words meant exactly, she recognized the phrase as a traditional one from the elves. It was a very elegant way of calling her beautiful.

"Indeed, the most beautiful lady in all the realms." Phil agreed whole-heartedly.

Menel could only blush at the sincere compliment. She liked the tunic, liked having one more thing that connected her to her blood heritage, her first family. It also felt right, going to Asgard, going against Odin Allfather, wearing a mix of clothes that had marked her life in Midgard, as well as something from her origins; and, of course, her battle-staff and tiara were Asgardian, so there was that too.

**xXx**

The moment they were in Asgard the group split. Azazeal and Hela held their cloaks tight to their bodies and used just a little magic to go unnoticed as they slipped into the royal stalls to get Sleipnir. The eight legged stallion was already awake, an instinct keeping him on alert, almost as if a part of him had known all along that his siblings were on their way to get him. It was no problem for him to then bear the weight of his sister and her match as they galloped full speed in the direction Hela could sense her little sister.

Menel, Phil and Jörmungandr found Fenrir right where she knew he would be. He too was awake, waiting for what he instinctively knew was coming. There were still the chains holding him in place to contend with, though.

"I could melt them with the poison of my serpent form..." Jor suggested hesitantly.

"Bad idea." Menel shook her head. "If you take that form it will alert everyone to our presence and our actions... we cannot do that yet, not until we have Adar and Nana."

Jor nodded in understanding.

"I have a solution." Phil offered.

With that he pulled a thin vial from the inner pocket of his jacket.

"What is that?" Jor asked, intrigued.

"Acid." Phil answered calmly. "It'll burn through anything except a very specific kind of glass." He made a pause before adding. "It was especially created by Tony, it's what he uses to destroy his suits when they're beyond saving; it's also part of the self-destruct fail-safe that activates if a person not in the authorized list tries to do something to them."

"If that thing burns through Iron-Man's suits... it should burn through this chains." Menel said, then realized something else. "You planned for this..."

That called her brother's attention.

"You were so busy planning for everything else..." Phil commented with a little shrug. "I knew you were probably planning on using magic, and decided on a back-up plan just in case."

Truth was, Menel hadn't though much on that. She knew about the chains, was confident on her magic; though it hadn't occurred to her that the level of magic that probably would be necessary to break all the chains was enough she would end up calling unneeded (and unwanted) attention (exactly why she'd told Jor not to shift and use his venom).

"Well, we need to get moving." Jor reminded them, before clapping Phil on the back. "Great thinking there, brother."

Phil just smiled at the compliment and the familial term before uncorking the vial and very carefully pouring some of it on a single link on one of the chains.

It took a while. As there were about half a dozen chains, and only one vial; which meant only one person could work on it at the time, and he'd to be very careful not to waste any of it.

They finished shortly after Hela, Azazeal and Sleipnir arrived. The moment he was free Fenrir straightened up completely for the first time in centuries, taking a few seconds to loosen some kinks this way and that (and hold himself back from letting out a how like his wolf-instincts wanted him to) before raising himself on his hind legs, making his body shift into the humanoid form he hadn't taken in a very long time...

The figure was tall, like all of Loki's children, though more broad-shouldered than any of them. His hair was short and dark brown (though not quite as dark as Jor's) in thick ringlets, his eyes, in exact opposite, while also green were much darker than his brother's, their skin and factions more or less the same; he also had some facial hair, which seemed to make him look rougher and a bit older (though Hela was the oldest from the three children of Angrboda). He was wearing a black long-sleeved high-necked shirt, with dark breeches, a chainmail shirt, leather vest, black-leather boots and polished-steel armor on his shoulders, fore-arms, and vital areas of his chest. He also carried twin swords on his back and a hunting knife on his side.

He stretched, twisted this way and that, getting used to the humanoid form again after so long. Then he unsheathed his swords, swinging them around several times, feeling their weight, their balance, listening to the wind whistle as it was cut time and again.

"There." He announced, mostly to himself, once he was done testing. "Now..."

In unison they all turned to Sleipnir, the remaining non-humanoid child of Loki (one who'd never had any form but the one of the eight-legged horse).

"Is forcing him to change really a good idea?" Phil asked, unsure about that part of the plan. "I mean, how do you even know he has a humanoid form?"

"Because Father does." Jor answered as if it were the most simple thing.

And maybe for them it was. Maybe for the same reason he and Fenrir found it so easy to take animal forms, even though none of their parents had been an animal...

"And we're not forcing him." Hela added. "This is gotta be his decision..." She caressed Sleipnir's head softly. "It's up you big-brother... I know you can do it. You are a child of Loki, just like all of us, the power is in you, it's always been..."

Those words, along with Menel's, Jor's and Fenrir's faithful smiles were all that was needed; moments later golden light engulfed Fenrir and he began changing. The man that was revealed was the most different from any of them: several inches short of the six feet from everyone else, golden tanned skin, broad-chested, muscled, blonde hair and pale-blue eyes; he was wearing tight-pants, a tanned-leather open-vest, brown-leather boots and arm-guards. Still, the aura was more than enough to show everyone that he was, indeed, the son of Loki. He didn't actually have weapons, had never trained, but his physical strength was quite evident (after all, he'd spent more than half a millennia as a horse, running and carrying and many other things).

"So...we're all here, free and ready." Fenrir declared. "Now what?"

"Now we go free Adar." Menel stated seriously. "And then we let everyone know we're all here, and we're not being separated ever again."

"Never again." Her sister and brothers agreed in unison.

Phil and Azazeal didn't say a word, they could only wonder at what the children of Loki might be planning. Revealing themselves was quite insane, but it wasn't like they could stay hidden for the rest of time. Also, they were pretty sure that if Fenrir's release hadn't been enough to alert at least the Allfather that something was going on, freeing Loki certainly would. In the end they could only hope that their decisions would bring forth a better future than the one Lady Infinity had come from. They wanted to believe it had to, that nothing could be worse than what that future version of Meneliel had told them, what they'd all seen in her eyes... but still. They hoped.

**xXx**

"Ú i vethed nâ i onnad (It's not the end, it is the beginning),  
>Si boe ú-dhanna (You mustn't falter now),<br>Ae ú-esteli, esteliach nad, (If you don't trust it, trust something),  
>Estelio han, estelio han, estelio (Trust this, trust this, trust),<br>estelio han, estelio veleth (Trust this, trust love),  
>Esteliach nad, estelio han (You trust something, trust this)."<p>

Tawar was singing softly in her mother tongue, while kneeling on a sung tree (it was one magical ability all elves had, to sing trees into growing promptly and taking the shape they wanted and needed), keeping herself as comfortable as possible as she held the mithril bowl in her hands over Loki's naked chest, catching the drops of acid-like venom Scathi's serpent let fall constantly. The singing seemed to help Loki almost as much as the bowl, reminding him of the old times, when he and Tawariel had been young, innocent in many ways (or at least she'd been, he'd just been made to forget the cruel truths of the universe), when they'd believed their love would get them through anything...

Things were different. Both of them had grown, wised, Loki knew that it was quite possible he would stay where he was for many years to come... and the last thing he wanted was for Tawariel to destroy herself trying to help him... and yet, they were a match, a perfect pair. She was as likely to leave him as he was to leave her (which meant no, never, no matter what).

Seconds after finishing the short song the couple noticed that the bowl was about full. Which meant that Tawar would have to move away to empty it down a well, which also meant that Loki would have to endure the burning acid for several seconds; however, in the fraction of a second before the she-elf pulled the bowl away, everything changed irrevocably.

The wind whistled sharply, announcing a weapon cutting the air. Both Loki and Tawariel watched as a dark chain went straight through Öndurguô, cutting the creature in two; still, the pieces never hit the ground (or Loki) for they began decomposing from the point of the cut at vertiginous speeds. It was that last detail which revealed to Loki who exactly destroyed the venomous serpent that had been torturing him for what felt like a long time (though he knew it had been no more than two days). If he was honest, it wasn't his own pain that made it all seemed eternal... no, it was seeing his match devote herself so completely to him that she was ignoring everything about herself; nothing could ever terrify him more than the prospect of having to watch her destroy herself, little by little, in her attempt to remain faithful to him.

"Hela...?" Loki called, shocked.

He went beyond that when he saw not only his oldest daughter step out of the shadows, but all of his grown-up children, as well as his daughters' matches. The blonde especially surprised him; he knew instantly who he was, how could he not? But he'd never seen Sleipnir in a humanoid form before, never imagined seeing him like that.

"What are you doing here?" Loki blurted out suddenly.

Most of those present didn't know how to answer that, they hadn't expected Loki to ask that, especially in such a tone...

"Smooth Adar, real smooth." Meneliel deadpanned.

"We just weren't expecting you here, Iell nîn (my daughter)..." Tawar explained quietly, before adding, in an almost anxious tone. "Vali? Narvi?"

"Back at home." Meneliel told her with a soft smile. "With people we trust completely. Malachi is there as well."

The she-elf nodded with a calm smile, satisfied. It was in that very moment that she seemed to truly notice what her daughter was wearing. At first the garment had looked remarkably like the loose shirts that she wore when training in Asgard, with Sif and the Eihenjars, but once she stood fully in the light Tawar could see the glint of mithril lining the tunic, and the symbol carefully and lovingly embroidered across the chest.

"That is..." The elven princess seemed to go completely speechless before she could even finish her half-question, half-statement.

"Lady Santiel's tunic." Her daughter finished for her.

"That tunic last belonged to Naneth nîn (my mother)." Tawariel nodded, carefully caressing the soft garment. "Her mother was the last true Lady of the Midnight Blossom..."

"I know..." Menel hesitated before adding. "Uncle Arphenion told me."

"Uncle..." Her mother's eyes widened in shock. "You talked to my brother!"

"I did." Menel smiled, remembering their short but heartfelt talk.

Azazeal took the opportunity to take the bowl from her hands and go himself to empty it. The last thing they needed was for her to drop the thing in shock and end hurting herself.

"He would like to see you again, you know?" Menel added after a few seconds. "Lady Thenidiel made the invitation first, and it was backed-up by both Uncle Arphenion and Lord Vöronwe. We are all welcome in Alfheim at any time."

"And you visited Alfheim, why exactly?" Loki asked, brow arched.

"A precog known as Destiny approached me minutes before we left Midgard." Menel explained for the first time. "She 'suggested' that we would benefit from a quick side-trip to Alfheim before coming here. Said there was someone interested in meeting us, and in sharing certain things with us..." She let out a breath. "And she was right, of course. Lady Thenidiel and a contingent of Ljósalfár were waiting for us when we arrived."

"And did they share things with you?" Loki asked, interested.

"A few." Menel nodded, somewhat evasively. "One was particularly... enlightening..."

Yes it was, though the half-elf's mind was still working a mile a minute to decide on the best way to incorporate that information with the plan they'd made before leaving Midgard. She had one idea (one beyond-insane idea) in mind, but wasn't quite sure if she should take the risk. Hopefully it would come to her when the time was right...

"You shouldn't be here." Loki said quietly yet intensely. "If Odin finds out you're here he will destroy you all."

"He's been wanting to destroy me since before I was born." Meneliel shrugged carelessly.

"All the more reason for you to leave!" Loki snapped. "Don't let your mother's and my sacrifice be in vain, please, my Astrid..."

The half-elf couldn't help it, she actually lost her voice for a second; she did every time her Adar called her that name, in that tone. There was a reason she'd chosen Astrid as her newest name, for one of the most legal identities she'd had; just like she'd been Avery because of Agent Linda Avery, to honor the woman who'd done so much to protect her as a baby; she was Skye because of her mother, and Astrid for her father...

And then, then she saw him, laying half-on half-against those rocks, with more than half a dozen chains immobilizing him, leaving him vulnerable to the poison of that horrible creature; her mother standing beside him, looking so small yet so strong at the same time... she remembered what her future self had said, about the fate that had befallen them in that time that no longer was, and she remembered why they had chosen to change it all, to take the risk.

"I've seen the future." She told him with a similar quiet intensity to his own. "I've seen into my own eyes, from a future where the universe ended, where I lost everything and everyone. Where I ended up alone... I will not allow that to happen right now, we will not allow it." Her face turned completely serious. "We're getting you out of here, and we're ending this whole... mess," there had to be better words but she couldn't think of any. "once and for all."

"Once and for all." Her sister and brothers all echoed, in completely agreement.

In unison, the two Lokidottir shifted their hands, before crouching at their father's sides, each taking hold of one of the chains. Truth was there had been no plan for freeing Loki (in fact their plan was very basic, most of the details they were making as they went); but once they were there, it was simply instinct. The power was in them, had always been. Only Hela and Menel had inherited Loki's Jotun powers, just like only the boys could shapeshift into animals; but it worked well enough.

Loki could only watch as the first two chains froze, turning brittle before breaking, in silence. For so long he'd hated Jotuns, he knew it was because of how he was raised, he hated them because Asgard hated them, and he was taught to be an Aesir... but he wasn't, not really. For so long he'd been terrified of allowing his true skin to show, and yet in that moment, seeing his two daughters change their skin as if it were nothing, seeing their matches with their eyes fixed on them, never flinching, never looking away. It made him realize how foolish he'd been. His magic activated the moment his mind was made, and Loki's skin went blue, completely, with no outside influence, for the first time.

All the remaining chains broke and fell as one (for they were all in touch with Loki's skin at one point or another). And then he got on his feet slowly but fluidly.

He was about to ask what the next step in their plan was when, suddenly, they could all hear the rush of footsteps, booted feet rushing their way.

The reactions from the 'children' were instinctive: Fenrir and Jor unsheathed their blades and assumed defensive positions; Hela twisted her right wrist in such a way for her chain to slip into her palm, ready to be used; Menel pulled her staff out of its holster, twirling it around once as it opened into full size; Sleipnir didn't have weapons, but he still assumed a defensive position, he had strength in arms and legs and was quite ready to use it. Phil cocked his gun, taking position by his beloved's side; Azazeal took out a couple of daggers before doing the same beside Hela. Loki had no weapons on hand, and his magic was still a bit frazzled to allow him to conjure any, so he contented himself with standing behind the defensive line formed by his children (he could not help but see his daughters' husbands as part of that number already), his match by his side, as they waited. It didn't sound like many soldiers coming...

And then the figure broke through the brush, revealing that it was in fact only one, one of the last people any of those present would have ever expected:

"Sif?!" Several of them called in shock at the same time.

Sif, in full battle regalia (though with her sword still in its scabbard) froze, barely a couple steps into the clearing, eyes wide at all the weapons pointing at her.

"I swear I'm not your enemy!" The Warrior-Lady called the first thing that came to mind.

"Stand down." Loki ordered the others. "She's telling the truth."

"How are you so sure?" Azazeal asked, voice sharp.

It was nothing against his Loki, just that he still remembered how things had gone the last time they'd trusted someone they didn't fully know... because even when Halle had been Fenrir's lover, they'd never fully known her... never-mind the sacrifice she'd made in the end. A part of him, of all of them, would never forgive her for turning her back on his lover, and on all of them; for all she'd done against them all, but especially Azazeal, for the last five hundred years.

"Because she swore loyalty to us five years ago." Tawariel informed them calmly.

That, at least, was enough guarantee, at least until...

"You really shouldn't lower your guard." She told them soberly.

That was enough to make everyone nervous.

"I was coming to tell you that something serious was going on." Sif elaborated. "Just a few minutes ago I saw Odin dismiss his meeting with the Council of Elders for no apparent reason. Even Thor seemed to be confused, which made it obvious it wasn't planned..."

"He must have sensed us releasing either Father or Fenrir." Hela decided.

"Well, he obviously doesn't know all, otherwise we'd be to our eyeballs in enemies already." Menel quipped with a smirk.

"That's the other thing I needed to tell you." Sif added right then. "A contingent of Eihenjar are coming; supposedly to make sure everything's the same on this point..."

And since it wasn't, they were obviously going to have trouble.

"Can one of you create an illusion that makes them believe everything is as it should be, or at least the way they think it should be?" Phil asked, even as he put away his ICER gun and began reaching for his sword (just in case).

"They're already coming." Tawariel added, being able to sense, through the earth beneath her bare feet, the warriors coming their way. "Will be here in less than two minutes."

"There's no way I can finish an illusion that complex in the time we have left." Menel admitted grimly. "And even if I could, what are the chances that Odin hasn't given at least one in that group some kind of amulet that will allow them to see through illusions.?

She was right, they knew that, which meant their possibilities were lessening...

"So, it's either fight or run..." Sleipnir murmured with evident nervousness. "Not sure which one would be worse at this point."

"Since this is not a matter of pride... whichever decision is more likely to kill us would be worse." Hela decided.

She didn't care if it went against everyone's pride, if running was the better option that's exactly what they were going to do!

In the end they didn't get to decide, as they could all abruptly hear the reverberating echo of heavy footsteps approaching, much louder than the sound that had announced Sif's arrival.

"Time's up." Sif whispered as she spun around, drawing her sword.

"You know you don't have to do this..." Loki told her quietly. "Whatever oaths you may have made, you've done a lot more for me, for all of us, than I could have ever asked you to." He shook his head. "You should leave while you still can Sif..."

"I made an oath, and I'm not going back on it." The Warrior-Lady insisted. "I made my choice five years ago Loki. From the very start I knew it might come to this one day... I knew and I gave you my oath anyway. I have no regrets."

She didn't, and Loki couldn't help but admire her bravery, her loyalty... he wasn't the only one to appreciate her qualities either... in particular one of his sons...

"Incoming!" Fenrir and Jor called right then.

A look between Menel and Phil said it all. They waited several seconds, hearing the steps coming closer; everyone around shifting nervously and then, right as the clearing was invaded by over a dozen Eihenjar Phil brought something out of her suit and called:

"Everyone get down!"

Everyone hit the ground instantly, even if none except Menel knew what was going on. A small canister bounced off the earth, rising three feet or so before activating, creating a ripple effect that downed everyone it came in contact with.

"What was that?" Fenrir asked as he slowly got on his feet.

"ICER grenade." Phil answered as he helped his beloved to her feet. "SHIELD issue. Since many times we would rather not kill our opponents, two of the most talented scientists of our world, who worked in my team, developed a de... a drug, you could say, that when it comes in contact with anyone, renders them unconscious."

"How long?" Jor asked, curious.

"Well, that version was especially created for super-humans, to take them down for an hour or so." Phil answered, considering things. "So I suppose that maybe half that...?"

They were guessing by that point, the ICER grenades had never been tried with any of them (it had never occurred that they might one day need to use such weapons on Aesir...)

"So, they're only unconscious?" Tawariel wanted to be sure.

Truth was she was a pacifist through and through, she hated hurting anyone. Also, it wasn't like it was the Warriors fault at all; they were only following orders (good thing Magneto wasn't there to say what he thought about 'good men following orders').

"Yes." Her daughter reassured her. "They'll have one heck of a headache when they wake up... but no permanent effects."

"So," Loki finally asked the question bothering him most. "Now what?"

"Now... we make the bells toll." Meneliel answered in an odd tone.

It was a strange choice of words, though they all knew what she meant... Ragnarok was coming.

**xXx**

Heimdall was waiting for them, at the end of the Rainbow Bridge (the end that touched Asgard rather than the Observatory where the Bifrost was activated). He stared at the group, dark eyes growing wide when seeing Sif standing with the group, though in the end his eyes stopped on the face of the youngest from the group:

"Lady Meneliel Tawardottir..." He pronounced her name quietly, solemnly.

"Vedui (Greetings) Heimdall..." She addressed him in the exact same way she had during every one of her visits to Asgard.

"I always knew there was something more about you than just your elven heritage, you know?" The Gatekeeper commented thoughtfully. "Knew that there was more to Lady Tawariel's story about a lost lover... it's no secret that most elves do not survive long after the passing of their match, and they carry their grief with them in such a way it can almost seen... yet that was never true for her, for either of you... and the power that runs beneath your skin, even when you're working on holding it back, it's there."

"You never said anything." She commented, honestly confused.

"I didn't think there was a need." Heimdall admitted. "Your mother is a good woman, or at least, that's what I believed..."

He had seen her there too, standing with her family.

"It's what you believed..." Menel repeated, her tone turning mocking. "What? Until you saw who her match was exactly? Until you saw who my father is? Who my siblings are? Then suddenly everything changed? You now decide we cannot possibly be good, and why? Because you're so convince that my Father is somehow evil incarnate?!" She snorted. "That's monumentally stupid." She shook her head. "You're allowing the words of one man dictate your beliefs, how you think... and that's not right. You're blind to the truth, to what's right in front of you, because you'd rather believe completely on the word of one man..."

"That man is my King." The Gatekeeper stated solemnly.

"That certainly didn't stop you from betraying my father when he held the throne, did it?" The half-elf arched a brow almost challenging.

"He had no right to that throne." Heimdall retorted.

"Technically he did." Meneliel replied. "Odin adopted him, and what's more, he made everyone in this realm believe Loki was his in every way. So, he had every right to the throne after Thor was exiled and Odin himself fell asleep. That you and practically everyone else in this narrow-minded realm refused to accept that fact, to trust a man simply because he was different from what they considered normal... that's your problem, not his!"

"He tried to kill the Allfather, Thor, me, all the realm!" The Gatekeeper snapped.

"He did not try to kill Odin, in fact, Adar saved him." Though the bastard did not deserve it. "The situation with Thor... is complicated and none of our business." No way was she going to admit that she herself did not understand it, and she wasn't sure if even the two involved did. "We're not going to go into the whole realm thing, that's is absolutely ridiculous! And about you..."

"If I'd wanted you dead you would be dead, Gatekeeper." Loki deadpanned.

The boys couldn't help it, they snorted, Hela just rolled her eyes. It was so their father to say something like that... and he was being absolutely honest, regardless of what some might think, he was quite capable of honesty.

"Does any of that matter?" Heimdall asked abruptly. "You've come here armed, looking for war."

The accusation tasted bitter on his tongue. For so many years he'd fought to keep himself separate from everything; keep a distance, as a 'good' Gatekeeper. Still, Sif had always been important, as good as a sister to him. She'd been so young when she'd insisted on joining the Asgardian army; nothing the other warriors did could dissuade her, not their violence, their coarse language, not even their attempts to humiliate her, to use her femininity against her. And he'd taken her under his wing, because someone needed to. So seeing her right then, standing among Loki, his wife and children, among those who'd a millennia before been labeled as the Harbingers of Ragnarok, it hurt in ways he couldn't fully explain.

And it wasn't even just Sif. There was Tawar, the sweet elven lady who had always given him a kind smile and a bright greeting; and her daughter, who'd always tried to talk to him, just a little, about nothing at all, who made him feel like he was part of the universe and not just an spectator. Maybe it had been his mistake, to grow so attached to those women, but he'd been lonely and now... he would have to stand against them...

"You sound so sure, think you know everything..." Hela said coldly. "But truth is, you know nothing at all."

"You're the Harbingers of Ragnarok." It almost sounded like a question rather than a statement.

"Indeed..." They all whispered.

Indeed they were... but what was Ragnarok really?

The bell began tolling...

* * *

><p>Yes, I'm ending it here, I know I'm insane, please don't kill me! The chapter had to end at some point, and the other one is quite long and complicated, so many things must come out; Tawar's prophecy is coming into action! (I already wrote the chapter, though I'm still editing).<p>

In case you're interested, I have a cast-of-sorts in mind for the original characters, and those that simply haven't appeared in the MCU yet. You may take this to get a better idea of how each of them look, or just ignore it, it's up to you:

* Amora (I know she's from 'Astrid', but still) - Queen Andromeda in Wrath of the Titans (where she's blonde). I even describe her battle attire and sword much as I saw in the pics.

* Hela - Morgana Pendragon from the Merlin BBC series. You can find pictures of her in a black dress (what she wore in Helheim, in mourning), the blue dress (what she wears after reuniting with her family), and there are a few in battle attire, with a sword in hand (the clothes are what she wears here, just substitute the sword for chains the style of what the girl-Treasure uses in the Elektra movie).

* Jormungandr - Prince Caspian, from the Chronicles of Narnia movies. From him too you'll find pictures where he's dressed much as I describe him (I would just make his hair a bit longer, if possible).

* Fenrir - Knight Lancelot, from the King Arthur movie. Same comments as before apply on clothing and weapon choices.

* Sleipnir - Iolaus from the Legendary Journeys of Hercules show (the older him, but with long hair), ignore any weapons whatsoever.

* Thenidiel - Lady Galadriel from Lord of the Rings (I think I don't need to say anymore on that front).

* Vöronwe - Haldir (or one of his brothers) from LoTR (I didn't really gave much though to him, to be honest).

* Arphenion - Lord Erestor from LoTR (he's a minor character, but fits my ideas).

* Santiel (She's minor here but will be more important next chapter) - Tauriel from The Hobbit.

The whole thing with the 'sung-tree', well I would actually like to know if anyone around here knows where I got it from. It was actually mostly an after-thought on my part, but it fit. Don't worry if you don't know I'll explain it in the beginning notes in the next chapter (though I really want to know if anyone identifies where I got the idea...)

If there's something you would really like to see before the end, make your requests now, the story ends in two chapters (possibly three, depending on how things turn out); and I'm still deciding if I should just end it here or try and write an epilogue of sorts. Mostly, I'm tired and I really, really want to go back to Nightingale. However, I've enjoyed this so much, and my readers, I want to make sure as many of you as possible are left satisfied before I close this up.

Next week... Ragnarok is here! But what exactly does Ragnarok mean to those 'chosen' to lead it? Just how many lies and secrets are about to be revealed...?


	4. Child of Chaos

The bells are coming! Ragnarok is here! But, once again, what is Ragnarok really?

And what does it mean to be a Child of Chaos...

First things first. I promised to explain the whole singing-trees-into-shape thing. It's an 'Inheritance Cycle' thing. In Paolini's universe magic-users could sing with the ancient tongue (the language of magic) and coax plants into taking certain forms. Most magic-users were elves, and they used that talent to build their homes in the forest. What I have Tawariel be able to do here is mostly that (with slights hints of what the Ents do in Lord of the Rings -which is where the song comes from, actually- and what Maleficent does in the new movie!). I just wanted her to have her moment...

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4. Child of Chaos <strong>

Heimdall held his position, near the middle point of the Valley of Vigrid, where centuries before, a millennia in fact, had been prophecized that the battle of Ragnarok would begin. From there he watched King Odin Allfather, Prince Thor and General Tyr lead the battalions and get ready; he also watched Loki, his wife the elven lady Tawariel, their children and Sif standing in a loose formation on the other edge of the valley. The Gamekeeper just knew there was something wrong with that scene, he just couldn't place his finger on what.

And then the youngest Lokidottir began singing, quietly at first, but soon her voice was carrying across the to-be-battleground:

"You wake up believing this day will end by evening  
>It's taken for granted that seeds of life are planted<br>But nothing prepares you for nature's acts of virtue  
>It's Doomsday, ascending, the world you know is ending..."<p>

It was a reminder, of what they were there for, what all of those standing against the forces of Asgard truly were: the Harbingers of Ragnarok, and yet... something still wasn't right. It was in the song even, something was missing... or not quite missing, it simply wasn't the way the prophecies had foretold. He had seen that already too. After all, weren't they supposed to have 'three winters with no summers in-between', a time when the worlds would be plagued by war and 'brothers will kill brothers'. There were wars of course (but there always had been wars, and always would be); but things weren't as terrible as it had been foretold. In fact, from the glimpses he'd taken on Midgard in recent years, things were better than they'd been for many years, possibly centuries, with the alliance of all those gifted individuals, organizations across the realm working together for the betterment of their world. And he knew also that, at least some of that, had come to be thanks to the Son of Coul and his wife (he'd seen them marrying shortly after the most recent Battle in the place they called New York).

Tyr blew his horn right then, calling for his soldiers to get ready to fight. Until Thor raised his own hand and, with a few words, broke everything:

"What enemy are we supposed to fight?" He demanded loudly.

It was then that Heimdall finally realized what seemed so wrong to his eyes. All the prophecies spoke about Loki breaking the gates to Muspelheim and to the realms of the Dead, Hela arriving at the front of her own army of the unholy; and then there would also be the giants, of ice and of fire, destroying all in their path... Except there were no dead, no demons, no giants... There was no army, no one standing against them except for Loki and his family...

Somehow, instead of setting them at ease, the question just seemed to make things worse. The Asgardian Warriors began arguing loudly among themselves, wanting to know what that mean, if the enemy would come at them from behind, above, or something else... the one thing none of them seemed to consider was the possibility that there was no enemy army coming.

"Attack!" One began yelling, above all others. "Attack before the monsters get the chance!"

"No, wait!" Thor called right away.

It looked like nothing would be able to stop the Aesir from madly rushing at the group standing before them, across the valley. No matter what Thor said, nothing seemed to work; even Tyr could do nothing to return the army to any semblance of order... and for some reason, it seemed to the Gatekeeper like the Allfather had no intention to stop anything...

Then another voice began singing:

"Mathach vi geven (Do you feel it in the earth)?  
>Nostach vi 'wilith (Can you smell it in the air)?<br>Mâb le i nagor (The war is upon you),  
>Bâd gurth vi ngalad firiel (Death moves in the fading light).<br>Dorthach vi mar han (Are you part of this world)?  
>Dagrathach go hain (Will you join their fight)?"<p>

It was the Lady Tawariel, singing in elvish, and while at first it didn't seem that important, they all soon changed their minds, as the earth beneath their feet began shifting. By the time the she-elf reached the final line what looked like the start of a forest had grown scattered across the valley. It could have never been enough to stop the army, not at all, and yet the mere fact that something so unexpected had happened, and that it'd been caused by the very individual they'd all believed to be the most vulnerable... that was enough to make them all freeze.

"Very well sis, you're up." Hela whispered to the youngest in the group.

It was true. None of them knew for sure if it was because they really believed she was that good a talker (though the number of people she'd managed to persuade, at one time or another, of doing some pretty crazy things might confirm that), if it was her power, or simply the fact that they believed that her past might make others hesitate (after all, many Eihenjar had met her in the last few years, some had even trained with her... shouldn't that count for something?)

"Hope this goes well..." The brunette murmured under her breath.

It was as if she half-transformed, nothing magical, but a change in her presence nonetheless, as she stepped forward and ahead of the line her family formed, allowing her power to show (at least to a level, she didn't want to scare anyone just yet).

"My name is Meneliel." She called, choosing not to give that many details just yet. "And we're not here to wage war!"

"Lies!" All the soldiers began calling at once. "She stands with the Liesmith! They all speak nothing but lies!"

The girl just rolled her eyes, having half a mind to call them all idiots to their faces. It was one thing to be underestimated, even suffer of racism or someones predisposition, but that... that was beyond any of that, downright idiotic.

"Why do you believe that?" She asked almost in a drawl. "Because that's what your 'King' has told you for the last millennia?"

Anyone could hear the 'air-quotes' she put in the word King, it just seemed to anger the Eihenjar more, however, Menel did not give them the chance to reply.

"Tell me one thing, Ragnarok... is that really what you want?"

The unexpected question, finally, gave everyone pause.

"It's what you've come for!" One voice finally called, Volstagg's. "The Last War!"

"That's what you all keep saying." Menel shook her head. "But why?"

It was obvious that no one was expecting that question, as no one knew how to answer it.

"I will tell you why, because spirits-know how many centuries ago, one man no more virtuous or deserving than any of you, than any of us, decided that some of us deserved life less than some of you, and then justified those beliefs by making everyone think that we would bring forth the end of the universe." She was beginning to get into the mood of things. "Which is absolutely idiotic, let me tell you. Why, in the name of all that's holy, would I want to destroy that which I've spent the last six years of my life fighting to protect?"

Once again, there was no answer, at least not from the soldiers. Odin, seeing that the girl was somehow managing to sow doubt with just a few words sought to 'correct' the situation:

"You are a daughter of darkness, dweller of the shadows, harbinger of Ragnarok..." Odin stated, voice full of authority.

The army tensed once again, but Menel wasn't about to give up.

"Really?" She challenged, not caring at all that the one standing across the valley from her was supposed to be the kind og the 'gods'. "Says who? You? You are just a man, regardless of the titles mortals might have bestowed upon you once, the titles you might still insist on giving yourself. You have no more wisdom than any other man, and your fury against us is unjustified." She waved him away when he tried to interrupt, continuing her tirade. "I know it was you that created the myths. The same ones that saw dozens of innocent girls murdered in Midgard because they dared try to help Azazeal, and all for what? Because you feared the birth of my sister's baby boy? Five centuries ago you watched your Council condemn two of my brothers to imprisonment for no good reason, watched your soldiers kill an innocent, unborn child, and almost do the same to my sister, and not once did you move a finger to help any of them. You've claimed that one day Fenrir, Jormungandr and Hela will break free, and together with our Father they will bring forth the End of Days... they will kill so many. Tell me then, Allfather, according to your deranged fantasy, who am I supposed to kill?!" She took a deep breath before sealing it. "For I am Meneliel Lokidottir, surely if my siblings are monsters, so am I. So tell me, who am I to murder?"

"You are all, indeed, monsters." Odin replied in a booming voice. "And the universe will only be safe when you're all gone!"

"Is that why you've been trying to kill me since before I was even born?!" The half-elf demanded, already knowing the answer. "Is that why you murdered all those people in China, looking for me, two days after I was born? I was a newborn child, what could I have ever done to you? Nothing at all. And yet you still killed all those people, and tried to kill me. You tortured my parents, and then locked my mother up in a cell for twenty-four years while using the worst kind of magic on my father to make him forget, just like you'd already done after the loss of his other children. You hurt so many people, destroyed so many innocent lives, all in an insane attempt to destroy a weak, defenseless newborn baby-girl... makes me wonder why..."

"You are all abominations, you should have never been born!" Odin snapped at him.

"Where have I heard that before...?" Menel drawled, mostly under her breath, before she gave her actual, strong, reply. "Would it have not been easier to just kill our Father, then?" Silence. "Except, you couldn't do that, could you? It would have ruined your precious plans!"

Even Odin seemed shocked at where her rant seemed to be suddenly going.

"You say we're here to wage war, I say that's not true." Meneliel called in her strongest voice yet. "I say the only liar standing today, in this valley, is you, Odin Allfather! I am here for nothing more than my deserved birth-right..."

"To rule?!" Fandral called, mocking.

Sif could only roll her eyes, if she hadn't made her mind to follow Menel's and Loki's lead on the whole thing she would be telling her 'old friend' what she thought about his comments.

"No, to protect that which is undoubtedly mine, my family." Meneliel hissed. "I said it earlier. It's Doomsday, ascending, the world you know is ending! I may not be here to destroy your world, or yourselves, but I will not allow for things to remain as they've been thus far, we will not allow it! We shall not spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders, waiting for the next time someone may decide we're less worthy of life than someone else! It ends here and it ends now!"

Before Odin, Thor, or anyone else could do or say anything to stop her, something made them freeze all over again; the moment a power rippled and expanded across the valley. It was her power, Thor knew, he'd felt it when she'd killed Amora to protect her match; and as she allowed it free, finally, it entwined with the energy previously laid out by Lady Tawariel with her song, and the power of every single individual that had her back (and it was then that Thor actually noticed it wan't just family, Sif stood there, too, in between Fenrir and Azazeal... he was shocked beyond words at the revelation).

Then Meneliel turned her face to the heavens and called with a loud voice, in a cadence rarely heard by anyone:

"I am Meneliel Lokidottir Tawardottir, Daughter of Chaos, Lady of the Midnight Blossom. From the lines of Frigga, princess of Vanaheim and Queen of Asgard; Laufey, King of Jotunheim; Santiel, Lady of Alfheim. I am a Warrior-Lady of Midgard, second in command of the world-wide organization SHIELD, sister of Hela Lokidottir, Queen of Helheim. I am a daughter, a sister, a wife, a protector..."

All of those present could hear every word said by the young brunette; she wasn't shouting, but the magic in her made her voice carry. What no one (not even her family) was expecting, was the abrupt turn she gave to things with what she said next.

"I present myself, with all I have, as all I am, before the judgement of the Higher Powers." The silence that followed that declaration was louder than any cry. "I call on their Divine Justice for Odin Allfather, call for him to pay for his wrongdoings, his sins, for all the lives that have been lost, all the hurt he's caused, to me and mine, to Midgard, and to the rest of the Realms. I call for Divine Justice! So mote it be!"

Shocked as they were (such a call had never been in the plans), her family still backed her up immediately, not a doubt in their voices and auras:

"We call for Divine Justice!" They all chorused. "So mote it be!"

"That's impossible." Tyr hissed. "No mortal can call on the Higher Powers..."

Heimdall would agree with him, and he did... except the Asgardian General had apparently completely missed the point where Meneliel had enlisted all the ways in which she was no mere mortal... she was more, a lot more... even more than he could have ever imagined. And the mere fact that she chose to go down that route, moreover, with such confidence... it clearly spoke of someone who had called on the Higher Powers before...

Meneliel had no idea how doing such a thing hadn't occurred to her earlier. She had done it before, calling on the Higher Powers. She knew the key factor to doing it effectively was being fully selfless in what was asked for. Like when she'd asked for a soul for Conner; that hadn't been for her, it had been for the boy, and for his fathers. She ended being blessed as well, with her own connection to the child, but still, it wasn't meant to be for her. And in that moment, the Call wasn't for her either, it was done as a way of protecting those she cared for, her loved ones... the only reason she'd included herself in the call was (aside from the simplest fact that Odin had, indeed, acted against her) that his actions against her had caused hurt to so many people, innocents, so it needed to be taken in consideration as well.

There was a tinkle, like bells, which soon cleared out to be laughter. It preceded the arrival of three figures in long, hooded cloaks of impossible colors.

"The Norns..." The gasp was general all around the valley.

"She has the power to call on the Norns..." Tyr mumbled, completely shocked.

She did, in a way almost no one could, but it was why she'd enlisted all her familial connections; for she knew it was one thing sure to call the attention of the 'Holders of Destiny', one individual claiming connection to all those lineages, all those realms...

"My ladies..." The brunette did an elaborate curtsy at them.

Asgard knew them as the Nors, humans had called them the Fates, they were also known as the 'Holders of Destiny'; though the Secret Circle had taught her another form: the Triple Goddess of NeoPaganism: the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. Though still, their names, she knew, were Urd (What Once Was), Verdandi (What is Coming into Being) and Skuld (What Shall Be).

"No need to kneel child." Urd told her softly but authoritatively. "You've called for us and we've come, for that is what's right."

"You bring such delight to these boring times!" Skuld cried out, before letting out another peal of laughter. "Such beautiful chaos, the changes in the tapestry of destiny... I hadn't had this much fun in centuries!"

Meneliel wasn't sure what was shocking the Aesir more, Skuld's (the Maiden) words, or the fact that any of them chose to speak to them at all.

"You have called us, Daughter of Chaos." Verdandi (the Mother) seemed to choose to focus on their situation. "We have heard and come. You have raised accusations against Odin, son of Borr, Asgard's Allfather, in your name, and the names of many others."

"That I have, Honorable Ladies." Meneliel confirmed, bowing her head respectfully.

"Present your proof." The three ordered, completely serious.

Meneliel faltered, just for a second. Indeed, she had proof, she just wasn't expecting them to ask her to be the one to provide it. Didn't they have the power to See the past, present and, to a certain level, the future? Why then did they need her to say the things? Still, the power they held, the authority; the brunette knew there must be a reason, so she didn't question them, just accepted the order and reacted to it.

"Odin Allfather has made, not just Asgard, but all the Realms, believe that Ragnarok will be caused by my Father, Loki Friggason, with the aid of his offspring, the Children of Chaos." She elaborated. "It's that belief that has caused other titles to be given to us: like Dwellers of Shadows and Harbingers of Ragnarok... However, the prophecy is a fake, created by him to put the realms against us all. As a way to conceal himself, his fear, and his arrogance..."

"What proof have you of your claims?" Verdandi called solemnly.

"First, the prophecy, while widely-known, is not registered in the Hall of Prophecies here on Asgard, nor in its counterpart in Alfheim." Meneliel began enlisting solemnly.

"What have you to say to this claims, Allfather?" The Mother called then, turning to the King.

"The Hall of Prophecies are not my concern." Odin answered almost scathingly.

Loki hissed in the back, as did Thor, for they both realized (as did Loki's children) that by his words he was pretty much blaming his deceased wife, Lady Frigga, for the lack of a registry of such prophecy, and since she wasn't around to defend herself...

"We shall leave that matter for now." Skuld decided, before anyone could say otherwise. "Next proof, Lady Meneliel?"

"Of course." Meneliel pushed aside her indignation in her grandmother's name to focus on what was most important in that moment. "Lets suppose, for now, that the prophecy is genuine, that my father, sister and two of my brothers are 'destined' to bring forth Ragnarok. Which I'm not saying I believe, but anyway. How does that excuse his actions against my mother, Lady Tawariel of the Midnight Blossom, and myself? I do not figure in any of his supposed-prophecies, neither does my mother, and yet we were both persecuted, by him and a number of his Eihenjar, for imagined faults, the only of which he ever had the gall to tell my mother was bringing me to the world. How does any of that justify her torture and imprisonment for 24 years? How can he justify the murder of old Ms. Yue, of 14-year-old Xiefa Yue, of Agent Linda Avery, as well as all but one member of two tactical teams of SHIELD and the entire population of a town in the south of the Hunan Province, in China, Midgard?"

"Sacrifices must be made for the greater good..." Odin spouted an obviously rehearsed excuse.

The brunette felt like she could scream. She hated phrases like that 'for the greater good', she believed it was the kind of thing someone with no empathy said; someone who cared more about the results than the people involved. In the end they could end up killing more people than they'd actually saved, but as long as they felt they've reached their goal, it'll be alright with them... and it's not! No one, be they mortal or immortal, human, elf or so-called god, has any authority to sacrifice any life but their own. Especially not the lives of hundreds of innocents who did nothing except be in the wrong place at the wrong time! Or, at worst, be compassionate enough to want to protect an innocent baby not even a week old!

"Sacrifice is not your purview, Odin Allfather." Urd (The Crone) stated almost harshly.

"Of course, my lady." Odin replied, too quickly.

"That's good proof." The Mother decided. "Is it all you have?"

"I have one more piece of proof to offer the Honorable Ladies." The young princess stated with genuine respect. "It's a bit of a long story and somewhat complicated, but I will ask you to bear with me, for its relevance will be revealed in the end."

She suspected that they already knew. With the power they had, they must, right? Which meant that there must want her to say those things for a reason... but what could that reason be?

"Before I presented myself as ignorant of the Allfather's reasons for coming after me, and while I know not if all my assumptions are true, I do have a theory." Menel finally revealed. "It is because I am a Child of Chaos. As such, I cannot be controlled, my future cannot be properly predicted, even what prophecies have been made that concern me can be interpreted in a variety of ways, leaving them open to my choices. It is my belief that the Allfather has done everything in his power to either kill or 'keep under control' every child my father's had for that very reason. He believes if he cannot control us, he can at least make sure we will not ruin his plans."

"That's preposterous!" Several Aesir called in defense of their King.

"Have you any actual proof to back-up your claims?" Verdandi asked calmly.

"On the one hand, what other reason would he have for wanting me dead before I was a week old, before I was even born?" The half-elf asked rhetorically. "As I've explained, as a child of chaos my future cannot be predicted, so he cannot possibly say that I was 'destined' to do or be anything. The same thing applies to my siblings, for that matter. And even if their imprisonment could be justified with the claim of 'Dark Arts' that was made five hundred years ago, there is just no way the punishment befits the alleged crime." She shook her head. "On the other hand, even if he could somehow present proof that me and my siblings were a danger, were truly fated to be the Harbingers of Ragnarok, the ultimate Destroyers of the Universe... wouldn't the best solution have been simply to have our Father executed? Except, as I said before, he couldn't do that, because that would have gone against his plans. If he'd killed Loki, or had him killed by anyone, it would have rendered the whole point of stealing him from the temple in Jotunheim, adopting him, making all of Asgard believe he was truly his son... moot."

That declaration caused murmurs to rise, the young princess could see and even feel Odin's frigid stare on her, probably as he wondered if she really knew everything, like she was implying, and what that might mean for him... well, it wasn't like he was going to have to wait for the answers to his questions, she was quite happy to provide them... it was time the truth came out.

"The truth is that Odin Allfather did not adopt Loki Laufeyson out of the goodness of his heart, or because he'd taken pity over a baby abandoned in a temple, at the end of the bloodiest war in history..." Meneliel revealed in the coldest tone. "No, there was nothing good, or warm or pure in that man... that monster's heart when he took the child. He didn't see a child at all, only a tool, one that may allow him to keep the family he believed he deserved, the power he thought was owed to him; one that may allow him to protect his legacy from a betrayal he was convinced had to be a curse from an enemy, for there was no way he could deserve it..."

The sarcasm was thick on the half-elf's voice by that point, something everyone could hear and some could actually feel; but how could she not, when in that very moment a memory, of a vision, kept replying with heart-breaking intensity in the back of her mind; a fraction of the past, not her own, but her Adar's:

_Loki Odinson (as he'd still believed himself to be) was standing near the back of the Weapon's Vault, both hands of the Casket of Ancient Winters, the most treasured relic of the Jotun, which the Allfather had taken as spoils' of war millennia before. He raised it, though it wasn't really necessary, he could feel his body temperature go down several degrees, could see his skin begin to turn blue, the moment he came in touch with the artifact. _

"_Stop!" Odin called loudly as soon as he entered the Vault. _

_It was too late, what was done could not be undone, and there was no way Loki could forget what he'd just learnt of himself (tough Odin might have been able to force him to, if only he'd had the time... it made Menel wonder if he hadn't learnt the truth before and been made to forget...). _

"_Am I cursed?" Loki asked, immobile. _

"_No." Odin asked quietly, stoically. _

"_What am I?" The young 'Aesir' demanded, lowering the casket but refusing to turn to face his 'father' just yet. _

"_You're my son..." Odin answered, though there was something not-right about his tone. _

"_What more than that?" Loki asked, finally turning, not shouting, but demanding nonetheless, even as his image seems to automatically return to his Aesir visage. "The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?" _

"_No." It seemed as if it actually pained Odin to answer, to be honest. "In the aftermath of the battle, I went into the Temple, and I found a baby. Small for a giant's offspring... abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son." _

"_Laufey's son..." Loki echoed, shocked, struggling to make sense of it all. "Why? You were knee-deep in Jotun blood. Why would you take me?" _

"_You were an innocent child." The Allfather tried to excuse. _

"_You took me for a purpose, what was it?" Loki wasn't going to take his lies anymore. _

_Yet there was no answer._

"_Tell me!" Loki's desperate cry echoed across the room and, possibly, across the realms as well. _

"_I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day, bring about an alliance, bring about a permanent peace... through you." Odin said. "But those plans no longer matter." _

_They were lies, all lies! What made Odin believe he could lie to the face of the God of Lies of all people?! Still, Loki couldn't help but reply anyway; an answer that could seem like it was meant to fit Odin's lies, though it wasn't, not really. _

"_So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me." _

"_Why do you twist my words?" Odin asked in what was probably meant to be a pained tone. _

_Yes, like always, everything had to be Loki's fault... except he wasn't buying it anymore. He didn't care anymore... _

"_You could have told me what I was from the beginning." He insisted, refusing to let the matter go. "Why didn't you?" _

"_You are my son." Her not-father insisted, though the tone was wrong for his words. "My blood. I wanted only to protect you from the truth."_

_Lies! All lies! Odin really should have known better. _

"_Because I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?!" Loki demanded. _

_The Allfather tried to speak again, but there was no point, he was growing weaker by the second and Loki simply wasn't listening to him at all anymore. They were all lies, and the God of Chaos knew, he'd been lied to for his whole life, for reasons Odin refused to admit... to think that he'd spent the last millennia trying to be accepted, to be loved, by a man who'd never cared for him, who wouldn't admit the truth, even when confronted with it. One day he would find out the truth, one day he would make everyone who'd ever used him pay for it... everyone... _

The worst part was that Loki had been right, in every possible way... some that even he himself did not know yet, but he would. Some secrets had been kept long enough, it was time for all that to end, to bring forth the truth.

"I was in Alfheim several hours ago." Meneliel knew she'd to choose her words very carefully, otherwise it would all blow-up in her face. "I spoke with my mother's-brother, Lord Arphenion, who reinstated Naneth into the family and granted me, officially, the title of Lady of the Midnight Blossom." She gestured to her tunic. "However, the reason for my trip wasn't him, it was that someone wanted to speak to me; Lady Thenidiel, Alfheim's most talented spell-weaver as well as prophetess... few know this but she was the apprentice of none other than Lady Santiel of the Midnight Blossom... she was my mother's grandmother. The tunic I wear was made for her by her husband: Lord Beriadan, the Defender." She shook her head, knowing he needed to focus. "As her apprentice, Lady Thenidiel kept record of much of what Lady Santiel did, including her prophecies... like the one she made one winter night, 1055 years ago..."

The silence that befell was such as to almost be considered deafening. There was a mix of shock, confusion, disbelief, from practically everyone around... it was obvious no one was aware of any such prophecy... and it was only going to get worse. The half-elf could also see in the eyes of Odin how much he wished he could slay her down with one look, tear her to pieces before the rest of the revelation could leave her lips... only he couldn't do that, because any act of war in the presence of the Norns, at a time when they were judging something, would be considered the worst kind of offense against them; and even if he could find a way to kill her before the truth came out, Phil, Hela and Azazeal knew as much as her. The Truth Would Come Out... no matter what or who...

"Odin Allfather went to see Lady Santiel one night, shortly before Asgard discovered the Jotun were trying to take-over Midgard." Meneliel explained, mentally building up her shields; she knew that what was coming was going to hurt more than one person... "He was hoping she would share words of wisdom with him, something that might help him prepare a better strategy to defeat his enemies... what he got was another thing entirely..."

"Norns, is this really necessary...?" Fandral demanded loudly.

"Silence, Aesir!" Urd ordered coldly. "Listean and learn... learn the truth about the man you call your king and hail as a god; and the girl you call an abomination..."

Fandral didn't dare interrupt again afterwards.

"The prophecy, as Lady Santiel pronounced it that night, went:" Menel explained.

And yet, once she began reciting the prophecy, her voice wasn't the only one, Hela's was there too, and somehow, so was Tawariel's.

"The snow of endless winters shall melt, wars of brothers against brothers shall cease; warriors will lay down the steel, flowers will bloom. The change is here, they've brought it. They who dance in the shadows, the shifters of forms, who weave illusions for pleasure and break walls for convictions; they, the Children of Chaos, the unpredictable, the chameleons... Let the Bells Ring, let the worlds all know. Change is coming... the Children of Chaos are coming... the Bringers of Change are here..."

Not a word was said for several seconds, as everyone present took in the words and their possible meanings... as well as their likeness to the prophecy the Allfather had pronounced. They could see the similarities, and the more open-minded began to see there was something just not-right about it all... if they'd just known...

"When the Allfather demanded an explanation for that prophecy, Lady Santiel shared with him two images: first the Nine Realms connected in harmony, thriving; and one of Asgard golden and bright, with no palace and no throne." Meneliel announced.

Whispers of confusion turned into shouts of denial at that; however, it did not last long, a gesture from the Norns enough to quieted everyone.

"Odin refused to accept that." Meneliel went on, focusing on what needed to be done as a way to ignore her nervousness and fear. "He refused to accept that Asgard could exist without him on the throne. Despite the fact that Vanaheim has been able to survive perfectly well under the rule of a Council rather than a King, and that Alfheim stopped serving a single ruler millennia ago, instead choosing to exist as inter-connected tribes and clans." Somewhat like the vampire community in Midgard, in fact. "Lady Santiel tried to warn him, told him that some things were written down, fate rather than destiny... Other Realms were changing, and Asgard needed to, as well. He would not have it. She pronounced one final warning, before he left: 'If Fate you force to bend, Destiny your blood's blood will take. Your son will betray you, your line will be lost.'."

"What?!" Thor's roar echoed across the valley.

No one else dare say a word, though Meneliel could sense everyone's tension; she could also perceive the moment her Adar's mood went from stressed-out to a mix of hot-rage and cold-resignation... all his suspicions were being proven right; the half-elf was sure that if it weren't for Tawariel and his kids moving to surround him automatically, to hold him (though discreetly so as not to make him appear vulnerable) he would have crumbled under the weight of the revelations.

"A handful of days later the war against Jotunheim ended, and while still covered in blood, ice and dust, Odin Allfather heard a baby crying. A newborn child, a Jotun runt, left 'exposed' as part of an ancient Jotun tradition, meant to ensure that the child was strong enough to survive, strong enough for his line; after all, he was the firstborn of King Laufey..."

Yet again the chaos, the denials; and Adar was at a loss, Meneliel could feel it.

"That is a lie!" Odin finally spoke up. "That child was abandoned, left do die! I saved him! All I did was for him..."

"Your birthright was to die as a child!"Menel snarled, finally losing all composure. "Cast out on a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in, you would not be here now to hate me." She took a deep breath, fighting to regain her center, though everyone with the slightest magic could sense the hints of her rage, still. "Were those not your words, Allfather? The words you pronounced to my Father the day you condemned him to be imprisoned for the rest of his life?! Except, I now know you lied then to, we all do." She finally regained her calm, as she threw yet another revelation out. "I visited Jotunheim, once, years ago. I worried about them. What Laufey's successor might try against me or mine, if they were ever to discover about all of us... Especially if they were ever to find their way to Midgard again... I met a female Jotun called Yiresien, she's the Records' Keeper of the frigid realm. She also recognized me as Lokison almost from the moment she laid eyes on me, and the markings on my skin." She gestured to her shoulders for good measure. "It was a rather... enlightening meeting, to be sure..."

It was, she could still remember it:

_It had been just a few weeks since Malachi was born. Having visited Hela before going to Asgard Menel knew she could have gone straight back to Midgard at the end of January; and yet, instead she found herself still stepping outside of the Bifrost path before she'd made it to her home-world; except instead of landing on Helheim, she landed on a world that, while just as dark and cold, had an entirely different aura. She hadn't exactly made a conscious decision, but her instincts knew what she wanted... she was in Jotunheim. _

_Following those same instincts (and an ability she'd discovered just a few months earlier), she'd allowed her body to react to the cold, shifting her body from human to jotun. It also vanished her elven dress, leaving her just with the skin-tight strapless top and shorts she wore underneath and her black-leather boots. She thought the style looked enough like the clothes the Jotun she'd seen in some visions wore, but just in case she wove an illusion around herself so that she may go unnoticed for the most part; aside from her clothing, she feared her height might give her away, or the fact she was a woman (she'd never sen any female jotun in her visions). _

_She spent that day looking around the place, the ruins of what once had been Utgard, the capitol of the frozen realm. _

"_It looks like this place must have gorgeous at one time, and yet now..." She whispered out-loud. _

"_Now it's nothing but an almost forgotten memory." A keen voice called from behind her. _

_Menel spun around, hand reaching for a weapon instinctively, not quite remembering that she'd placed them in her subspace-pocket; in the end it didn't matter, her ice-magic reacted to her will, allowing her to conjure a couple of blades made purely of ice. Still, the Lokidottir didn't have time to ponder on it, as she needed to focus on the one who'd approached her silently; it was the first time the half-elf saw a female Jotun (a full one), she had long dark hair in what looked like dreads, or many small braids (or maybe it was just the ice), wearing what could be described as a very skimpy bikini top and a loincloth, both made of what looked like tan-leather. _

"_So you are one of us." She said in the same high tone of voice. "I'd wondered... I don't think I've seen you before around here, and I'm almost sure I know every female Jotun living in this sector... though, at the same time, there is something about you that seems strangely familiar..." _

"_I'm just dropping by..." Menel admitted hesitantly, ready to fall into the Shadow Plane at a second's notice if attacked. _

"_You're not only not from this sector, you're not from this realm, are you?" The Giantess asked in an extremely suspicious tone. "You're not even full-Jotun!" _

"_What makes you believe that?" Menel asked, voice higher than she'd intended due to nerves. _

"_You're keeping your aura extremely controlled, but there is just enough of it slipping past you that I can sense it, there's is more to you than just Jotun..." The other said confidently. _

_Menel didn't say a word, she didn't dare to. _

"_I'm not going to attack you, you know?" The other seemed to guess at Menel's nervousness. "Regardless of what other races might believe, not all Jotun seek war..." As if to put the girl more at ease, she added. "Yiresien Fareladottir..." _

_Menel looked at the way the Jotun offered both hands, palms-up, it wasn't a handshake, not any kind of handshake she'd ever seen but, not wanting offend, she imitated the gesture; only belatedly noticing that she'd still been holding the conjured ice-blades in her hands. The moment she opened her hands to mimic the giantess the blades disappeared, leaving her hands empty. _

"_That's why we greet others the way we do." Yiresien confirmed her suspicions. "It's a way to show good will and that we're not armed." _

"_I see." The girl nodded, then remembering the introduction, added. "I am Meneliel Tawardottir, and as you've guessed, I'm only half-Jotun, my mother is Ljósalfár." _

"_Interesting." Yiresien admitted. "I've never known of such a match... who is your Sire?" _

"_I'm not sure revealing that would be a good idea." Menel admitted. "It is quite possible that some people around here will hold ill will against him, for past actions." _

"_I can guess who it is, actually." Yiresien admitted after several seconds. "You see, here in Jotunheim, much like in Asgard, females aren't warriors, instead we're relegated to other, less risky tasks. Though in our case it's less because we're believed less capable, and more because our numbers are so small our males fear that they might lose us all. In my case, I am Records' Keeper; I know there has only been one Jotun lost to us to something other than death in the last millennia, and I would guess he is your father..." _

_The half-elf didn't say a word, not to confirm or deny, though deep down she knew it wasn't really necessary, Yiresien really knew already. _

"_You're the child of our lost prince, Loki Laufeyson." The giantess stated, her expression and voice softened before adding. "King Helblindi would love to meet you." _

"_Actually... I'm not sure if I'm ready for that." Menel admitted quietly. "I... I came here to see the place, to try and find out where your race stands, I didn't really... I never planned on actually talking to any of you... Adar would probably freak if he knew I'm here at all." _

"_He's been taught we're monsters, hasn't he?" The female Jotun sounded incredibly sad as she said that, not truly requiring an answer. "I'm not surprised, it's what every realm believes. And while I'll admit Jotun have a particular enjoyment for war and an almost dangerous lust for blood... there's more to us than just that." _

"_I know." Menel blurted out, before clarifying. "I mean, everything I've studied tells me that if you were the 'mindless beasts' Odin would have us believe there is no way you could have survived this long. Yet you have, you have a functioning society, a hierarchy. I may not agree with a lot of what your people do and have done, but I do not think you're monsters simply for being Jotun and having blue skin..." She gestured to her own. "I'm not a hypocrite." _

"_But he... Loki, does believe that, does he not?" _

"_It's what he's been taught his whole life to believe... I'm not sure if anything we say or do will ever be enough to make him change his mind." _

"_It's alright. It's not your fault. Curse Odin to the deepest abyss for taking our prince from us." _

_That called Menel's attention, there was a story there... _

"_We did not know he was alive, you know?" Yiresien commented quietly. "For the longest time we believed him to be dead, the last victim to the bloodiest war we were ever involved in... our King cursed that war for decades, for taking his first-born. It wasn't supposed to be like that." _

"_But I thought..." Menel was shocked even as she expressed her full-thought. "I thought Laufey had abandoned Loki in that temple to die!" _

"_What?!" The giantess was scandalized by the mere idea. "No!" _

"_According to what we know, Odin Allfather found him in the middle of an empty temple right after the end of the war, alone." Menel explained. _

"_Well yes but..." Yiresien shook her head sadly. "It wasn't like that at all. I know this will sound completely barbaric to you but... we as a race have traditions, some which have existed since the beginning of time. A few clans hardly follow them anymore, especially the harshest ones, but as our Royals, King Laufey had to follow that one..." _

_What followed was one explanation Menel had never really sought, never imagined she would get... It was also one she'd never dared share with her father. How to explain that everything that had gone wrong with him had steamed from something like that? How to even begin to consider all the ways things would be different if only Odin hadn't found Loki that day, or if Laufey had chosen to ignore tradition, or at least postpone it one more day...? _

She'd never shared with anyone what she'd discovered that day, not until that very moment, but it was necessary, it was one more piece of the puzzle...

"Jotun are, by nature a war-loving race, they enjoy the lust for blood it produces in them." Menel began her explanation. "Doesn't mean that's all there is to them though. They are still a society, the predominating species in Jotunheim, they have order, laws, a hierarchy... and they also have traditions. Some that while they may appear exceedingly barbaric to some, are important to them. One of them is called 'Exposure'. Most don't follow it anymore, due to its particular harshness; however, being the king, Laufey couldn't ignore it. The tradition consists in exposing the clan's heir to the open-cold of their world for a day and a night. Unlike newborns from other races and realms, Jotun do not eat as much, and are born quite resilient; which is why it is actually possible for babies to survive such a trial... if they're strong enough." She shook her head at the shocked silence that surrounded her. "Laufey went through it, as did all his ancestors. He probably did not expect that his child would be born in the middle of a war, but he couldn't ignore tradition, not with his first-born, his heir... and especially not when he was born a runt. In order for the prince to gain the respect from his future subjects the tradition must be carried... It is their belief that a baby who survives exposure has proven that Winter is in their blood, has been blessed, in a way, by the ice and the snow..."

"They did not want him for being a runt..." Odin began his denial.

"Considering that half of the Royal clan in Jotunheim are runts, and all of them are the most proficient spell-casters in the realm... I don't see how anyone would believe that to be a problem." Menel drawled. "It had never happened for an heir to be born a runt... but if the ritual had been completed as intended and the baby had survived (and there's no reason to believe he wouldn't have), he would have been named Crown Prince of Jotunheim on the tenth day, respected across all the realm for having been blessed by their world."

Menel could feel the shivers in her Adar as she said those words, the thought of how different his life would have been; how he could have grown as the first prince, respected, loved, accepted, rather than underestimated, made a fool of, rejected and sometimes downright hated... Maybe it was the wrong thought to have, considering that there's no guarantee, if he'd had such a life, that he would have ever met Svadilfari, Angrboda, Tawariel... that any of them would be there. But still, there was noting wrong in wishing someone they loved had had a better life.

"And yet none of that was possible." Meneliel pushed on. "Laufey pushed the ritual as late as he could, until the nine days were almost done, after that they would have to present the boy, and if the ritual wasn't done before he might not have been accepted as heir. So Laufey did it, he left his son in that temple, and he left, he placed no guards, hoping that, if the place looked empty, no one would care for it. Hoping that war would keep his enemies entertained enough... and in any case, why should his enemies care for their temple?" She shook her head sadly, tiredly. "Even when the war was lost, it should have never happened. The Asgardians had already taken the Casket, why then would any of them be interested in the temple? No one knows the answer to that. It doesn't really matter in the grand-scheme of things. The point is the same, Odin Allfather went, and stole the boy from that temple before the day and night of the ritual were finished. And that's exactly what it was, the baby was kidnapped, not rescued... and for what?"

Silence was her answer.

"Why would the so-called 'king of the gods' be interested in stealing a newborn Jotun instead of focusing on his own wounded and dead, after all, a war had just ended, he was still drenched in blood... and yet still he focused on that... why?" Meneliel challenged the man standing on the other side of the valley. "Will you say it or shall I Allfather?"

"What need have you for me to speak when you believe yourself all-knowing already?" Odin retorted in a mocking tone.

"I've never made such-claims, I have no such arrogance." Menel denied. "But I want you to say it. I could do it, that's true, I know why you did it. But I want you to be the one to say it, because I want there to be no doubt in anyone's mind that what is being said here is nothing but the truth." She let out a breath. "Besides, don't you think it's about time you were honest about something, anything at all?"

Odin was obviously angered by the girl's underhanded insult, but he didn't get the chance to even try to chastise her.

"Answer the question Allfather." The Crone ordered stoically. "With no embellishments, and no half-truths, I shall tolerate nothing of the kind. Just the absolute truth... Lady Meneliel is right, it's time for the Truth to be told."

"Why did you take Loki Laufeyson?" Verdandi specified the question for good measure.

"I took him from that temple, gave him my name, made him my son... so I may have a son that could betray me without having to worry about it being the one my own wife had borne." Odin revealed in an almost blank tone. "In the following centuries I did everything I could to guarantee it would happen that way too. Showering my son with compliments and affection, and leaving the other with nothing. He soon showed to be chaos, which made him next-to-impossible to control. But the right kind of treatment made it so I could predict his reactions. I was sure that would guarantee he would be the one to betray me. I also made sure my son, Thor, was loyal to me above any other, so when the time break, he would take care of the problem."

"I would never kill my own brother!" Thor roared from his place.

"Exactly." Menel nodded as she smiled at Odin with obvious satisfaction. "That's what went wrong with your plan. Or at least one of the first things that went wrong with it. Thor actually grew to love his brother... the first one was Frigga loving him, being a true mother to him. To the point where she did her best to care for him in every way you never did, she loved him, nurtured him, taught him history, diplomacy, languages, magic... and then when you decided you could finally get rid of him, she wouldn't let you. After the mess with Jotunheim and the destruction of the Bifrost, when Loki fell into the abyss, you thought that was it, you'd won, and you didn't even have to do anything to get your hands dirty... Except Loki came back." She hissed. "Luckily for you he did so in such a way you didn't even need to make an effort to paint him as evil. And Thor followed your orders on going after him. Only even when Loki was taken back to Asgard for his trial you couldn't kill him, because Thor and Lady Frigga wouldn't let you. They both loved Loki too much." Her voice turned mocking. "Congratulations! You did a good enough job pretending to want him as your son that, even if you didn't manage to really lie to him, you got your family to love him as such!"

"That was never supposed to happen..." Odin admitted, voice tight. "He's a Jotun! A blood-thirsty monster! Both Frigga and Thor should have seen that, should have wanted him dead..."

"How obvious it is that you know nothing of love, or of family..." Azazeal's voice rose behind her. "You never have really. Even with the son you claim to love, coddling him so much that you never actually taught him limits was as much a disservice as the lack of love you had for Loki." He shook his head. "It's a wonder the Norns ever allowed you to be a father at all!"

The Norns kept their silence, if there was a reason (whether good or bad) for it all, they didn't say a word about it.

"You've spent the last millennia, working for a goal, one that was never meant to be, and you tried to force." Meneliel stated in a serious, yet calm voice. "Lady Santiel warned you what would happen if you tried to bend Fate, but you did it anyway... and that's why I'm here. To right the wrong you committed."

That one was actually more of an assumption and less an actual knowledge. But still, it fit, being the only Child of Chaos who could live her life in freedom; and while she'd been raised without knowing the truth of her heritage, her family, from the moment she learnt the truth she'd done her best to do right by them. And the final point was right then and there, justice would be done, she had sworn that to herself before leaving Midgard.

"And so we've come full-circle." She stated, still in the same tone. "You, Odin Allfather, have spent the last millennia making your people, making all the Realms, believe that my Father, Loki, is a monster, one that would one day destroy the universe. You went as far as creating the most twisted tale of war and destruction you could, blaming innocent children, condemning them for fake crimes... And wanna know something? It would have come to pass. If things had continued as they were, one day, not long from now, Ragnarok would have come, pretty much like you imagined one day only... guess who would have been the last one standing...?" There was no satisfaction as she said those words, only grief, and remembered pain.

"See!" Odin was actually beginning to sound insane as he spoke. "I knew! I knew it would happen! Because he's a monster! You're all monsters!"

"Yeah, that's why..." Menel drawled, rolling her eyes for good measure. "It's got nothing to do with the fact that, I don't know, you've been imprisoning and torturing my parents and all of my siblings for the last too many years... Ever heard the term 'self-fulfilling prophecy'?" Her voice turned ice-cold again. "Yes, Ragnarok would have come, yes, we would have been the ones to start it. And how could we not, with everything you've done to every single one of us our whole lives?!" She shook her head. "But we found out. And we made our choices. Because in the end that's exactly what they were, 'our choices', not anyone else's. We will not be your Harbingers of Ragnarok, instead we shall be what the Norns intended for us to be: Bringers of Change!"

Her family called their agreement loudly behind her.

"And so, here we are." The half elf said, her whole body relaxing as she realized it was done, the truth was out. "You came here for War, but we will not fight you, not unless you give us no other option. And if it does come, the universe will know it was started by you, not us. So, what will it be, Allfather? Will you give up, or will you insist on this pointless war?"

"When Santiel warned me of what was coming, she never spoke of you." Odin commented, oddly thoughtful. "Yet she must have known you're her descendant, after all."

"She did warn you what you wanted could never be." Meneliel reminded him.

"Indeed." Odin admitted, oddly calm for someone losing. "Yet, if I am to lose, so shall you..."

That put everyone in alert all over again. Meneliel didn't even notice when her husband stood before her, blade drawn, her siblings at her sides, her parents behind her, along with Sif, all with weapons ready, prepared for anything that might come.

"Oh, I don't mean myself." Odin stated in an almost pitying tone. "She knows what I speak of, do you not, princess Meneliel?" His tone really turned mocking then. "You cannot be capable of calling on the Higher Powers and not know the cost of such summons..."

Meneliel let out a breath, at the same time as her family all turned to look at her. Indeed, she knew, she had from the very moment the first word left her lips. In that aspect, what she had done when calling for Divine Justice was different from the time she'd called for a soul for Connor. On that time what she'd wanted was for the Norns to intercede before the actual Higher Power (of which the Norns were envoys) so a soul could be granted for the boy; back then her price to pay had been a part of herself (it was how she ended connected to the child herself), and energy (which had left her weak for a while, but eventually she recovered). However, in that moment what she'd done was call for their presence, for their judgement. That called for a very different price... a higher price.

The silence on her part, and her tension, more than any words or empty reassurances, alerted everyone around her to what exactly was going on through the half-elf's head.

"No!" Phil practically snarled his denial as he dropped his sword, spun around and held his match tightly in his arms, refusing to let her go. "You won't leave me. I shall not allow it!"

"Aratoamin..." She murmured his favored nickname, in an attempt to sooth him, though she knew well nothing would be enough.

"We require no sacrifice from you, Meneliel Lokidottir." The three Norns announced in unison.

That, was certainly a surprise, to everyone, especially Odin...

"That's impossible!" The Allfather practically snarled in fury. "A sacrifice must always be made, a price paid!" He gestured wildly. "That's is what you told me the one time I attempted to gain wisdom from you!"

"It is still true." Urd declared calmly. "Though your request was denied, more on the grounds of the selfishness behind your denial, than your refusal to pay the price for it."

"No price needs to be paid, because it already has been." The Maiden added calmly. "It was paid in full... years ago..." Her voice turned almost mournful as she enlisted. "In freedom... memories... blood... and life..."

Freedom: Tawariel's imprisonment for twenty-four years...

Memories: The ones Loki had lost for almost as long...

Blood: Menel's blood smeared on the stone floor of a cellar in Midgard...

Life: A life lost, but whose?

The answer came with a flash of light, as a figure appeared in the middle of the valley. Tall, slim, with perfectly smooth skin, sky-blue eyes and shiny golden hair half piled up on the back of her head in an elegant twist, half falling down to the small of her back in perfect waves. Layers of gray cotton, green gauze and turquoise silk adorned with golden thread formed an elegant, long battle dress, upon which she wore perfectly polished steel-and-gold armor (chest-piece, shoulder and arm-guards); delicate shoes were on her feet and a simple but finely crafted sword of the best metals in the universe was sheathed on her back.

There was no way anyone could not know who the woman was the moment the light and dust cleared and all eyes laid on her. Though the most heard were three cries:

"Majesty!"

"Frigga!"

"Mother...!"

And it was, indeed, the Lady Frigga: daughter of Fjörgyn, wife of Odin, mother of Thor and Loki, princess of Vanaheim, Queen of Asgard and Lady of Valhala...

After a cold stare at her husband and a loving look at her oldest son, Lady Frigga moved in the direction of her youngest. The reaction of the family was automatic as they opened the way for her to approach Loki; with her reaching him just as a long, half-sigh half-sob escaped the God of Chaos and he half-collapsed into his mother's arms...

"Mother..." He gasped quietly into her ear. "You're my mother... you really are... you always will be... my mother... I love you..."

So long he'd suffered for the last words he'd said to her, his supposed rejection when she'd challenged him, asking if his denial of Odin's position as his father meant he also rejected her as his mother (of course, back then she hadn't known all she learnt later... how far her husband was willing to go for his selfish idea of what was best... she had known some of it, enough to want to do her best to counteract him, but nowhere near enough).

"I know, my darling boy..." She whispered back in the same loving tone she'd always reserved for him. "I've always known. It's alright my son..."

All of Loki's children smiled brightly at the moment, at the way it all seemed to take a huge burden off Loki's shoulders. Everyone could see it the moment he let go off Frigga, the way he stood tall, proud, serene... in a way he hadn't been for many, many years. Everything that had been revealed that day, and finally the reunion with Frigga, it had allowed his soul to heal in a way it hadn't been able to for so long...

"The Norns said you didn't need to pay any price, because it had already been paid." Phil stated abruptly, turning to look at his wife. "You think that means..."

He didn't need to finish his statement, for Menel soon realized what he meant, and immediately turned to look at her grandmother in shock. Everyone who had heard Phil (which were quite many) were doing the same in fact.

"Mother..." Loki whispered in shocked disbelief. "Did you... really...?"

He didn't even know what to ask, or how.

"Oh my son..." Frigga whispered lovingly. "That day... from the very moment the attack began, I knew that things needed to be done, decisions had to me made. I knew many wouldn't understand it, most wouldn't even see it..."

"You fought for Jane, and that bastard slayed you..." Loki whispered, pained. "And it was..."

'And it was all my fault...' That was what he wanted to say, but Frigga didn't allow him to. She knew what he'd done, but she didn't hold him responsible, she just hoped once she explained the decisions she'd made that day, he would understand too:

"It is true I fought and I died." She nodded, her tone the most soothing, loving, ever. "Everything that happened that day, I chose. I knew the battle was coming, I knew the likeliest paths the future had, and with that in mind, I made my choice. And as much as I regret causing you, all of you, so much pain and grief... I do not regret the choice itself. Because I did what I did knowing it would be for the best, in the end." She caressed Loki's face as she added. "In the end, I chose to fight so that she could live, but I chose to die so that you would live..."

She...Jane... and him... Loki.

She had fought for Jane, and died for Loki...

"What...?!" Loki was too shocked to properly scream his confusion and denial.

If she was honest, at least with herself, it was something Menel had always wondered. According to everything she'd read, Lady Frigga was not only a queen, she was also a warrior-lady in her own right, knew how to do battle, and had done so in her youth (which made one wonder why Asgard was so shocked at the idea of women like Sif and Halle wanting to be warrior-ladies themselves). Still, it had made her wonder about the battle. She'd seen it in her dreams, once, and something about it just hadn't seemed right to her. Like... like it'd been too easy, almost as if, from the start, Lady Frigga had given up, chosen to die rather than fight. And there it was: the truth about it, and the reason...

"I fought for Jane." Frigga clarified. "She's so young, and an innocent. One who would have ended paying with her life simply for being a woman of science, for her continuous search for answers. Odin did not give her life the value it deserved, but I did; and it had nothing to do with her race, or her position, simply because one of my sons loved her." She turned to look over her shoulder, at Thor. "That was more than enough reason for me to fight for her..."

"Thank you mother..." Thor called respectfully, love shining in his eyes.

"And you, my darling boy..." Frigga went on as she turned back to him. "I know you had reason to doubt your place in my life once, and I will never regret anything more than I do that. You are my son Loki... you have been from the very moment the Allfather placed you in my arms. Even when he told me not to grow too attached, that he had plans for you; even when I believed those plans to be for us to unite two kingdoms through you and Thor rather than something more sinister; nothing he could have said or done would have ever made me love you any more, or less than I did from the start. From the moment you first laid on my arms you became my son, and nothing else mattered."

"Mother..." Loki whispered in a half-sob.

"I saw your eyes, that day, when Thor brought you back after the attack on Midgard." She went on. "I saw the way they changed. There was a fire in them, in you, as you were escorted into the palace, heavy with chains. I knew your magic, those chains would have never been enough to hold you if you truly wanted to be free... nothing could have held you then. You were just bidding your time, getting ready to make your move. I saw it... yet I didn't realize the mistake I was doing until I stepped into view. Until your eyes met mine and I saw that fire go out. I realized then you wouldn't fight for yourself, not with me there. I had ruined your one chance to carry out your plan, simply because I was too eager to see you again, to hold you in my arms, that I hadn't realized how you wouldn't want me in danger."

"More that I wouldn't have wanted you to see me lose my head when the Eihenjar went into action to honor their dead King." Loki didn't bother trying to hide what his intentions had been at the time, and what he knew the consequences would have been.

"Yes." Frigga didn't care for lies in that moment either. "It pained me, to see you give up like that. I promised myself then, I would find a way." She shook her head. "It took me a year to realize it, that it was my presence there, my visits, that were keeping you from acting."

"To be fair, it was also your visits that were keeping me sane." Loki deadpanned.

"I know my boy..." Frigga nodded. "I also knew that if I allowed things to remain as they were you would lose yourself, piece by piece, until there would be nothing left of my beloved son. At first I knew not how to help you, I knew it was more than just a matter of the cell you were in, you could have gotten out of there at any time..." She shook her head. "The words I said to you that day, when I asked you if I wasn't your mother... I know I hurt you. It was a desperate attempt to make you react. I thought if you truly stopped seeing me as your mother then you would have no more reason to hold back..." She sighed. "Such a fool I was."

"You were only trying to help me." Loki said softly in understanding.

"That I was." Frigga agreed. "I might not have always done the right thing, but I always tried to do my best by you, you and Thor both."

"We are fortunate to have you as our mother." Loki declared proudly.

"I knew from the start that I needed to protect Jane Foster." Frigga explained. "Odin cared not for her, only for what was inside her, Thor was busy with the trouble in the prisons and..."

"And I wasn't there to help you..." Loki finished for her, self-loath obvious in his voice.

"It wasn't your fault." Frigga assured him. "I had no fear of war, even if it'd been many a year since I last was in one. Then Malekith came, and I fought him, came close to defeating him, until the Kursed appeared..."

"Why did you not escape?" Hela blurted out. "You could have saved yourself..."

"I could have, but what difference would that have made then?" Frigga agreed. "We would be exactly were we'd begun." She shook her head, touching her son's cheek. "It was my hope that my death would push Odin into seeing the truth, into giving you a second chance. And... sacrifice has always carried great power." The admission shocked everyone. "In my last moments I offered my life to the Higher Powers, that it may serve when it was needed the most." She turned to smile at the half-elven girl. "And that moment came when my beautiful granddaughter called on the Norns for Divine Justice earlier..." Her smile turned just the slightest bit mischievous. "Being in Valhalla also gave me the chance to send back to you the help you needed, when you needed him most." She smiled at Phil. "I honestly did not prevent for things to turn exactly this way, but I'm glad they did... All of you together, you are a miracle."

"We're all we are thanks to you, Grandmother..." Meneliel whispered with a teary smile.

Really, the woman had just told them that she'd pretty much let herself die in a most painful way, just for a chance that her sacrifice might save her son and his family one day.

The family took a moment for a quick but heart-felt hug before Lady Frigga turned back to where the Norns (and the Aesir) were still waiting.

"You have my gratitude for giving me this chance, my ladies." The Queen said with a respectful nod. "I have now said my piece."

"That you have." Verdandi agreed.

"All truths have been revealed." Skuld added.

"All secrets unveiled." Urd complimented.

"Now it's time for judgement to be passed." The three finished in unison.

"Honorable Ladies." Odin called unexpectedly. "With all due respect, the... Lady Meneliel was allowed to speak for her father, shouldn't I be granted the opportunity to have someone do the same?"

Some people probably would swear that the Norns actually arched a brow (each) at those words, yet when Verdandi spoke, she was perfectly cordial:

"Of course Allfather, that is your right." The Mother agreed amiably.

With what probably was supposed to be a magnanimous aura, the Allfather turned around, looking at the army of Eihenjar who'd followed him to the valley, most of which wouldn't look at him, not even Tyr; though somehow he seemed to miss that. In the end, predictably, Odin's eyes laid on his son; what wasn't quite as predictable (at least not to him) was Thor's response.

"No." The God of Thunder stated in the most solemn voice anyone had ever heard from him.

"My son?" Odin called, as if believing that his choice of adress would change Thor's mind.

"No, Allfather." The blonde's own choice of address showed his choice. "Not this time. All these years I've stood by your side, watched you, watched everyone look down on my brother, make him feel less. To the point where he doubted his place at my side, as my equal... then he lost his way, and I lost my center. But never again. I now know my place, and I'm no longer afraid to stand by my convictions. My place is by my brother's side, as it was always meant to be."

"He's not your brother!" Odin called loudly, desperately, in a way so reminiscent of how Loki himself had stated pretty much the same at one point. "He never was!"

"But he is my brother, always has been, always will be." Thor retorted with a quiet intensity. "It matters not if we did not come from the same womb; we were raised together, side by side; we played together, fought together... we are brothers by a covenant of blood, and that is much more important than the color of our skins."

Having said that Thor calmly went to stand by his brother and family; after a couple of seconds' hesitation, the Warriors Three followed after him, going to stand by Sif, who looked at them with an 'about-damn-time' expression.

"This is all your fault!" Thor roared at Meneliel and Loki.

"Actually Allfather, it's yours." Tawariel informed him evenly. "You mistook Lady Santiel's warning for a second prophecy. She warned you that if you tried to prevent her actual prophecy, which was the Coming of Change, then your son would betray you... you did all you did in an attempt to, in your mind, prevent both things from happening. Truth is, in trying to prevent the first, you caused the second. And the first could have never been stopped anyway." She smiled beatifically. "You can twist destiny, but never fate."

"How true..." The Crone agreed with a hint of satisfaction. "And now, the time really has come."

Odin did not get the opportunity to complain or delay them again; the sentence was pronounced before he got chance for anything:

"Odin Allfather..." The three began speaking in sync. "You have betrayed your blood, your people, the Realms you swore to protect and Yggdrassil itself. Divine Justice has been called, and therefore we declare you Forsworn, and we banish you from all those you've hurt by word or deed. May the memories follow you wherever you go, may you see the truth, be conscious of your own sins; so one day you might repent for them and seek atonement. Until then, be gone!"

And on their order, he was. That was the true level of power the Norns, as envoys of the Higher Power, carried; a power that'd never before been seen.

Truth was most present doubted that the Allfather would ever accept his mistakes, much less seek atonement. But at least they no longer had any need to worry about him. They were finally free.

* * *

><p>This is where I was going all along with the whole 'Skye is magic, magic is chaos, therefore is chaos'... Hope you approve.<p>

I know I've made Odin beyond evil in this one. It's funny because I made him a bastard in Nightingale, but he's still been redeemed in a few of those; and will be, eventually, in the main timeline. But after reading so many fics with him being downright evil I couldn't help but want to try my hand at that... I might have taken it too far in the end. I actually hadn't thought of the whole 'that's why he truly adopted Loki' until recently, but it fit everything else so beautifully, and it allowed me to give a twist to Odin's plans and at the same time explain why he's been wanting to destroy Loki's children all along yet never did anything to Loki himself...

About the Norns... in my head they're a mix of the actual Norns and the Greek Fates, like I said before (with a hint of Oh My Goddess thrown in before I just cannot help but think about that anime whenever I think about those sisters...). Their positions are based on what I found on a website, which explained the names of the Norns as I do in the fic and their function: not past, present and future; but past, present and necessity. Also, from there I got the difference between fate (written and unchangeable... and a Greek concept), and destiny (dynamic, volatile and always evolving... the actual Norse version and what concerns the Norns). If you're interested the website is:

So, no battle... yeah, I hope you weren't waiting for an epic confrontation 'King Arthur' style... I'm bad at those. Sometimes (very rarely) I'm capable of writing a believable fight (I liked how the fight between Skye and the Winter Soldier, before he was fully saved, went), but most of the time I'm no good. Also, it's one thing writing one battle, another writing a veritable war (there's a reason I've been avoiding those like crazy). Finally, lets be logical here, had there been a war, people on both sides would have had to die, and I just didn't have it in myself to kill any of Loki's children... not after all it took to bring them all together. So, no epic war.

"I chose to fight for her, but I chose to die for you"... that phrase had been in my notes practically since I began writing Lokidottir. I always knew I wanted to give a new meaning to Frigga's death. And I think like Menel, like it just doesn't fit with who the Queen was supposed to be, the experience she was supposed to have.

I hope you like the way I've woven everything together. I'm no Frigga but it's been hard work being able to justify every tiny detail in a way that's logical enough with the original MCU and everything else I've built from it.

Oh, one more thing. What Meneliel sings at the beginning of the chapter if the first verse (in English at least) of the song _Doomsday_ by the band _Globus_. I think it reflects perfectly what Ragnarok is for me (got all these thoughts and feels about such topics in my head ever since I wrote my final paper for my grad studies on 2012, the Mayan Calendar and the 'End of Days' -it was awesome!-).

Next chapter: explanations, consequences, and people begin to find their place now that Ragnarok is off the table (at least for now!) Now that the threat has passed is time for Menel to begin to consider who she really is...


	5. Warrior Princess

**Chapter 5. Warrior Princess**

For several seconds, after Odin was gone, nobody moved. Loki and his family were still on guard, just in case, but the Aesir were simply too shocked by all the revelations, and the fact that they hadn't the slightest idea of what to do anymore...

"Queen Frigga..." The Norns called next, voices a tinkle of bells (against the cold ice they'd been when speaking to Odin. "Your people need you... Are you ready to be their queen again?"

"I..." The lady straightened up to her ful height before bowing her head to the Norns. "Yes of course my ladies, I'm always ready to serve my realm and the Higher Powers."

"And you shall." The Norns were still speaking in synch. "The Last Queen of Asgard..."

Meneliel couldn't help it, she sagged. It wasn't too obvious, only those closest to her noticed, and they also knew why; if Frigga was to be the last queen, that meant she'd never be. She would never be the Black Queen... it was a relief, somehow even stronger than the one she'd felt when Odin was finally gone.

The Queen got to work instantly, ordering Heimdall to return to his post, Tyr to lead the army back to the barracks and the heralds to let everyone know that there wasn't going to be war (she was sure most of the realm would be celebrating that before long).

"So, Ragnarok won't be coming then?" Fandral asked, half-confused, half-giddy.

"Oh no!" Skuld actually laughed at him. "Ragnarok will come... someday."

That confused several people, not only the blonde.

"The end must always come, it's the nature of all living things, and beings." Urd explained serenely. "Even those that are believed to be immortals in certain realms; the end will come for them too one day, even if it's millennia from now." She shook her head. "All creatures are meant to die someday... they're just not meant to know when, or how. Only we, and the Power we serve, can know such things."

Everyone nodded in acceptance. It was logical; after all, what point was there to life if you spent it worrying about the day you would die? It only made it so you stopped really living. It did not matter if you were meant to live a hundred years, a thousand, or more; you always knew the end would come, eventually, and that was meant to make you value life, because you knew one day it would end, and you needed to make the best of it while you have it. Just like with everything else in the universe.

Knowing that with everything being over the Norns would most likely be leaving at any moment Meneliel hurried to them, bowing deeply at the three.

"You have my most profound gratitude, Honorable Ladies, for what you've done here today." She said in her most sincere voice. "I know not how we would have managed to solve this matter peacefully without your help."

"We're as happy about this outcome as you, little princess." Verdandi told her.

The brunette felt a strange tick at being addressed like that, not because there was anything wrong with it, but rather because it seemed as if she could almost remember something, about someone else calling her by that nickname... confused, she pushed it aside.

"We love helping our favorite people!" The Maiden cried out enthusiastically.

That, certainly called the attention of more than one person.

"Skuld!" The other two called, chastising.

The youngest of the Fates stopped laughing, curling upon herself slightly and letting out what could probably be called chagrin.

"Favorite people?" Hela repeated confused.

"What did she she mean by that?" Azazeal asked almost at the same time.

"There is a reason why we are the only individuals to hold the power we possess." Urd explained in a solemn tone. "We're what's left of the oldest race in the universe..."

"Celestials..." Meneliel breathed out the word before she could fully think about it.

"Exactly." The Crone nodded. "We're the last pure ones. However, there are others out there, certain individuals across the universe that have the blood of the celestials still running through their veins. Enough for us to feel a connection to them." She looked at Loki and each of his children in turn. "You are some of those people, the largest group of such individuals we've ever met. Though none more powerful than you."

Her eyes were looking straight at Meneliel... well, at least that probably explained why she was the one who ended becoming Lady Infinity in the other future (the one that, hopefully, would never come to pass).

"It's not even your magic, or your connection to the earth; though those two certainly give you an advantage." Urd continued. "It's your will. You aren't the kind of person that, when faced with a challenge, thinks of all the things that might go wrong, all the obstacles to be overcome. No, you just tell yourself it must be done, and you go and do it; almost as if you cannot really see all the things that might stop you..."

"Most of the time I've made such decisions it's been in situations where even allowing myself to think of failure would mean death, either to me or someone I loved; that's never been, nor will it ever be an option." The half-elf explained in her most serene voice.

It was the truth. When she'd done her best to race and attract the police's attention before they got to Mia... when she ran away from the Garrows in Chicago and lived on the streets for a while... when she'd been thrown off that bridge and into the water dozens of feet bellow in the border... when she was kidnapped and tortured by an insane ADA in LA... when she was forced to jump into the river while still heavy with chains and hurt... when she raced against time to find Phil before it was too late... when she infiltrated that villa in Italy, alone, because her team had been lost along the way... when all she could feel was pain and all she'd hear was a voice whispering 'hold on' desperately in her ear... time and again throughout their years battling Hydra as they did their best to protect the innocent... and most recently, when her future self had looked at her with empty eyes and told her that unless something changed in three years time her mother would be dead and her father would go insane, bringing about the end of days...

"We've always done our best to be there for those who have a connection to us." Skuld added, her happy tone sobering just slightly as she added. "It hasn't always gone well, like what happened with Malekith in the past, or what's going on right now with Ronan... but I do believe you're my most favorite person ever!"

Meneliel would say that something didn't sound quite right (grammatically) with that sentence, but she did not think it really mattered. It just seemed to be part of Skuld, she was the Maiden, the youngest of the three Norns in many ways, almost seemed like a perpetual child. Urd was the oldest, the experience, the wisdom; while Verdandi was the middle, the mother, the nurturing one. And didn't that bring things to the half-elf's head?

"We've always been there for you, in any way we could." Verdandi said right then, as if she'd just heard Meneliel's thoughts somehow.

Then, to everyone's shock, she pushed back the hood of her cloak, and allowed it to fall open. She was beautiful, and young looking (though certainly no child), skin like peaches, hazel eyes that seemed to shine with the light of the stars, shoulder-blade length hair in very loose curls, in a color that was between dark-auburn and red, a crown of exotic flowers in full-bloom upon her head; she was wearing a Greek-style tunic in shades of green, orange and red, like a patchwork of a garden in bloom.

Urd and Skuld followed her lead. They were redheads too, with eyes more or less like Verdandi's, but there were differences too: the lines on Urd's face showed someone older (though she didn't look what most would consider old, more like well-aged), and her hair was longer, lighter and silver in some parts, while her tunic was a mix of the darkest red, brown and amber; Skuld for her part was the image of perfect youth, her skin bright and unblemished, hair of the brightest red, to her shoulders, her tunic was a mix of yellow, light green and white.

Most of those still in the valley could only gape in shock, knowing they were the first people in millennia to lay eyes on the Norns as they truly were. Meneliel was shocked too, though for an entirely different reason:

"Miss Matthews...?" She gasped, breathless.

It took a beat or two, but Phil soon realized why his beloved was so shocked; she'd told him more than once about her favorite teacher in middle-school: the history teacher, Miss Matthews. The one who'd confronted Skye when she'd first stopped using the surname Bennett, the one who listened to the young girl cry that she was a Daughter of None, who'd held her through her sobs, who'd promised that same little, broken girl that she'd one day have a family...

"You knew..." Phil murmured. "You always knew how things would turn out for her..."

"Not exactly." Verdandi admitted with a small smile. "Even I am not all-knowing, after all, I am not the Higher Power, only an envoy... and like she said, she's a Child of Chaos, her future can only be guessed at..." She let out a breath. "I knew that her path would cross with that of her family sooner or later, and I knew that both before and afterwards there would be people who would see her, the real her. I hoped she would be happy..."

"That wasn't the only time either." Meneliel commented thoughtfully.

"No, it wasn't." The Mother admitted.

A volunteer at St. Agnes, she wasn't there all the time but would return every so often... a nurse working the night-shift, helping the little girl with the broken arm who couldn't seem to stop crying... a social-worker asking her if she was happy having just one Papa and two siblings (there was no mom in the family)... a waitress in some small dinner secretly giving her a little more to eat than what she could pay... a woman in the highway, offering to take her out of the rain and drive her to the next town for free...

Every single time it had been her, Verdandi, and Skye had never noticed... so it wasn't only SHIELD that had been protecting her her whole life, the Norn too...

"Thank you..." She whispered.

For a few moments she didn't know what else to say, and then she remembered something, a thought she'd had years before, right after finding out about China, and Agent Avery, and how she'd been moved around not because nobody wanted her, but for her own safety.

"I once wondered if I would ever see you again." The half-elf admitted quietly, emotionally. "I wondered, if I tried, would I be able to find you? Wanted to see you, to see how you were, tell you that you were right, that I found a family... or a family found me... And now, now I have so many people..." She half-chuckled, half-sobbed. "Though I guess you already knew."

"I knew." Verdandi nodded. "And nothing has ever made me happier than to see you find your place, than to see absolute joy light your face..."

Meneliel didn't say anything else, she'd no words; and while a part of her knew she was probably absolutely insane, she allowed her instincts to take over and she threw herself at the Norn, embracing her tightly, allowing the contact to communicate everything mere words would never be enough to.

Even Verdandi seemed shocked at the move, but she just smiled and embraced the young half-elf back just as tightly. Being who she was, human (or the equivalent) contact was extremely rare for them, and it felt nice, especially coming from someone they (but especially she) had invested so much of themselves, their minds and hearts in. It'd been many years since the 'Mother' had allowed herself to care so much for someone, even one with the blood of the celestials, the last person, in fact, had been Frigga (in the early days). The Maiden's favorite was and had always been Loki; while the Crone (being more aware of the fragility of life than her sisters, in a way) chose not to make such attachments (least she suffer their absence sooner or later).

No words were pronounced, no goodbyes. If given the chance Thor would probably have offered the Norns to have them stay, and they knew; but it wasn't their way. Already they'd stayed longer than they ever planned (they'd done a lot of things never before seen) and the time had come for them to go back to their home, to their duties.

"Never forget." They stated in sync again, even as they began to grow translucent. "We're always around, always watching..."

Everyone bowed their heads, sending their prayers after them. And then the Norns were gone. It was all over and done.

**xXx**

Meneliel's whole body was practically vibrating by the time they made it Asgard's palace. Sif directed a quick look at Loki, who nodded in understanding, before the Goddess of War took hold of the younger woman and began pulling her to the side.

"Come on, this way." She said.

"What...?" The half-elf wasn't expecting that. "Where are we...? Sif! I need to go with my family to the throne room!"

"You need to take care of the adrenaline burning through your veins sooner rather than later." Sif informed her in a no-nonsense tone. "You need to get out that excess of energy or you're going to explode, and that won't be good. And there won't be anything in the throne room for at least a couple of hours, until everyone in the Realm learns what happened in the valley and the vast implications of it all are thoroughly processed." She shook her head. "Which means we've got some time to kill."

"Very well." The brunette agreed grudgingly.

Truth was she knew as much as the older woman how much she needed to fight someone or something to get our that energy. Especially if she was expected to deal with the council afterwards (and she just a feeling at least one person would have words for her, either regarding her visits to Asgard over the last years, her life in Midgard, her heritage, or all three together).

"Will there even be anybody in the training grounds?" The girl asked almost as an afterthought. "I mean, we did all just almost went to war and all..."

"This is Asgard, little princess..." Sif drawled with a light smirk. "There is always someone in the training grounds."

Meneliel had a feeling that was going to become a favored nickname soon.

She was right. There were a number of men in the training grounds, mostly trainees, and the youngest soldiers; most of which the half-elf knew already as she'd sparred against them at one point or another during the last handful of years. Sif, realizing the company they were in the moment they stepped into, whistled loudly.

"Challenge!" She called at her top voice as soon as she had everyone's attention.

It was the usual call of any experience fighter to a number of warriors when they wanted to fight someone, anyone, right then and there.

"Are you really that desperate for a fight, Lady Sif?" The Quartermaster, Lord Val, asked.

"Not for me, for the little princess." Sif answered, signaling to the younger woman by her side.

Yes, that was definitely becoming her nickname.

"Little princess, huh?" Val arched a brow. "We've been hearing a great many things around here, regarding your little princess Sif..." He looked the half elf up and down, assessing. "Some say she's the daughter of Loki, and that together they will destroy the world, other say she's here to save it... several too have called her princess, of several realms too!"

Meneliel didn't answer just stood ramrod straight, head held high, challenging.

"Since when do you care about anything that happens outside of a fight Val?" Sif demanded.

"Fair enough." The older warrior admitted, waving them forward.

The soldiers reacted instinctively, opening the way for the two women, some getting ready themselves to fight. Sif and Meneliel walked to the edge of the bigger mat, the one used to the 'official' sparring matches. There the half-elf stopped, considering things a moment before taking the tunic off smoothly. There were a couple of distant wolf-whistles, though no one dared own up to them when Sif looked around, challenging.

"I'm not about to ruin that tunic in a spar, it was a gift." She explained the other warrior-lady.

Then she proceeded to unzip her boots (easier than the laces the people of Asgard had), and strip herself of all her blades. Leaving her in her short fighting-clothes and with her staff in hand.

"Shall we get started?" She asked cheekily as she walked to the center of the mat.

A quarter of an hour later the last soldier fell to the ground for the last time, unable to continue fighting, leaving Meneliel standing on the center of the mat, body still arched to a side, staff in a diagonal across her body due to her last move.

The fight had been amazing. After the first handful of soldiers had fallen, one by one, in a matter of seconds each, Val and Sif had both pushed the rest to attack her in groups. From there the groups just kept getting bigger and harder, until she was fighting practically nonstop. Some of the soldiers would get back up after being knocked down, others didn't (others couldn't, as they were knocked out). But eventually Meneliel won.

It still wasn't enough, she could still feel the tension of everything that had happened earlier. There had been no battle, no war, no Ragnarok... and as fortunate as that was for everyone, it'd left her with all that energy inside her... and fifteen minutes fighting practically nonstop against training and young soldiers just hadn't been enough.

The men who'd chosen not to fight her, or who'd given up after being pushed down the first time, began working at pulling away the unconscious forms of their companions; they could probably sense that Meneliel wasn't done yet. However, the half-elf's attention was captured by something else right then: her family's arrival.

It appeared that her continued fight had slowly but surely called the attention of a great number of people. To the point where, by the end, she was being watched by most of the army. She didn't care about any of them, though she could hear some commenting on how she had to be cheating as there was no way a girl, and one not even half a century old, could be that good.

The 'little princess' shook her staff a couple of times, activating the enchantment that allowed it to collapse into itself for easy carrying, and placed it in its holster in the small of her back before moving swiftly around the fallen bodies of her opponents in the direction of her family.

"You haven't had enough yet." Loki said the moment he laid eyes on her.

"No." She admitted. "I'm better than I was earlier, but still on a rather short leash."

"If you don't find a worthy opponent I'll fight against you myself." Azazeal assured her.

Meneliel smiled brightly at him. She had sparred against him before, though never all-out and she'd always wanted to, there had to be a reason why he once was the second in command of the Asgardian army...

"Lord Azazeal..." His name was soon on everyone's lips.

"Well look what the tide has dragged back!" Val called loudly, approaching.

"Tis good to see ya, Valerius." Azazeal said in a very formal tone, bowing his head.

He was the only one who called the quartermaster by his full-name, original name (no one knew for sure which). Truth was the two were Eihenjar, had arrived to Asgard within a short time of each other... and while Azazeal's name had been given to him during his stay in Valhala (after he forgot his original one, and all about his first life, other than he was from Midgard and had been a warrior), Val did remember some things, and had kept something of his own name. Rumor had it he'd once been Midgardian too... though no one knew for sure.

"Such a long time... though I knew you would be coming back one day." Val nodded, satisfied. "This place has not been the same since you and yours left." He meant the Nephilim. "Mighty boring things have gotten." He smirked, before turning to Hela and bowing his head in respect. "Princess Hela..."

"Lord Val." Hela nodded in respect.

He was probably one of the very few individuals in Asgard who'd never thought less of her for her parentage.

"Hey!" Fandral called loudly as he pushed his way through. "Has anyone seen Volstagg?!"

Heavy silence was his answer.

"I'm afraid we were bearers of bad news for him." Hela admitted quietly.

"Lady Halle has joined the valkyries in Valhalla." Azazeal announced in the most formal voice he could muster. "She's done great honor to her name and her father's, fighting the Hunter Odin sent after our family. She managed to eliminate him shortly before the wounds took her too. Sadly, my match's sister was nowhere close enough to aid in healing her in time."

"And there's no way to be sure she'd have been able to." Hela added. "Not with the kind of poison that was used..."

"The little spitfire is dead...?" Fandral gasped.

It'd been a long time since he, since anyone in Asgard had seen Halle Volstaggdottir, but none of them had expected to suddenly be hearing about her death...

"Who?" Hogun wanted to know. "Who was it that killed her?"

"Yaegar." Azazeal answered calmly. "And there's no avenging quest for you to go on, as I already said, he's dead, Halle saw to it before she herself perished."

"Good for her..." Fandral and Hogun murmured at the same time.

"I suppose Volstagg has gone to take the news to the rest of his family..." Sif guessed.

Azazeal nodded at her. It had been a hard conversation to have with the man, and even harder to hear what he had to say:

"_I never approved, when she told me she was Fenrir's lover, I thought her insane, told her that too. Then when the announcement came, that the three siblings had been condemned for Dark Arts, when I saw her standing by the Allfather's side as an enforcer, I thought that was good. She had chosen right, she'd chosen her people, her King, her family... she was loyal. She wasn't like you..." The old warrior shook his head. "Now I see you here, and I hear what you've said and I wonder if maybe I felt pride at the wrong things all along. Because... maybe if I'd approved of her relationship, she'd have felt secure enough in it to fight for her love, for Fenrir, and even if she'd been exiled with the rest of you... I know you would have taken care of her, and today I would be welcoming her back, instead of receiving news of her passing." He let out a breath. "Hadassah is gonna be devastated..." _

No one had said anything in reply to that, there had been nothing to say. Each of them had made their choices five hundred years before, and several times again since. Halle had forsaken Fenrir, had chosen to become a Hunter. And while in the end she'd redeemed herself, done the right thing, died for it (and been taken into Valhalla for her courageous actions), the connection with Fenrir, and through him with the rest of Loki's family had been lost a long time before. Besides, recently Fenrir only had eyes for one lady... one of less than a handful to have ever visited him in his imprisonment... and the only one not connected to him as family...

"There's going to be a feast tonight." Phil informed his wife. "Queen Frigga has promised to give explanations of today's events then, as well as to explain who all of us are... officially."

"That's going to be a mess..." His lover mumbled tiredly, running a hand through her hair. "Does our family know we're alright...?" She paused, reconsidered. "The rest of the family, I mean?"

"Azazeal and Hela communicated with Casarmi earlier to let her know everything." Phil nodded. "Also so your parents could see the twins were alright. Depending on how things might go tonight we might end up having to stay around a few more days..."

"Ugh..." The half-elf groaned, before pulling her hair back into a loose bun. "I'm going back to the mats. If I'm still this tense when the stupid elders begin running their mouths I might just end up killing someone..."

And that wouldn't be good, regardless of how good it might make her feel... especially if she stopped and thought about how each of those individuals had treated her father during all those years and centuries... (and she knew, she'd seen it!)

"Please, you talk as if you're this great warrior..." Fandral called after her. "You're a girl!"

"So what?" She snarked over her shoulder without stopping. "So is Sif, in case you've missed that Mr. Oblivious, and she's been fighting by your side for centuries!"

"Sif is... Sif!" Fandral replied brokenly.

One thing became obvious then: either Fandral had never seen Sif as a woman, or he'd never really seen her as a warrior. Neither of them was sure just which one, but whichever it was, it just wasn't good. It made Sif livid, however, instead of throwing herself against Fandral, she threw him at Meneliel.

"So you think you are stronger than us simply because we're girls?" She snorted. "Fandral, I could take you down with one arm tied to my back! And so could Menel!"

"As if!" Fandral hissed, taking offense.

"Oh my friend... you don't want to say that..." Thor began with a low chuckle.

"Thor! My friend!" Fandral called dramatically to the other blonde. "You cannot tell me you agree with what Sif is saying! They cannot possibly be stronger than us men!"

"Look at all the bodies strewn around this place and you might want to reconsider your words." Val said good-naturedly, though with a hit of steel.

He knew Fandral's kind, those that saw women as less, simply for being such; in his opinion it was absolutely idiotic. He'd trained Lady Sif himself, from the day the two princes had taken the small girl in too big-clothes and badly-maintained armor to him, after she'd defeated all other aspirants to the guard during the yearly competitions. Most had thought she must have used some kind of sorcery to defeat the other fighters, but Val knew better, he could see the steel behind the girl's eyes, her wish to fight. Her golden hair, which would have been a source of pride for most girls, was a shame for her, a constant reminder of her sex... and then came the day when she arrived to training with her hair raven-black...

It was only time later that Val learnt it'd been Prince Loki's doing; and while most called it a bad prank, trickery, and he'd even been punished for it (especially after he'd said there was no reversing it), Val could see the truth of what he'd done. Loki had given Sif something that allowed the girl to set herself apart from all other Asgardian women. She was no longer another like all the other 'golden ladies', she was the only black-haired woman in Asgard (not counting Hela, who'd hardly been around), and it became a part of her, just like being the goddess of war... The Quartermaster knew she'd come to actually be proud of her hair, though all the same he wondered if she knew why Loki had done it...

"Trickery!" Fandral crowed. "Just like her father!"

"What you call trickery I call sorcery." Meneliel replied sharply. "And it runs through my veins much more easily and naturally than the alcohol you have in yours!"

Laughter rose all around, mostly from the soldiers the half-elf had defeated already. Fandral, obviously, took offense, and immediately moved to the mat.

"Are you sure you wanna do this, little princess?" Fandral used the same nickname as everyone else, but his tone was mocking rather than respectful. "You think you can take on an actual warrior going all out?"

"You're the one who needs to be sure, warrior..." She mocked his title like he'd mocked hers. "Can you take me going all out? Because with me 'all out' is more than just my body, a staff and a dozen blades... it's magic, and chaos and ice..." Her tone turned mischievous. "Maybe you would prefer it if I tone it down, for you..."

Fandral didn't reply, instead he just drew his long blade and threw himself straight at Meneliel. She wasn't even surprised. In fact, she was pretty much laughing like crazy even as she flipped backwards twice to avoid his crazed slashes at where she'd been standing (and really, if she hadn't moved, he'd have killed her!).

That fact did not go unnoticed by anyone in the training grounds, and while most expected Loki to react angrily or even violently, he just laughed.

"Are you alright, brother?" Thor actually asked.

"Brother mine..." For the first time in many years Loki said those words with a smile on his face. "My daughter has been dancing with death far longer than you could imagine possible, she has more than enough experience at this."

"Nowadays she just considers it fun." Phil admitted with a rueful smile.

On Midgard people would have looked at him as if he were crazy (well, anyone who didn't work for SHIELD and therefore ended up 'dancing with death' practically as often as Skye did), in Asgard no one batted an eyelash. Thor worried, though he knew it was his instinct as an uncle; while his warrior side felt the utmost respect for Meneliel and what she was obviously capable of (he remembered her fight against Amora...)

The battle between Fandral and Meneliel went on for longer than the 'spar' against all the junior soldiers. Soon the centered mats stopped being important, as the two began moving around, using everything around them either to help themselves or hinder the other. The half-elf soon realized her staff was inconvenient for such a fight and threw it aside.

"How do you expect to fight without a weapon?" Fandral hissed at her. "Or are you just going to give up already?"

"Who says I'm without a weapon?" Meneliel smirked at him, all teeth.

Fandral barely noticed, from the corner of his eyes, the blades flying past him, each on one side of his head. He focused once again just in time to see his opponent raise her hands, catching one dagger on each, twirling them expertly.

"What in the abyss was that?!" Fandral snapped.

"This is me using my abilities." Meneliel informed him calmly. "But don't worry, I won't be using my magic to attack you with a dozen blades without touching them, I could, but I won't. I need not that much of an advantage, and spirits know you would see that as an excuse to swear up and down that my victory somehow doesn't count!"

Fandral snapped his mouth shut, most likely because he was about to say something like that. Instead he threw himself at the brunette again, who jumped up from her crouch, doing a one-handed cartwheel before moving in to attack him.

The spar/battle continued.

Fandral actually managed to give Meneliel a number of cuts, as did she; yet nothing seemed to be enough to slow her down. The blonde could hardly believe it. He was a hardened warrior, had been in countless battles; had pretty much been forced to learn to endure, to be injured and keep moving, keep fighting; because stopping during a fight, even for a fraction of a second, could be lethal. The girl acted the same way he did, yet there was no way she had his experience, it just wasn't possible, she simply wasn't old enough! And she was a girl!

Eventually Fandral played dirty (because he wasn't about to lose). He managed to twist himself out of one of Meneliel's more elaborate moves (she was mixing tai-chi, jujitsu, boxing and her personal favorite, capoeira, because they were all styles the blonde warrior did not know, and the mixes she came up with were quite unpredictable), before throwing her down to the ground (they were nowhere near the mats) hard enough the brunette actually needed a second to take a breath; something the other took advantage of, pining her down with his whole body... in a way that was more than a little inappropriate.

Meneliel reacted instinctively, immediately, trying to shake him off her, but his position gave him the advantage; the bastard knew it, and was enjoying it, by his lascivious smirk.

"What, little princess you don't like it?" He asked her cheerfully, before lowering his voice to a tone he probably believed was seductive. "Or maybe you're just afraid you will!"

"As if!" Meneliel snorted, obviously unimpressed. "If you think what you're doing is turning me on, seducing me or whatever, I'm afraid you're as far from your objective as you are from actually getting a woman to go out with you more than once." She kept talking before he could reply. "In any case, I have a husband, a match, though you probably have no idea what it means. In our case the bottom line is: we belong to each other, and Neither Of Us Shares!"

Fandral was ready to snark at her the moment she shut up even for a second, or he thought he was... until he suddenly found his light armor freezing up and his skin beneath it going too cold in less than two seconds.

"What the...?!" He began cursing her even as he jumped off of her. "What was that?!"

She did not answer, not at first, instead she just stood, silently and fluidly, allowing everyone to see her blue-tinted skin.

"You're a Jotun!" Fandral practically screeched.

"Yeesss..." She drawled. "Did you miss the part where I claimed to be a descendant of Laufey? Or did you think I'm the kind of girl who claims lineages, especially those of beings like that one, just for kicks?"

Fandral didn't fully understand the last sentence, but he got the idea. Truth was, he hadn't been paying that much attention to what the girl was saying at the time; he'd been there to fight, not to listen to elaborate speeches... he hadn't thought any of it to be important... until the three Norns appeared out of thin air in answer to the girl's calls!

"But don't worry," she continued as her skin turned golden again. "I won't defeat you with that skin, it really wouldn't be fair to you..."

Fandral was so furious by her repeated 'reassurances', her mentions of all the ways she could defeat him and didn't, that he began attacking her with wild abandon. No finesse, no planning. It'd been Meneliel's objective all along.

It took several more minutes but eventually Fandral rushed at her hard and fast; the girl was ready for him and used his own momentum to flip him over her hip, making him crash hard on the hard ground; then before he got the chance to fully realize what had happened, she rolled him onto his stomach and knelt on his back, holding one arm down beside him and twisting the other against his back so he couldn't free himself. She might not be quite as strong as him, especially not in her elven form, but she was far more clever.

"What the...?!" He began cursing her again.

"You're done." Meneliel declared satisfied, though without moving an inch.

Fandral cursed yet again but finally stopped struggling.

"Fine, move." He stated.

"No." She refused, something he probably wasn't expecting. "Say it."

"What?" He either didn't know what she meant, or was trying to pretend he didn't.

"I know how formal spars work around here, don't think I don't." She stated seriously. "It's not over until one is unconscious or concedes. You haven't."

"I'm not about to give up against you!" Fandral blurted out in indignation.

"Then I'm not moving." The half-eld said simply. "You're not defeating me Fandral, and I'm not letting you get out of this easily. I'm not letting you go around saying that I didn't really win this spar because I did not follow Aesir rules. So you either surrender right here, right now, or I knock you out, your choice."

"I'll never... surrender to a girl..." Fandral half-gasped.

Meneliel shook her head, half-tired (of his talk, not the fight), half-amused, as she pressed on his back a bit more, making it so his breath became shallow.

"For the last time..." She warned him. "Admit defeat."

"Ne...ver..." He insisted.

Meneliel didn't say a word, instead she simply released one of his arms and used to fingers to jab at the back of his neck with precision. Fandral slumped, allowing the half-elf to swiftly rise from her position without a problem.

At first no one said a word, they all just looked at the unconscious blonde and then the brunette woman in turn as she caught a towel Val threw her way and used it to dry the excess sweat on her skin before wounding it around the back of her neck.

"Is he alright?" Thor asked eventually.

"Just fine." She assured her uncle. "The fool wasn't going to give up and I decided it would be less hurtful, both to his pride and his health if I just knocked him out and ended our misery, rather than wait for the lack of oxygen to make him faint instead."

"What did you do exactly?" Val asked, curious, he'd never seen such a move.

"Pressure points, it's part of a number of martial arts in Midgard." The girl answered with a light shrug before adding, looking at her family. "Natalia taught me."

Phil nodded, it was only to be expected, no one was better at such things than the red-haired Russian (there was a reason Clint, James and even at times Stark joked that she could kill you even just with her thighs...).

Deciding to give just a bit more of a show, Meneliel took a deep breath before waving her hands in the air. No one moved, but everyone could see a dozen blades fly through the air, all but two from the side of the main mat (where she'd left them from the start of the spars), the last two flew at her from the spots where she'd lost them during the most frenzied part of the fight; finally, her staff did the same from the spot where she'd dropped it more-or-less carelessly. As they reached her the weapons spun slowly around her; then, another flick of her wrists and each of them went to the right part of her body, holsters strapping to her body automatically.

"Show-off..." Her brothers muttered good-naturedly.

The boots and tunic too, flew to her, but Meneliel chose not to put them on, she didn't see a point. So instead she held them in her arms as she walked away from the unconscious Fandral and to where her family was waiting.

"Are you alright?" Her match asked, even as he took the boots and tunic from her arms.

"Fine." She assured him calmly. "Right now I just want a bath."

"We've been assigned a room in the royal wing." Phil informed her. "We can bathe, relax a while and then get ready for the feast."

"Sounds like a plan." She agreed.

All the observers parted to let them pass. None of the saying a word to them, though some could be heard whispering about her proficiency as a warrior, and Fandral's own attitude. They were already several hallways away when a little detail finally registered in the half-elf's mind; the witnesses hadn't been calling her 'little princess', no, they'd been calling her 'Warrior Princess'...

**xXx**

At sunset the feast began. The family entered the huge dinning room in pairs: At the front was Thor, in his formal leather and red silk, escorting his mother: Queen Frigga in a golden dress; close behind them were Loki and Tawariel, the first in his green and dark leather, while Tawariel was in a pale-yellow elven dress; Hela and Azazeal were next, in blue and black respectively; Sleipnir and Jormungandr were in more formal versions of the clothes they'd been wearing when first taking human shape. The biggest surprise was Fenrir, also in a formal version of his previous attire, escorting none other than Sif who, for the occasion, was actually wearing a pale-blue dress. Finally, Meneliel and Phil closed the group, in her lilac elven dress and his charcoal suit.

The Queen very formally presented each of them, their connections, before explaining in a very elaborate and almost poetic manner what had happened that morning in the Valley of Vigrid; everything, including the would-be-Ragnarok, the crimes her husband committed, as well as the Norns' arrival and decisions. It was a pretty tale, it actually sounded so wonderful that the brunette was quite sure she would have trouble believing it to be real if she hadn't been there herself.

What no one saw coming was when one of the guests stood up, only to reveal himself as Lord Arphenion, wishing to congratulate Loki and his family, as well as to offer his blessing to all of them, to his family... Tawariel was beyond shocked.

As it turned out, Lady Frigga had been sneaky. She'd sent a message to Thenidiel, informing the lady of what had taken place in Asgard, and the feast that was to take place that night. Alfheim of course had to send representatives to be aware of everything going on; it was only convenient for Arphenion to offer himself as one of Lady Thenidiel's escorts.

While at first things had been a bit tense, soon everything seemed to ease out. Most Courtiers remembered Lady Tawariel and everything she'd done for Asgard and its people in the last years, she was well-loved; and while just as many people had their doubts about Loki, seeing the way he looked at his wife and at his children, seeing him at peace rather than causing mischief and mayhem at every turn somehow was enough to make most decide to give him a chance. It was an opportunity Loki was honestly thankful for.

Surprisingly enough, there was no trouble coming from the council; most, in fact, hardly said a word through the party, aside from the usual pleasantries at least.

"I think someone informed them of your threats about killing someone." Fenrir quipped with a wolfish (pun intended) grin.

Menel gestured somewhat rudely at him (seeing as he was too far away for her to get violent with him), though Sif empathized with the half-elf and smacked the shape-shifter herself.

"Ouch!" Fenrir moaned exaggeratedly. "What was that for?"

"For antagonizing your sister needlessly." Sif pointed out calmly.

"It hurt..." The man pouted at the warrior-lady.

"Please..." The war godddess drawled cheekily. "As if you haven't had worse than that..."

"Well yes, but it still hurts..." His voice turned coy. "Won't you kiss it better...?"

Sif actually spluttered at the blatant flirting. She'd known the Lokison was interested (hard not to with how he kept looking at her with such intensity...) but she hadn't been expecting him to be so... direct, especially considering how little they knew each other, and hadn't his last lover just died? On the other hand, Halle had left him centuries before, and as far as he was concerned she'd betrayed him; and maybe precisely because he'd already been alone so long he'd decided it was better to take a chance than let it go... So she decided to take the risk to and to hell (no pun intended) with what anyone else thought.

"And if I do that... what will you do for me?" She asked him very quietly, breath on his ear.

Fenrir actually went red at that, Halle had never used that tone on him; suddenly he was as afraid as he was excited regarding where all the flirting might lead them to.

Eventually all the food was consumed and mead began flowing like water in a river. Thankfully the elves had brought wine with them, which Loki, Tawariel, Meneliel, Phil and Hela preferred to mead (and still most of them made sure to be careful how much they drank, as elven wine was as sweet as ice-wine, yet as alcoholic as the strongest human one).

Music started then. Instrumental, fluid, dancing music. What seemed to surprise everyone, was when Loki was the first to stand, take his wife's hand in his and walk to the center of the dance floor... apparently he'd never before been one for such celebrations.

"Never before did I have as much cause for celebration." He would admit when questioned.

Watching those two dancing... for their family it was a confirmation of everything they'd known since the first day they'd known them (whether that'd been a day or almost six years...) for all others it was a revelation, of things that had always been there, yet never seen. The care with which Loki guided Tawariel across the dance-floor, twirled her around, pulled her to him only to move again, never getting in each other's way, never missing a step. It was yet one more proof of how perfect a match they were, how they fit in every way...

"I didn't know Loki could dance like that..." Thor admitted quietly. "Though something tells me I probably should have..."

"We elves enjoy dancing." Vöronwe informed him. "It's in doing things like dancing and singing that we find how compatible we are with others." He shook his head wistfully. "She and I were never that compatible... I'm not that good a dancer."

It was true, and as much as a part of him had hurt at Tawariel's leaving (the fact that she'd rather give everything up than marry him), there was another part of him that had always known they just weren't right for each other. He was serious, ordered, lived for rules and traditions; she was adventurous, an explorer, the kind who wanted to see the universe, to experience everything she could, a free spirit through a through. There was a reason Loki was called Sky-Treader... he could give Tawariel everything she'd dreamt of; and in return she gave him the stability he needed sometimes, she balanced him out. Yes, they were most definitely the perfect match.

Eventually the first song ended. In unison three more couples stood from their places to join Loki and Tawariel in the dancing floor: Phil and Meneliel, Azazeal and Hela, Arphenion and Thenidiel; each wonderful partners too.

By the third song even more couples joined, though there weren't really that many in Asgard that were accustomed to such dances. Still, it was nice.

Eventually the dancing lessened and talking became more common. Elaborate retelling of great battles, quests and the like. Jormungandr in particular took great joy in telling stories about Atlantis; the kingdom of merpeople hidden in the depths of the midgardian oceans, of which Arthur, better known as Aquaman of the Justice League, was King. Jor was well-known by them, had helped them more than once. Still, his favorite story was about the time he'd rescued the two young SHIELD scientists; though, paying attention to him, his focus was actually in their bravery as they set to spy on a recently discovered traitor, were found and forced onto their vessel, only to be thrown off the flying transport and deep into the sea with no escape when they refused to surrender to their enemy. According to Jor, he'd simply 'been in the right place at the right time', gotten the chance to save the two when they needed it most (Jormungandr was really modest like that, got very shy when people began complimenting him... as if he did not know what to do with the compliments...).

"My lady Meneliel..." Hogun called at some point.

She'd gone back to sit down and was in that moment slowly sipping some iced-wine (she'd iced it herself, as she preferred it cold).

"Yes?" She nodded, showing her attention was on him.

"There is one thing that's been... bothering us, my lady." The Warrior admitted. "Regarding your battle against Fandral..."

"Ah..." She nodded, waiting.

She knew who he was, one of the 'Warriors Three', like Fandral. She wondered if he was going to accuse her of using some 'trickery' to defeat his companion. She never really expected what he actually said to her.

"You received a great many cuts during your fight, princess." Hogun explained. "And hardly reacted to them at all... I just found it odd. Were you unaffected?"

It took a second or two, but eventually Meneliel got it. The Warrior did not understand how she'd kept on fighting despite all the wounds... he didn't understand whether because of how young she was, or the fact that she was female...

"They affected me." She answered calmly. "I felt every cut as clearly as anyone would, Warrior Hogun. I'm not invulnerable, or immune to pain, if that's what you're wondering. I do have a high threshold for it, though, it's become a necessity with my life."

"I'm afraid I do not understand." The Warrior admitted.

"I know that for people in realms like Asgard and Alfheim, where you grow to live thousands of years, being 29 is practically a child..." She began.

"Twenty nine?!" Several people explained, realizing she was revealing her actual age.

"Yes." She nodded, dismissing that detail as unimportant. "For me, that's my life up to now, and I've been through a lot in that time. Some things were good, others bad, and more than a few included pain in many ways..." She took a deep breath before revealing. "The most important experiences where it comes to that were two: first, when I was 23 I was kidnapped by a madman and tortured for several hours. I was submitted to cigar-burns, electrocution and light-cuts in his attempt to make me reveal information to him about a man I called family, a man who'd given me his protection, who took me in at a time when I was alone. I was never going to give him up. So I endured, and eventually I was rescued."

"Where was your family at this time?" Vöronwe asked, horrified.

"I would ask you which family, since right now I have a great many people I call family, but I know who it is you speak of." Meneliel smiled sadly at him. "And the answer is that both my parents were imprisoned, here in Asgard, on orders of Odin. The basics you've heard already, when I was in Alfheim, if you wish for more details... you will have to ask it of them, as it's not my story to tell."

Vöronwe nodded in respect and understanding.

"And the second?" Tyr asked, interesting yet almost fearing the answer.

"The second was six months later, actually." Meneliel admitted somewhat grimly. "As has been explained before, I am part of SHIELD, an organization in Midgard devoted to protecting people from dangers most don't even know exist. I'd just joined shortly before. That particular day we were undercover, tracking a package that was to be delivered to a particularly dangerous man. We were betrayed by people who should have had our backs, and because of that most of the team was lost on the way. By the end only Leo and I remained on the train. We couldn't give up, there was no way of knowing if we would ever have another chance at catching that guy... and we both wanted to believe that the team would catch up with us. So we followed the package, and the man, to a villa. Despite the fact that he was just a techie, and I was still a trainee... Once there we activated the tracker so the team would find us, then the we split. Leo got working on disabling the vehicles, so the people inside wouldn't be able to get away again, and I went inside to find the man we were mainly after... and to get the package." She shook her head. "They were expecting us, expecting me... Quinn was waiting for me in the cellar, he disarmed me, made this awful speech about knowing things and winning and lord-knows what else, the man is quite insane... Then he shot me, twice, point blank, in the stomach..."

She didn't notice when she began rubbing the exact spot with a hand, until her match was by her side, his hand above hers.

"You alright?" He asked her quietly.

"Yes." She nodded, but silently urged him to stay while she finished.

"You need not go on..." Hogun began, unsure.

Asgardians loved stories of battle, the adventure, the tension, the blood... but he could see that this particular story was still hard on the young woman. Still, she refused to back down.

"The bastard left me there to bleed out on that cellar, then left." She continued, a bit more sharply than entirely necessary, though no one commented on it. "I blacked out for a little while, but eventually woke up. When I did I knew I had two options: I could stay laying there, where I was and die quietly; or I could fight tooth and nail to live. I've never been a coward, or a quitter. So I pressed one hand against the holes in my stomach, in an attempt to stop the bleeding, though I knew it would never be enough... then I used my other arm to drag myself across the cellar floor and to the door, managed by some miracle to open it and call for help." She shivered. "I was mostly unconscious once again when I vaguely heard someone telling me to hold on..."

No one missed the way Phil flinched.

"I was that person..." His admittance surprised everyone. "Like she and Fitz were planning, we followed the tracker, and were almost too late. When I saw all the blood on that floor... I could hardly believe she was still alive, and I refused to contemplate the possibility of her dying. We did all we could, yet it wasn't enough..."

"Nana found me." The half-elf clarified to everyone's confused faces. "Apparently when I was dying I somehow managed to call for her. Adar had found her and released her from the prison Odin had kept her in for over 23 years just a month before... they immediately went to find me. It was Adar that saved my life, after the midgardian doctors could do nothing more to save me."

"I would have done anything to ensure she was saved..." Phil admitted quietly.

Anything, probably even track down the thing that had been used to save him (which was the very reason the Clairvoyant had ordered her shot, and why they'd faked her death to prevent something like that from happening again, but still).

"Anyway." Meneliel chose to pull their attention back to, what she thought, should be the whole point. "After I managed to endure something like that... believed me when I tell you than minor cuts and scratches in the middle of a spar are nothing..."

They really were. Even if Asgardians couldn't fully comprehend someone having that much battle experience at barely 29 years age... it was the truth; and as hard as it might have been at the time, she wouldn't change it for anything. She loved her life very much, the good and the bad together, it had been the experiences that had made her the person who she was in that moment, after all. That had made her... her.

**xXx**

The feast was a success. Even then the family spent the next few days going around Asgard, most of the time just sight-seeing, though every so often they would stop to help someone; it was their way of driving the point home, the point of: 'we're not going to destroy the world...'.

While some people were still full of doubt, mostly remembering the stories Odin had made so very public, Tawariel provided a good contrast. She softened him in ways that while not obvious visibly, could still be perceived and helped put people at ease.

At first some Aesir showed unease at Sleipnir, having known him for centuries as a horse and then suddenly seeing him like them... but in the end he was simply too kind and cute for anyone to stay defensive for long around him. Also, he absolutely adored children, and they adored him in turn. It definitely helped that he was strong enough to carry three or four at the same time and swing them around playfully (perfectly safe); the shrieking laughter of the young ones soon set everyone at ease. Some of his siblings thought it was because, deep down, Sleipnir himself never stopped being a kid (or, on the other hand, never before really had a chance at being one), so he felt most comfortable with them.

Also, by that point it seemed like most people in the realm knew what had happened between Meneliel and Fandral in the training grounds; most people gave her respectful nods as she passed, others simply opted to give her a wide berth.

"You know what's absolutely ridiculous?" Loki commented at one point.

"What?" Tawariel asked, brow arched, suspecting her match was aiming for mischief, again...

"So many people around here are absolutely terrified of our daughter!" Loki snorted. "I mean, honestly, they're far more afraid of her than they're of me by this point!"

"And you take offense to that, brother?" Thor inquired.

He probably thought he didn't like people being afraid of his daughter... poor man was trying, but he still didn't fully understand how his brother's mind worked... at least he wasn't giving up.

"Yes!" Loki moaned dramatically. "What about me?! I'm her father!" His smirk turned predatory. "Who do they think she learnt everything from?"

Everyone around them laughed, though they knew it was at least half true... Skye had learnt a lot from people who'd fostered her, or simply whom she'd known growing up, moving around all the time; she'd learnt things good and bad. She knew how to pick-pocket, had scammed for both good and bad reasons (though always bad people, or even just people who had so much money they wouldn't miss it), she could lie with a perfectly straight face, could both give a punch and take it (and more than one), and of course her hacking. All those were things she'd learnt before ever meeting her birth parents... even the motto she lived by 'Per la famiglia, tutto...' she owed it to Papa Toretto, not to Loki. And yet, meeting Loki and Tawariel, knowing her birth family, the story of her past, of how exactly she'd ended up where she was... that had given her a confidence she'd never possessed before. The confidence to be everything she could be, to use everything that had been taught to her throughout the years. It took away the limits she'd put upon herself, believing there was no way she could do it all, be all she wanted... So while Loki may not have taught her 'everything', he still was the one who made it all real, possible...

After a couple of days, long-term plans were being made. For starters the whole family would be traveling to Midgard. There, they were hoping to have a short vacation (at least in the island) before going their separate ways.

Loki and Tawariel had a standing invitation to spend time in Alfheim whenever (as did all of them really, but Tawariel was the one who actually missed the place at times), though mainly they were planning on returning to Asgard and raising the twins there; mostly because they wanted the time it would give them, with the boys growing up as immortals rather than humans... and no one missed the fact that it was the first chance either of them would have to actually raise a child (or, in this case, two), themselves. Everyone knew what had happened with Meneliel; Hela, Fenrir and Jormungandr had been raised mostly by Angrboda; and there was never a chance with Sleipnir at all (curse Odin).

The boys (meaning Jor, Fenrir and Sleipnir) were planning on traveling through the 9 realms (starting with Midgard) to see and explore all they could about each place, hopefully having some adventures in the process; they were going to thoroughly enjoy no longer being imprisoned in any way. Also, Sif had informed them she was going with them, as she wanted to see more of the 9 realms too (especially without having to worry about war); it wasn't like she hadn't traveled with men before, and she was quite sure this group would be more respectful of her than the other one was (she also really wanted to see if the 'thing' there seemed to be starting between her and Fenrir went anywhere... but she was keeping that to herself).

Hela and Azazeal would continue raising Malachi on Midgard, because there was no way they were going anywhere Casarmi couldn't follow (and she was a mortal girl who certainly couldn't follow them to Alfheim or Asgard); and while everyone knew that one day she would have her match, possibly even a family of her own, they were still her family too, and that was the way it was going to stay.

Phil and Meneliel too were going back to Midgard, there was SHIELD and their responsibilities to it, and the Alliance, and their huge family... Maybe a day would come when living on Midgard would no longer be possible for them, either because even the immortals there were no longer enough, or if they simply one day grew tired of the realm, but then they would make the choice. For the time being Midgard, Earth, was their home, the home of their huge, eclectic, slightly-dysfunctional and more-than-a-bit-insane family.

However, before they got a chance to do as planned and just go, a request came for them, from the Council of Elders (they'd actually lost most of their power when Queen Frigga had taken her place as 'Last Queen' of Asgard; but since the realm was big on tradition a few were staying around for the time being).

"Let me see if I understand this correctly." Hela spoke up once the young man-servant finished delivering the intended message. "Those bastards, who just three days ago wanted us dead, now are asking us to go and solve their problems with Jotunheim?!"

The messenger cringed a bit at Hela's vocabulary, and her cold tone, but did not try to correct her, or elaborate further on the message.

"Hey sis!" Meneliel called, taking pity on the man. "Don't shoot the messenger. It's not really his fault the elders are all stupid idiots, too coward to face us with this request."

"True." Hela admitted.

"I was planning on dropping by Jotunheim one of these days anyway." The brunette admitted. "See how things are, that kind of thing. They deserve to know the universe isn't going to end any time soon, same as everyone else, you know?"

"So... you were planning on going to Jotunheim without telling anyone...?" Hela arched a brow at her, obviously not liking the idea.

"Phil probably would have ended coming with me...?" The half-elf offered.

Because really, with everyone knowing the truth there no longer was any need for her to travel secretly, to keep their match on the down-low or whatever; so it was likely that whenever she wanted or needed to travel off-world he would be going with her... and thinking off-world made her wonder about that group both her future-self and the Norns had mentioned, the 'Guardians of the Galaxy'... would they ever meet even if she never became that person? Well, knowing her luck Thanos would be coming after them all eventually anyway... she would have to remember to warn the Queen about that; maybe they could make it so he'd never get more stones that the ones he already had, and find a way to remove his claim from the Mind Gem, just to be safe. It's not like she was the only one capable of fighting him in this timeline; there was her blood family, and others, and she was quite sure she wouldn't be doing any of it alone ever again.

"I'll go." Loki's announcement caught them all by surprise. "Maybe it's time I face this... hopefully I can begin to make amends for my insane attempts to destroy them all..." He smiled self-deprecatingly. "That is, if they don't decide to execute me the moment I set foot on that place..."

"They won't." His youngest daughter assured him. "They understand that the way you were raised makes things hard for you... just give them a chance." She smiled slightly. "Being blue's not that bad, you know?"

She reinforced her words by allowing her skin to gain a blue tint, only slightly, her marks sharp on her skin but no burning; her truest form.

"Will you teach me?" He asked, in a painfully vulnerable voice. "Both of you?"

"It'll be our pleasure, father." Hela assured her with a smile.

**xXx**

They left Asgard in the morning. Meneliel was once again in her fighting ensemble (because it fit where they were going). Hela had donned a dark red dress that was held around her neck by what looked like a gold necklace, then hung loose down to her knees; her shoulders, arms and most of her back her bare, as were her calves, though she wore strappy golden sandals. Loki was in his lightest green-silk, black-leather ensemble, boots on his feet. While everyone else wore their respective styles, with a couple of thick furs added for good measure.

The moment they landed in the cold, hard ground of Jotunheim (amidst the Bifrost's colorful flashes because Frigga insisted), the two Lokidottir let instinct take over as their skin turned blue, markings appearing all over them. Loki took a few seconds more, but eventually he too let go enough of his control for his skin to switch. It was darker than his daughter's, though there was really no difference in the markings (the coloring or the style).

"They're clan marks..." Meneliel explained the similarity quietly. "That's why they're all the same. It's what gave me away before..."

And it would give them away again... already they could hear (and sense) a number of presences approaching, some faster than others. Automatically the family pulled closer, hands fingering their weapons, ready to defend themselves at a moment's notice.

"Shouldn't we explain we come in peace, or something?" Phil inquired.

"They won't believe it." Loki stated grimly. "Not after what happened the last time..."

In less than a minute the giants were close enough they could hear what most were saying.

"Asgardians!" It was a mix of a cry and a roar. "Butchers! Kill the lot of them!"

As had become usual, Meneliel followed her instincts, acting before she could think twice about it, or before anyone could consider stopping her.

"We're not Aesir!" She called, stepping forward from the circle her family had formed.

Everyone could see her blue skin; a few then began noticing Hela's and Loki's; it still didn't seem to be quite enough.

"Tricks!" Some yelled.

"My name is Meneliel Lokidottir and I wish to speak with Lady Yiresien!" The half-eld called, as authoritatively as she could.

"Her Majesty...?" She thought she heard someone whisper. "How would an outsider know...?"

Voices quieted as to figures walked to the front of the group formed by the Frost Giants. One was tall, blue and dressed in what looked like ancient armor; the other was a lighter blue, wearing what might pass for a dress; Meneliel recognized her instantly.

"Yiresien!" She called brightly.

"So you are, indeed, back." Yiresien nodded.

"It appears things have changed around here." Meneliel commented referring to her new status.

"As have with you..." The Queen replied, considering. "We heard rumors that the golden bells of Ragnarok had tolled..."

"They did." The brunette admitted, not quite sure how to explain everything that had happened, right. "It's kind of a long story..."

"Indeed it must be, it must also be important if you've managed to bring your whole family." The giantess declared. "I remember you telling me that one time we spoke that it was unlikely you would ever be able to get your father to come..."

"Yeah well, things have changed, more than I expected them to." The half-elf shrugged.

"We should sit and talk." Yiresien decided.

No one got the chance to comment on her decision, on either side; as she began talking again, mostly giving instructions, right away:

"This Lord Helblindi, King of Jotunheim, and my mate." She announced. "Mate, this is Meneliel Lokidottir, half-elf and the outsider I mentioned to you before. We should all talk together inside the great halls. Most of her family is not like us and they would benefit of being inside."

"Why should we trust them in our halls?" Helblindi demanded, more of Meneliel than his mate.

The half-elf did not get the chance to answer, suddenly there was a hand on her arm, a blue hand, and then her father was standing by her side, and he was the one speaking; directly at Helblindi, with a strength and conviction she admired but rarely heard of him.

"Because it's been a long time, and we really need to talk... brother." Loki declared.

"Brother..." Helblindi echoed, abruptly realizing who the man before him was. "Follow us then."

The conversation was interesting, to say the least. They didn't end up friends, and Meneliel knew that she mostly called them family because they were (rather than because they felt that way). Truth was that, since Loki had been taken away by Odin before the time of Exposure ended, and what was more, before he could be formally presented to the clan, Loki wasn't recognized by their traditions as a son of Laufey. Everyone knew he was, it was quite clear in the markings on his skin and the ice all over him; but there wasn't much he could have aspired to, had he decided to stay around for a while. Still, the connection was enough to agree to begin peace talks with Asgard, with Loki as the go between.

Another thing the Jotun hadn't the slightest idea what to do about was the bunch of hybrids that were Loki's offspring. Due to the coldness of their skin, and their usual size it was practically impossible for frost giants to mate with anyone outside of their species; yet Loki had, multiple times. From all of them only Hela and Meneliel thus far had shown any frost-giant characteristics or powers; just like the older boys were shape-shifters in ways their sisters weren't... the twins thus far had only shown elven characteristics.

Then there was the next generation. Malachi not only wasn't a frost-giant, he actually had already shown himself to be pyrokinetic (and no one was completely sure if he'd gotten that from Cassie, somehow, or from Azazeal...).

Still, things had gone better than most would have dared to wish for, and there was hope for a better peace treaty between the two realms in the future. Deep down the Jotun had hated Odin more than they'd hated Aesir as a whole; him being gone truly helped. The fact that he was taken down by someone who'd publicly claimed a connection to them was also good.

The fact that when a warrior first mentioned (half-joking) the possibility of sparring with one of them all eyes turned to Meneliel, wasn't quite as good.

"What's wrong with my sister being a warrior?" Fenrir demanded somewhat testily. "She has the right to it, Asgard has taken to calling her Warrior Princess..."

"There's nothing wrong with it, per say." Yiresien tried to explain before the misunderstanding got bigger. "It's just that here in this realm, there's very few of us females. Our numbers are, in fact, so small that males see us as invaluable treasures, too valuable to risk in ventures like battle, especially when it's done just for the sake of it. We all learn to fight to protect ourselves and our own, but we're not meant to go to war. The fact that your sister doesn't only know how to fight, but has gone to war more than once is what's so shocking."

"It's simply a difference in traditions." Meneliel helped her diffuse the situation as much as she could. "Asgard still has somewhat retrograde views on women, for the most part; Midgard on the other hand. In the last century there were movements pushing for gender equality all around the world, and while there are parts where women are still seen as less than men, for the most part that's changed. I was raised in a realm where women have as many rights as men. So I've become used to that, to tell you the truth."

"And did you choose to be a warrior too?" Helblindi asked, intrigued.

"Yes." She nodded. "It wasn't a decision made in a spur of the moment, but over the time. At first I was the kind to help from the shadows. I would recover information the government insisted on keeping secret, and gave it to the public, thought I was helping everyone; and while I probably did sometimes, I later learnt some secrets are too dangerous to be out in the open." She shook her head at her own naivete. "Phil was the one who recruited me, six years ago. He showed me why some times what I did was wrong, then offered me a place on his team... he told me I would have 'front row center for the strangest show on earth'... of course, he never told me there was a chance the 'front-row-center' would one day turn into 'center-stage'!" She chuckled. "But that was alright too. I do not regret it; never have, never will. I never really planned on becoming a warrior, but I believe I did it for good reasons in the end, and being one has allowed me to help people in ways I couldn't have, otherwise."

Everyone nodded, unable to disagree with her. The Jotun might find the idea of a treasure female putting herself at risk, fighting wars, horrifying; but they recognized that she wasn't one of their tribe, they couldn't force her. And even if Loki had been recognized as a Laufeyson, and his offspring could be recognized in turn, she was mated, therefore already paired with another (who still would never made decisions for her, but still).

**xXx**

After spending one more night in Asgard, where they returned after the relatively short visit to Jotunheim, the group was finally ready for the trip to Midgard.

At one point the Elders had raised concerns regarding Hela's absence from Helheim; to which she calmly pointed out that aside from attempts at invasion from Muspelheim (something that hadn't happened since the last time Loki had vanquished their armies), and events like the Convergence (where all realms were a mess, not just that one), she wasn't really needed there. She could go every so often to make sure everything remained the way it was supposed to, but there was no need for her to be there all the time. Queen Frigga had agreed.

Thor and Sif left with them (once again using the Bifrost). They landed in an open space on the beach of the Playground. To their surprise, there were quite a number of people there waiting for them (mostly Skye's family).

"Didn't you send a message that everything was alright and no one needed to worry about the end of the world anymore?" The half-elf asked her sister, half-confused, half-amused.

"So now the world needs to end for you to see us?" Josef called loudly, pouting.

"Josef, if you want to see me, you can very well come looking for me." She deadpanned.

"Exactly why I'm here, Karin, my dear!" The Master vampire called very dramatically.

"Princess!" The Koenig twins called brightly from one side at the same time.

Meneliel smiled at them, waving a hand to allow her elven dress (which she'd donned again once back on Asgard) to vanish, leaving her instead in tight dark-washed jeans, a loose royal blue top and her favorite black-leather jacket and boots. Then she pulled her hair free of the bun, letting it fall down around her shoulders and to the middle of her back in loose waves (her match's favorite style on her); the last thing to go was her tiara, though that too vanished, leaving her Konstantin earring, elven pendant and wedding rings as her only jewelry (and with the tattoos on her wrist she never wore bracelets or watches, so as not to cover them up).

"I'm not a princess anymore Billy, Eric." She informed them sweetly.

"To us you've always been a princess, princess." Eric told her with a bright smile. "Even before we knew you were one in other worlds."

The brunette just couldn't help herself, she hugged the man tightly, placing a kiss on his cheek. He was so cute! At first she'd thought that the whole start-struck looks he directed at her were because she'd saved his life in Providence, but it soon became clear that it was about more than that. He loved her... he wasn't in-love with her, she was like his sister, his protector, hero, all wrapped up in one. And while sometimes it felt like a hard act to live up to... the man had never asked for anything from her, he just admired her.

"So, are we having a party or what?" Tony called loudly.

And have a party they did.

It lasted well into the night, and as shocking as it was that they managed to get enough food and drink for everyone (it got interesting when some people began revealing all kind of alcohol... even Tony was shocked when he saw one of the oldest bottles Josef had been saving).

However, the part a few focused on most was the way a nine-year-old boy flew around, closely followed by a tall man with the same ability, a man with angel wings and birds that looked to be made of ink... and no one batted an eyelash. The same could be said of the boy with gills on the sides of his neck and webbed hands and feet who was laughing like crazy as he did his best to swim circles around his (more-normal-looking) friends and Jor in sea-serpent form. And all the other children who were either metas or mutants, visible or not, baselines, witches, and aliens, all partying together like it was the most normal thing in the world... and for them it was!

"I like this world..." Loki commented, watching everything from high on a cliff.

"It is quite an interesting place." Tawariel agreed. "So different from Asgard and Alfheim both."

"Are you sure you want to raise the twins on Asgard?" he asked his match.

"Yes." There was no doubt in her. "This place is beautiful but, it's still not the world I'm truly used to and... it might sound selfish of me, but I just want to keep them longer, you know?"

"I know." He nodded. "I too want as much time as I can get with them, and allow the two to be kids for as long as they can, as long as they want. Menel never got that chance, just like we didn't... I want to do it right for Vali and Narvi..."

"We did right by Menel, I think." His beloved replied softly. "This might not be the life we once imagined for her but... it's a good life, and she loves it. And she has someone to share it with. I think that's what matters."

"True." Loki agreed, pulling his wife to him, kissing her tenderly. "You know I love you, right?"

"I know..." She replied just as softly, against his lips. "Amin mella le... oiala..."

"Forever..." He echoed the sentiment.

They welcomed the sunrise from that spot, welcoming their own new beginning, the start to a new life, a future they'd always wished for yet never imagined truly getting. It was all their dreams come true... it was perfect.

* * *

><p>First of all. No, this not over, not just yet. We have one more chapter to go. An epilogue of sorts (though I'm not calling it that, since I never called any chapter 'Prologue'). Though I hope you'll like it, it's where we'll finally have our heroine figure 'who she really is', like I've been promising from the start. Like I said from the beginning, every chapter is dedicated to one aspect of her, we're missing just one more... some probably can guess it right now, though to those who cannot see it... maybe it's just too obvious. Doesn't matter, the finale is coming, next week!<p>

To add a few people to my cast, you have my choices for the Norns:

Skuld - Karen Gillan, there are some pictures where she looks so young, yet not fully a girl, with bright red hair... just imagine it being shorter.

Verdandi - Grace Holley. I chose her because she looks young, yet there are some pictures where she looks a bit older (though not old). One in particular shows her with her hair in a small plait, like a diadem, it's the look I had in mind.

Urd - Annette O'Toole. She's perfect for this one, especially the way she looked in the ninth season of Smallville, with her hair going gray yet she still looking strong...

Another thing, some back-history on a couple of characters, things I never got the chance to include in the story but thought to mention here because they're still in my head and I decided you should know: In my head Azazeal was once a Roman soldier, a centurion possibly, he died in battle and went to Valhalla. There was something so traumatic about his death (either his or all that happened right before it) that he doesn't remember anything of his mortal life, not even his name. Valerius was like him, recognized the signs in Azazeal, but never said anything, knowing there must be a reason why the other couldn't remember; he's the only one. It's also why there's that odd connection between the two.

It's all ending in a week! Finally! The finale is coming (to the fic and the series). Don't miss it. And please, please comment on this: what you liked, what you didn't, what you think I missed. The last chapter is pretty much done already, but if enough people ask I might still be able to add something before next Friday. Please review! I wanna know what you think of this craziness I've been writing!

See you next week for the finale!


	6. Skye

The finale is here!

(Cannot call it an epilogue, because there was no prologue, but this really is the end of this story).

When I first decided to follow this pattern for the chapter-titles in Meneliel (each an aspect of our heroine). I always knew this was how the last one would be called. The reasons are explained well enough in the chapter itself.

Please enjoy and do not forget to comment afterwards!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6. Skye <strong>

_They were all saying their goodbyes to Frigga as well as several Eihenjar, handmaidens and servants whom they had befriended during their stay. Somehow Meneliel ended up being the last to say farewell to her grandmother before they took their leave. The woman, in a burnt-red gown with golden thread that day, embraced her tightly. Even if the two women had hardly any time to get to know each other, they were still family, and that was a bond neither would ever deny. _

"_You've been blessed, child..." The Last Queen of Asgard whispered in the young princess's ear. "The Norns have blessed you..." _

"_Blessed me...?" The half-elf repeated, confused. _

_Truth be told, depending on the blessing, she wasn't sure if she would be able to take it as it could mean some wonderful things, but also other not-so-wonderful, like another destiny... considering everything that had happened to her thus far... _

"_You'll find out when the time is right." Frigga assured her. "You just live a good life..." _

"_I will." At least of that the brunette was fairly sure. "At least as soon as I finish making out who I am now, what I've become..." _

"_You haven't become anything you weren't already, my child." The older woman assured her. "You are who you've always been, who you were always meant to be. No matter the names, the titles, deep inside you've never changed... and Norns willing, you never will." _

_Meneliel still didn't fully understand, but decided to push the matter aside for the moment, there were other, more important, things to focus on. _

"_Thank you Grandma, for everything." She whispered lovingly, embracing the older woman tightly again. "See you soon." _

"_Yes you will, my child." Frigga smiled, as if she knew something the girl could have never begun to suspect... _

Three months after their return from Asgard the brunette half-elf was pacing before the window in a loft, every so often turning to look at the stars and the lightening sky. Dawn was near...

"Skye?" A voice called suddenly.

"Hey Clark..." She called with a somewhat tired smile.

Smallville, Kansas, that was where she and Phil were in that moment. Visiting her 'cousin' Alec and his family for a little while; and ready to act as backup if the case the Justice League had been working on for the last month or so became too much. It was mostly a vacation as Superman rarely ever needed more help than his own team (and his match's assistance from the shadows).

And the reason why her husband had thought she needed a vacation was that the young woman was tired, it had been at least a couple of weeks (possibly more) since she last slept a full night. There were occasions when she would wake up in the middle of the night and simply be unable to go back to sleep; others she managed to sleep more, only to wake up feeling nauseous, at which point she would feel extremely tired anyway.

"Rough night?" Clark inquired as he began getting everything ready for his morning chores.

"More like rough couple of weeks..." She admitted.

"I've heard you." Clark admitted quietly after a few seconds. "In the nights, it's like you cannot settle, cannot sleep."

"Yes." She admitted. "It's nothing about your home, I promise. This place is fantastic!" She let out a breath. "There's something wrong with me..."

"Have you gone to see a doctor?" He asked thoughtfully.

"Jemma does my yearly checkups." She answered promptly. "Aside from that I haven't really needed medical attention in years. I haven't gotten injured in a mission badly enough to need assistance in a while, and even before that I was never one to need to go to the doctors very often... the last time was when I crashed Mia's car against a light-pole, and even then I had nothing more than minor scratches and a bruise caused by the air-bag hitting me straight-on... and before that when I broke my arm as a child." She shook her head at the memory. "Probably a good thing, all things considered..."

"Probably." The 'Intergalactic Traveler' agreed in understanding, it was one thing the two shared, even if in the last few years Skye's 'situation' had pretty much become public knowledge.

"You still think I should visit one." She finished what he didn't dare say.

"It couldn't hurt." The 'farmboy' shrugged. "If you're worried about safety you could see our doctor. Emil is the one who sees to our health, if he can deal with kryptonians, metas, amazons and a numbers of humans with a penchant for biting off more than they can chew... I'm sure he should be able to do something to help you."

"Alright." She reluctantly agreed after several long seconds. "But only because if I don't do something about it Phil is going to really get worried."

He already was, but she didn't need to know that...

**xXx**

Several hours later Skye was pacing, again, this time on the common area of the Watchtower in Metropolis, and far more flustered than she'd been that morning.

"You must be wrong." She was half babbling half-snapping. "It must be a mistake... do it again!"

"I already did." Emil Hamilton, JL's doctor, informed her.

He actually looked quite calm considering that the woman pacing and growing more and more upset by the minute had the power to throw him out the window without breaking sweat; which meant either he'd a lot of faith on her, on Clark stopping him, saving him... or working in close contact with so many gifted for a number of years had addled his brain.

"I did the tests twice, then when you first expressed your opinion on the impossibility of these results I did them twice more." Emil explained serenely. "The results are still the same Ms. Avery, you are, indeed..."

"I cannot possibly be pregnant!" She practically snarled before he could say it himself.

"Well, the moods certainly would indicate otherwise..." Alec quipped from the walkway on the second level of the tower.

He thought he was far away enough that she couldn't take her bad mood out on him... he forgot that all she needed to go was wave her hand and there was promptly something behind him (a file in this case) and he was getting smacked in the back of the head.

"Hey!" He called, pouting.

"Everyone, silence!" Chloe snapped abruptly.

Without saying a word she set her son down on the sofa, beside Jimmy, before going to stand before her old friend, taking the brunette's hands in hers.

"Who told you that you couldn't have children?" The blonde asked quietly. "Or is this something related to you being from another planet? Because if it is I ought to remind you of the little boy that's about to walk through that door, all for telling you every detail about his day at school, his teachers and his friends, any moment now."

"It's not about something anyone told me..." She forced herself to swallow through the knot forming in her throat before turning to Clark, standing at the end of the stairs to the second level. "Remember what I told you when your relationship with Alec got serious enough you began planning on getting married? And I mean that beyond the talks of the morning after... or the afternoon before, as it were..."

"I remember." Clark nodded, smiling at the memory she'd made reference to.

It was true, the first time Alec had mentioned marriage they'd done little more than kiss; and if Clark was completely honest, the fact that he'd seen his best friend marry three times, three different women, made it so he hadn't taken the declaration that seriously, not even when it was repeated the morning after. It'd taken almost six months before he'd started believing that Alec truly meant it, and the bald man moving into the Kent farm along with Connor to finally stop thinking it was all a dream that would end any minute and maybe, just maybe, it might be a good idea to get him a ring too...

"You told me Connor was the closest thing you had to a son of your own and I better take good care of both him and Alec or you would show me how much I wasn't invulnerable to you." The 'Intergalactic Traveler' quoted practically verbatim.

"You really threatened him?" Alec asked, really interested, it was the first he heard of it. "For me? And Connor?"

"That's not the point right now." Skye half-hissed.

"No, it isn't." Chloe interrupted. "Ok, so you said that. And maybe back then Connor really was that, but that doesn't explain..."

"I didn't say that just because." Skye cut her off, doing her best to hold back her emotions, least she break down completely. "Connor has my genes in him, but I never carried him, or gave birth to him, nor could I have. Because six years ago a psychotic bastard put two bullets in my stomach and then left me to bleed out on the floor of the cellar, in his villa in Italy..."

"What?!" Everyone was thoroughly shocked by that revelation.

"Phil found me." She forced herself to go on. "The team got there just in time. They flew me to a SHIELD approved hospital in Switzerland, where the doctors did everything they could. They took out pieces of my intestines, my liver, and more, then sewed up everything else. But it wasn't enough, nowhere near... if my parents hadn't found me when they did I wouldn't have survived." She took a deep breath through a choked sob. "The magic Adar used to heal me... he undid the damage inside me in every way that was possible. My organs pretty much repaired themselves; and then a direct transfusion from Nana did the rest. However... you cannot repair what isn't there anymore. I didn't have a womb, the bullets did irreparable damage and the doctors were forced to take it out, take all of it: uterus, ovaries, the whole deal." Her eyes were straight on Emil. "So, as you can see, I cannot possibly be pregnant because I don't have a womb, or eggs, or anything that is needed to make me pregnant!"

"Are you sure?" He asked her.

She almost roared, almost... a part of her consciousness couldn't help but wonder if the man was doing it on purpose, torture her like that... but he wasn't a cruel man, couldn't be, otherwise he wouldn't be working for the League. He had to be a good man. Which meant... which meant there had to be a reason why he was insisting so much.

"I saw the medical reports myself shortly after I returned from my two months in Asgard, to create the identity of Astrid Avery." She answered him as emotionlessly as she could. "No one had told me. My parents hadn't known, no one from the team had before I left and afterwards... I hadn't seen them yet, was waiting until my new identity was fool proof."

She could remember the whole night she'd spent crying, almost hysterically, not knowing what to do, what to say anymore... until she'd realized there was no point. Nothing she said or did, no amount of crying, would change reality, she had to move on... so no matter how much it hurt, how much she sometimes didn't believe she could do it, she forced herself to move on.

"Is it possible that something has made that condition change in the last six years?" Emil asked her softly, as if he knew he was hurting her, and it pained him to do it but thought it necessary anyway. "Anything at all?"

She was going to say no. Really, if anything could have changed she would have known, right? It would have happened before, it would have become evident at some point; it's not like she and Phil worried about protection half the time from the start, and at all since their wedding, except... Except something had changed, very recently...

"_You've been blessed child..." _

That was what Frigga had said, those exact words, and she hadn't explained what she meant, only said Skye would know, eventually...

"Oh Norns..." She gasped, suddenly on her knees, laughing, and crying, hysterically.

She didn't hear anyone call to her (though they all did), didn't feel anyone try to move her (though most tried), didn't realize when they eventually chose to leave her alone. For the longest time she just knelt there, curled upon herself, laughing and crying quietly at the same time, as her mind fought to process what Emil had just told her. He'd done the tests four times, each time the results had been the same; so something must have changed, and what her grandmother had told her on the day they'd left Asgard...

It took her a while, but eventually she made up her mind and focused her magic before pressing the open palm of her right hand against her middle. It was something she hadn't dared even think of doing before. It would have been the easiest way to shut Emil up (or so she'd thought at the time), except the mere idea of using magic to confirm what she already knew (or believed she knew) only made her hurt all the more. And then she finally did it, and she could feel! She could sense the edge of a life, one still forming, a soul nesting, allowing a body to slowly take form around it. She didn't even know yet if it was going to be a boy or a girl, but one thing she knew for sure already was that it had a beautiful soul... and it was hers...

"Arwenamin..." Phil husky voice, filled with worried yet still holding onto her favorite nickname, finally brought her out of her thoughts.

"Aratoamin..." She called back to him, smiling so bright she was almost sure her face would split in two at any moment.

"Chloe called me." He said for all explanation. "She said... she said something happened..."

She thought of telling him what her grandmother had said on Asgard, of the tests Emil had ran four times, explain to her how somehow Clark and Alec had managed to convince her of going to Metropolis before he even woke up, how she'd been unable to sleep properly for days (though that one she was quite sure he knew already)... instead, when she finally managed to open her mouth to speak, what came out was something completely different, though it still managed to get to the point better than any other explanation...

"We're going to have a child..." She whispered, voice hoarse with tears and laughter.

Phil, good match that he was, did not need any further explanations; he did not ask why or how or when, or anything at all. He just pulled her face to his and kissed her for all he was worth... before the two fell into laughter and tears all over again.

**xXx**

It took a while for Skye to fully process the fact that she was pregnant. After years forcing herself to accept the fact that it was never going to happen... it was probably normal. And as she grew to accept it, she began remembering all the dreams she'd once had. Like back when she'd been little, playing with dolls (with one family that was rich, gave her a lot, but were never there) and she'd dreamt of being a mommy, of always being there for her child, in a way her parents never were; or the time when she was a young adult and had had that pregnancy scare, she'd taken a moment to consider what she'd do if she was truly pregnant... she'd had no idea, but she knew one thing for sure: she would have dropped everything: be it school, her formal job, her odd jobs as Karen Starr, would have gone as far as creating a whole new identity to be able to take care of her girl and be safe. Then she'd learnt the truth of her past, her parents, all they'd done... and for the brief time before she learnt the full scope of consequences of those two bullets in her stomach she'd imagined having a little girl, asking her Nana to teach her how to be a good mom, and her Adar all the spells to take good care of the baby; and praying for the Higher Powers that she would be as good a parent as them... then she'd returned from Asgard, began working on securing her new identity, found the last files of the 'consultant Skye' and with the words 'emergency hysterectomy' all her dreams turned to ashes.

Only now they were more than that (a lot more). Because the Norns had given her their blessing, and her grandmother had known (and said nothing about it), and she and Phil were having a child! A girl, as they found out afterwards...

The rest of the family had a much easier time accepting Skye's pregnancy. Mostly because no one but her original team, Hela, Azazeal, Casarmi and Thelma had even known that she wasn't supposed to be able to.

"Have you decided what you'll call her?" Hela asked them one day.

They disagreed on the importance of names. Hela owed hers to their father, he'd chosen it for her when her mother was still pregnant. Skye, for her part, had had so many (and most were still in use, depending on where she was and who she was with) that she just did not see what the big deal was... Well no, that wasn't really it. Because if she was honest with herself, there was one name she favored above all others. She was Astrid for SHIELD, Karen for the criminals, Karin for the vampire community, Cielo for the Torettos, Xiao for the rest of the racing community, Meneliel for other realms... and then she was Skye. That name was hers, the one she'd claimed for herself, as her truest.

Then again, what right had she to choose a name for her child, she'd gotten the choice, shouldn't her daughter be able to do the same?

"If it comes to that, when she's the right age we'll talk about it, we'll even help her change her name, if that's what she wants." Phil assured her. "There's nothing wrong with giving her a name too. After all, you've told me that Astrid is the name Loki wanted for you, and even Skye is the translation of the name given to you by your mother..."

She had to admit he was right on that one... and she also had to admit there was one name she couldn't get out of her head...

"What do you want to name her?" She asked him instead.

"I'm not sure." He admitted. "Not a first name anyway. I think you should choose that one. There is one I'd like to be her middle name though."

'One that would make her his...' It was his thought, and his match could almost hear it inside her own head, she agreed.

"Jaye." He explained. "It's a variation, a feminine of James." His own middle name. "Written to look like yours, Skye..."

It was a good name, and she liked the detail he'd just mentioned too.

"What name would you like to give her?" He asked her then.

"Lirimaer..." She breathed out, not even stopping to think about it.

"Lovely one..." He murmured the translation. "I like it."

And then there was the fact that that was the very thing her mother used to call her when she was a newborn, the same word she'd used to keep Skye anchored when she was dying, and which the half-elf had asked her to say after she woke up, to convince herself that it was all real, that her parents really were there...

"It will describe her well." Hela offered. "A lovely child, and a well-loved one too."

There was no doubt about that.

So they gave the baby a name (or two) and that, along with the fact that she'd finally begun showing, made things all the more real for Skye. At six-months she'd finally stopped waking up in the middle of the night, reaching for her stomach as she wondered if she'd dreamt it all up. They'd also begun setting up a nursery, in a room that had once been Phil's second office (a small room connected to their bedroom). Unknown to them their extended family were also making sure all the homes where they spent time throughout the year were prepared as well. It was a pretty big project (and some were quite surprised the prospective-parents hadn't found out yet) but it wasn't like they didn't have the means, and the will to do it.

That day she'd donned her favorite maternity dress, a gift from Darcy: it was a loose, sleeveless, v-necked, plum-colored cotton dress with dark pink hem that reached to her calves; she wore pink flip-flops to match. Winter was nearing its end but the temperatures in North America were pretty cool. Still, since Skye rather liked the cold she usually chose to forego sweaters, wore sleeveless blouses and dresses, and no socks. If anyone tried to use her baby as an excuse to tell her to cover up she would immediately say that her baby approved of her choices; judging by the fact that her belly was always two or so degrees cooler than most of her body it was obvious the baby preferred cooler temperatures. It actually made her wonder if her daughter would be a Jotun like her... her brothers weren't, and Malachi hadn't been... but still.

In a way it helped too. It seemed that the mere suggestion that Lirimaer might be Jotun had spurred Loki into his auto-imposed training to deal with his own heritage, and not only in the sense that he learnt to use the abilities it granted him (that part was actually quite easy once he stopped fighting them). No, the hard part was learning to accept himself when in that skin. His family's acceptance, especially that of his match and his brother, helped a great deal with that. No one who'd been present that day would ever forget Thor's words to his brother, or the reaction they caused on the younger prince:

"_I am already declared by prophecy as a 'blood traitor', but that is quite alright, because I did what I did for you. If I end up becoming forsworn as well... I cannot bring myself to mind. You're my brother Loki, and that will always be more important to me than a rash oath taken when I was nothing more than a little, naïve boy... I care little about the color or temperature of your skin, you are my brother, and nothing and no one can change that Loki..." _

Yes, that had been one rather emotional day, but the goal was achieved, as Loki stopped seeing himself as a monster, and began accepting that regardless of his looks, he was and always would be Loki, son of Frigga, brother of Thor, match of Tawariel, and father to a bunch of children, all who loved him with their whole hearts.

That day in particular, Skye was in Boston, having lunch with an old-friend and fellow foster-child: Emma Swan. The two women were quite different, as Emma had thick blonde curls to her shoulder-blades and hazel eyes (while Skye's hair was honey-brown waves and her eyes a stormy blue); Emma was almost three years younger. There were also similarities; as both had gone into the foster-system having no idea who their parents were. In some ways Emma's case was even worse, though, she'd been found by some kid in the side of the road, somewhere in Maine. Back when she'd gone hacking everything she could to get information on her parents, Skye'd done the same to try and find out about Emma's, she got nothing. There were no files on so much as a pregnant woman anywhere near where baby Emma had been found.

Eventually the blonde had given up on finding out about her parents, or her past, choosing instead to go her own way and just forget about the past (or so she claimed). Skye'd respected that, didn't mean she was willing to give up on her friend, though. It had taken awhile, after first Skye and then Emma had run away from their last foster parents (the first shortly before turning seventeen, the other right after reaching sixteen). Surprisingly enough in the end they had met on the wrong side of the law. Emma was trying to pawn-off a stolen watch and 'Karen Starr' had been working as middle-woman for the owner of a pawn-shop in order to make some extra money. They'd stayed in contact after that.

They were celebrating. Skye had missed Emma's 27th birthday late the previous October, and the blonde had missed the brunette's own at the beginning of February (it was the end of the month already). The half-elf was considering bringing her old friend into SHIELD and/or the Alliance. While Emma's experience was limited to being bail bondswoman, she was good at it. In the best of case, she could become field agent for SHIELD, in the worst she would be local liaison (like Brian, Ziva, Veronica, Clark and many others).

"Well, congratulations on the baby." Emma offered.

It was quite obvious, and not only because of the maternity dress, there was something about the way Skye seemed to glow... everyone had commented on it, more than once even.

"Thank you." The brunette smiled.

For a while not a word was said. Skye just watched her friend swing the wine in her glass quietly, as if contemplating something with special intensity. The older girl did not need to be a genius to realize what the other was thinking.

"Do you ever regret it?" She asked quietly.

"I do, at least once every other day." The blonde admitted quietly. "But then I remember how little I had when I was eighteen, how little I have even now, and I know I did what was best for him, I gave him his best chance..."

Skye honestly couldn't process ever giving up her child... maybe it was because of how long she'd spent believing she'd never have one, or that her situation was so much better than Emma's had been at the time, but still. She did not know if it was the hormones, or just her, but a part of her really wanted to comfort her friend, somehow, so she extended her hand, taking the younger woman's in hers. The vision hit her abruptly, or more like a quick series of visions:

_Emma was in her apartment, wearing a short, sleeveless pink dress, barefoot, looking like she just returned from work. She placed a cupcake on her kitchen counter, with a candle of a blue star, made a wish and blew on it. Almost immediately the doorbell rang. The blonde opened it to find a brunette boy with hazel eyes, who looked at her as if she were his entire world... _

"_Uh? Can I help you?" Emma asked, confused. _

"_Are you Emma Swan?" The boy inquired brightly. _

"_Yeah." She didn't understand. "Who are you?"_

"_My name's Henry." He explained. "I'm your son." _

_Emma could only stand there in shock. _

_. _

_It was late at night and the two were standing just outside Emma's yellow bug, talking. Emma in a white top, jeans and her favorite red-leather jacket, Henry in a stripped shirt, vest, jeans, dark coat and gray and red scarf. _

"_Time's frozen here." The boy, Henry, seemed to have been explaining something to Emma. _

"_Excuse me?" She looked at him with absolute disbelief. _

"_The Evil Queen did it with her curse." Henry said, eager and full of hope. "She sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here." _

"_Okay, the Evil Queen sent a bunch of fairy tale characters here." Emma summarized. _

"_Yeah, and now they're trapped." Henry nodded, so painfully full of hope. _

"_Frozen in time, stuck in Storybrooke, Maine." Emma shook her head, refusing to believe any of it. "That's what you're going with?"_

"_It's true!" Even as he said it Henry knew she wouldn't believe him. _

_. _

_Henry was sitting morosely in a wooden castle-shaped slide in what looked like an old, half-forgotten playground near the beach, he was dressed in his school uniform, even though he'd played hooky for the day. Emma joined him there. She offered him the leather-bound book she'd been carrying, as it apparently was his, and the two began talking. _

"_I was hoping that when I brought you back, things would change here." Henry said, sadly, at one point. "That the final battle would begin."_

"_I'm not fighting any battles, kid." She told him quietly. _

"_Yes, you are." Henry insisted, somehow still hoping, still believing. "Because it's your destiny. You're going to bring back the happy endings." _

"_Can you cut it with the book crap?" She was really growing tired of it. _

"_You don't have to be hostile." He murmured. "I know you like me, I can tell. You're just pushing me away because I make you feel guilty. It's okay... I know why you gave me away. You wanted to give me my best chance..."_

"_How do you know that?" The use of those specific words surprised Emma. _

"_Because it's the same reason Snow White gave you away." _

"_Listen to me, kid. I'm not in any book. I'm a real person. And I'm no savior. You were right about one thing, though. I wanted you to have your best chance... But it's not with me." _

Skye was still reeling about that scene, when a last one hit her, one that changed everything...

_It looked like the scenario of a fairy-tale. A huge stone castle, high on a cliff, a black-haired, hazel-eyed princess in a fluffy white dress, laying on a bed, moaning, in labor... It's Snow White, and Prince Charming was with her, along with one of the dwarves. _

_Labor seemed to last forever and no time at all, and finally the baby girl was born. With a tuft of light-hair (like her father's) and her mother's eyes. For a moment happiness was absolute as the adults welcomed the little girl into the world and then... reality crashed upon them. _

"_The wardrobe… It only takes one." Snow-White gasped in horror. _

_Something was going on, something huge, and it seemed like their last hope was slowly turning into nothing more than smoke. _

"_Then our plan has failed." Prince Charming decided, resigned. "At least we're together."_

"_No." The princess wasn't the kind of woman that gave up. "You have to take her. Take the baby to the wardrobe." _

"_Are you out of your mind?!" He really thought she was, she had to be. _

"_No, it's the only way." His wife insisted. "You have to save her." _

"_No, no, no." He was in absolute denial. "You don't know what you're saying." _

"_No, I do." She insisted, sad but full of conviction. "We have to believe that she'll come back for us. We have to give her her best chance..." _

_Slowly, so slowly, as if to savor the moment, Snow White went to kiss the baby's brow, tenderly fingering the off-white baby blanket with her daughter's name in purple thread... _

"_Goodbye, Emma..." She whispered, slowly letting her baby go. _

_The Prince, having already kissed the baby's forehead himself, kissed his wife one more time, in a mix of love, hope and despair, before strengthening his hold of his newborn daughter with his left arm, taking a sword with his right and rushing out, in pursuit of their last hope. Snow-White waited until he was gone, then she burst into tears. _

Skye's mind was spinning... she could still see the pairs of identical hazel eyes inside her mind even as the conscious part of her brain registered her friend calling her name. Then, as she raised her head, her stormy blue eyes met a pair of deep hazel ones that made everything fit into place almost abruptly.

"Emma..." She breathed out her friend's name.

It was true. She knew that without even having to think about it. She'd just seen her friend's past, and future (or at least the beginning of it)... Emma really was the daughter of a royal couple from a fairy-tale world... well, at least that explained why they weren't in any files... And when exactly did her life get to the point where finding out her old friend from St. Agnes was the daughter of Snow-White and Prince Charming seemed like absolutely normal...?

Except, it's normal for her, but it wouldn't be for Emma. Not right then. Skye realized in that moment that if she tried to explain to her blonde friend what she just saw, she'd never believe it. And while that wouldn't change reality... what if it made Emma bolt? It wasn't impossible. And what if, in the next few months, Emma managed to get far enough Henry couldn't find her when he needed to? Skye couldn't allow that to happen. So she decided not to say a word about what she just saw. She also wouldn't offer Emma that job with SHIELD... her friend needed to stay where she was, for Henry, and for herself... Maybe Skye would try and look her up in a year or two, try and find out how everything turned out...

"Storybrooke, Maine..." She murmured, mostly to herself.

She needed to make sure she wouldn't forget that name, just in case.

"What?" Emma called. "Are you alright Skye? Do you need me to call a doctor?"

"Alright..." Skye repeated, then faked a yawn to cover up her attitude. "I think I'm just tired... the farther along I get in this pregnancy the less I seem to be able to sleep..."

Shadows formed in Emma's eyes, probably in remembrance of the child she'd given up. A part of Skye (maternal instincts going into overdrive) wanted nothing more than to tell her that her son was alright, that he would be looking for her soon, would find her. That she would find her family (or it would find her, depending on how one looked at it)... but Skye knew how life-altering, soul-searing such events could be. Emma needed to make the journey herself, no shortcuts, no help. In the end, it would be worth it... Skye wondered if they'd get the chance to compare notes one day, it would make for one interesting meeting certainly...

(Skye wasn't to know it in that moment, but she and Emma would, in fact, meet again one day. Beyond their meeting to celebrate Lirimaer's birth. It wouldn't be for a while yet, and by then many things would have changed. Emma would have a son, and a match -though there was no way of knowing if she would have accepted that fact by that point-, parents, and many others she would call friends. She would no longer be the half-lost orphan that stood before the half-elf in that moment, but Princess Emma, daughter of Snow-White and Prince Charming, the Savior, the Hope, the White Knight...)

"Do you need help getting... wherever it is you need to go?" Emma offered as she called the waitress for the check.

Skye handed the girl her card before Emma could say a word (and in the end, both knew Skye had more money, and she did not care, so there was no insult meant).

"Well, I suppose, if you could take me to my hotel..." She answered the question. "I finished my business here this morning, so I'll just be staying there, maybe watch a movie, take a nap, order some room-service, until my husband arrives later today. Then we'll be leaving for Manhattan some time tomorrow."

"So, just a quick trip then?" Emma guessed. "I'm surprised you had time for lunch."

"Well, I was in town, and I wanted to see you." Skye explained with a smile. "We're expected at New York in a few days, but until then we're free." She seemed to ponder on things a bit. "Maybe we could hang out a bit more tomorrow..."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible." Emma said, sadly. "I have a business meeting tomorrow, and most likely will have to hunt down someone right afterwards."

"I see..." And she did, truly, work was work. "Well, hopefully we'll get the chance to meet again sometime soon."

"I'm sure we will." Emma smiled at her friend.

Emma drove Skye in her yellow bug to the hotel. However, right as the blonde had gone around the corner, and before the brunette got the chance to even step inside the hotel, her phone rang. She answered on the second ring.

"Eric?" She wasn't expecting that. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine, princess." The use of the nickname proved it. "It's just... well we just got a call, from a Sister Millerna, from St. Agnes orphanage in Boston... and I really think you need to know about this..."

By the time Eric finished explaining and the call ended Skye was hailing a cab, asking the driver to take her to St. Agnes... she also asked Eric to inform Phil where she would be... she might need him to back her up there.

**xXx**

A young novice received Skye at the entrance of the orphanage. The place was in a flurry of activity, a couple of nuns supervising young novices and some of the older orphans as they took care of the gardens, while others swept the grounds.

"I'm Astrid Avery, from SHIELD." She explained, showing her badge briefly. "Sister Millerna placed a call to our offices, asked for someone to come... I was the closest."

"Y-yes... of course." The girl mumbled, almost stumbling as she lead the way.

Skye silently wondered which was shocking her most, the fact that she had an Agent there, or that said agent was a pregnant young woman (or maybe the novice believed Skye to be younger than she actually was, it wouldn't be the first time).

The moment the novice let Skye through the door to the small office, the brunette felt as though she'd traveled back in time. She remembered the orphanage, the gardens, the office... Sister Millerna. The woman was petite, with short, straight, light-brown hair and chocolate eyes in the usual gray clothes of the sisters of St. Agnes. Skye remembered her, Sister Ava Millerna, she had to be the kindest woman the half-elf had ever met; one of the few that was never harsh towards Skye, who never said (or implied) that something must be wrong with the girl if every single family kept sending her back (and of course there had been nothing wrong with her, but she hadn't known that back then, and the implication had hurt...)

"Are you Sister Millerna?" She chose to pretend, not up to revealing her history with the place unless it was really necessary.

"Yes, are you the Agent of SHIELD?" Her eyes went straight to Skye's small but obvious bump.

"Yes, Agent Astrid Avery." The half-elf purposefully placed a hand briefly on her belly. "I was in the area, so the head of Communications called me here. If necessary my boss will be joining us soon..." She took the seat offered. "Why am I here exactly? I was told it concerned one of your orphaned girls, but not much more than that... though our techie seemed to believe time was of essence in this case."

"Yes..." The Sister seemed actually nervous, which was odd and worrying. "We received a young girl a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Leah, we have no idea who her parents are or were, or where they might be, we don't even have a last-name. She was found living alone in a condemned building, claimed she'd been living on her own for years... it's as if the girl doesn't exist..."

Or her parents kicked her out a never reported her missing, if she didn't go to school, the doctor or such there wouldn't be any records of her.

"I see..." It was bad, but it still did not explain what Skye was doing there. "How does this concern SHIELD exactly? You think she might be the child of one of ours?"

"No, it's not that at all." Sister Millerna seemed to take a deep breath before making the big revelation: "I believe she's a gifted..."

The Agent stiffened up immediately. A gifted... one that wasn't already part of the Alliance, one that apparently had gone undetected by Professor Xavier, and she was in St. Agnes... the young woman suddenly had a bad feeling.

"I would like to see this girl for myself." She declared.

"Yes, of course Agent Avery." The nun got on her feet right away. "Follow me please."

Skye's tension only grew when, instead of taking her in the direction of the girl's dormitories (which she was quite sure where in the same place they'd been when she was last there), Sister Millerna guided her to the old servants' quarters. A small, wooden building that seemed to be in as much disrepair then as it was fifteen years earlier. Probably even worse... it was also where the girls were taken for punishment when they were 'bad'.

"Sister Millerna...?" The half-elf tried her best to keep her voice even, but it was very hard.

"I'm sorry Agent Avery, it's just..." The older woman swallowed. "Some of the sisters believe that powers such as the one demonstrated by the 'superheroes' around the world are a curse from the devil, something to be eradicated."

Really, was it any wonder that Magneto was the way he was? Considering what had happened to him when he was a child... some might try to say it was a war, and things got to extremes back then... and yet right then they weren't at war, yet similar things were taking place.

"Idiotic." Skye couldn't help but blurt out.

"Ma'am!" The nun sounded honestly scandalized.

"It's the truth." The girl said bluntly. "It's been proved that gifts are completely natural, most of those who have it are born with them; others gain them as a way to survive something in their lives, almost always a catastrophic accident or a great tragedy. The devil is in no way connected to it." She shook her head. "Besides, how do these nuns justify all the good most of the gifted around the world do?"

Sister Millerna had no answer, though Skye didn't really expect her to.

As much as Skye was already expecting what she found, it still broke something inside of her, at the same time it got her maternal instincts into such overdrive she wanted nothing more than to bring the whole place down (though she consciously knew that such actions would defeat the purpose of her visit 'protecting the girl', and therefore wasn't an option).

A small girl, who looked like she was seven or eight but might have been older, with long straight raven-black hair that fell down her back, was dressed in a short plain robe made of linen, feet bare, kneeling in the middle of a 'bed' made of straw (which was probably hurting her knees), her arms were straight at the sides, and she was holding a stone on each hand, and she was praying.

On a corner a woman in a black and white habit stood, with dark eyes and looking at Leah with such evident coldness...

"Sister Reynolds!" Millerna seemed honestly scandalized by the scene. "What are you doing?"

"Making the devil's child repent for the sins that made her what she is." The older nun stated in an almost-fanatic tone.

"It's not her fault!" Millerna called even as she hurried to run beside Leah.

The child didn't dare stop praying, nor move an inch, until the nun took the stones off her hands herself and made her sit back. It wasn't the best position, but still better than the one she'd been in just seconds before.

"What are you doing here, Sister Millerna?" Reynolds asked coldly. "And who is the outsider?"

"Agent Astrid Avery, of SHIELD." The young mother-to-be said stiffly. "Agent Millerna called the office about Leah."

"The devil's child was sent to us, so we may guide her through the path of redemption, so her soul might be saved!" Reynolds called loudly. "She must go back to praying!"

Skye had known Sister Tatiana Reynolds was hard and old-school; the kind that believed that girls should always be proper, and obedient and... meek (Skye and her had never gotten along, obviously). She was also the kind of woman that believed one should always ask God for forgiveness for all their faults. There had been one girl who was made to pray every night for being the product of an adulterous relationship, another for having had a single mother, another because she was the child of criminals; as if it were the girls' faults who their parents turned out to be. And that was without adding their own 'sins': like not getting up hours before dawn to pray and work, or not doing something fast enough, or not praying enough!

"She will do no such a thing." Skye called authoritatively. "That child is a gifted, and as such I'll be taking her with me."

"Who do you think you are?" Reynolds demanded. "I am the authority here!"

"I am Agent Astrid Avery, Deputy Director of SHIELD." The half-elf stated in her strongest tone. "And according to the law, the welfare of all Gifted falls under our purview. So, like I said, I will be taking her with me."

"God chose me to save her soul!" Reynolds almost snarled.

"God would never call on someone to hurt one of his children." Skye hissed. "Which is exactly what you're doing. You're doing no service to God, or to His law. You're just torturing an innocent young girl who did not choose to be what she is, she was born this way. And like our words suggest, it is a gift, not a curse, and the devil has nothing to do with it!"

"You..." The woman began.

"Shut it!" Skye interrupted her. "I care not for your words, or whatever authority you think you have in this place. My boss in on his way already and when he arrives we shall be taking Leah with us. There's nothing you can do to stop it!"

It appeared the half-crazy nun believed otherwise as she threw a stone in Leah's direction. Skye kicked the stone out of the way (with some effort, due to her stomach), before placing herself before the girl protectively.

"I suggest you think very carefully about what you are doing Miss Reynolds." Skye said in an almost dangerous tone, enough to make anyone shiver. "I can and will bring all the force of the law upon you if I have to."

The woman seemed actually shocked enough that Astrid dared to interfere, she didn't say anything. The agent took advantage of that to kneel in front of the tired girl (one had to wonder how long she'd been there, kneeling and praying).

"Leah?" She called softly, tenderly. "Are you Leah?"

"Yes..." The girl murmured in a tiny voice, as if afraid.

"Well Leah, my name is Astrid... but if you want you can call me Skye, okay?" The brunette offered, trying to put the girl at ease.

From the corner of her eye the Agent noticed Sister Millerna stiffen, she'd heard the name; it made her wonder of the Sister remembered her...

"Skye...?" She called quietly, shocked. "Is that really you, Skye Bennett?"

Well... that answered that question.

"That hasn't been my name in over a decade," She qualified. "But yes, it is me Sister Millerna."

"I knew there was something familiar about you, but I could have never imagined..." The nun seemed to have no more words.

"You never would have imagined I would actually do something of my life?" Skye couldn't help the hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Oh no!" The woman shook her head right away. "That's not it at all! I always knew you would make something of your life, a lot in fact. You are special, I knew that since you were young... when the other Sisters spoke about you not being wanted I couldn't help but think that they just didn't understand you. You were so special... you needed someone equally special to truly see through you, understand you, help you be the best you could be..."

"I will save her soul for Him!" Sister Reynolds cried out abruptly.

What she threw then at Leah wasn't a small river-stone like before, it was bigger, much bigger, looked like a piece of a brick. Skye's reaction was automatic as she pulled the girl into her arms, curling around her protectively. Sister Millerna cried out in a mix of shock and horror at the whole thing... The stone never hit.

Silence for one second, two, three... then:

"Another child of the devil!" Reynolds cried out. "We're being invaded!"

Skye just rolled her eyes as she waved her hand and called 'sleep' in old-norse. Sister Reynolds dropped unconscious where she stood.

Millerna let out a wordless cry, looking at Skye; but there was no fear in her eyes, just a mix of surprise and curiosity.

"She's alright." Skye told her honestly. "I just put her to sleep. For her own good as well as our own. If she kept going as she was I might have done something she would regret." The half-elf herself wouldn't regret it. "I knew she was borderline fanatic, but this..."

"It's gotten worse in the last few years, with all those people with special abilities appearing everywhere..." Millerna admitted.

And if they'd ever dealt with people like her before, it certainly put Erik's and Charles's fears of mutants' existence being revealed into perspective.

"It wasn't really that sudden." The half-elf said quietly. "Most have been around for a long time, decades, possibly longer. It's just that the world did not know. Until Iron-Man and Spider-Man and the alien invasion in New York, no one knew about them. But they've always been there. Some are born being different, some live for years believing they're perfectly normal and then one day wake up and are suddenly able to do things, like me..." She turned her attention to the little girl in her arms. "What is it you can you, little one?"

Leah cringed in her arms.

"Leah?" Skye called, worried.

"I'm not supposed to do it where others can see..." The girl whispered, terrified. "God doesn't like it. Because it's bad..."

"It's not bad." The agent assured her. "It's perfectly normal, I promise you." She ran a hand softly through the girl's hair. "You're special Leah, a special little girl... just like me..."

She waved her hand again then, making the small rocks Leah had been holding, as well as some pieces of straw raise in the air and twirl around them slowly.

"You can do things too?!" The girl called, eyes wide.

"Yes, I can." Skye nodded, smiling. "I was born able to do things, but I did not know it until I was older. Now show me what you can do, please?"

Slowly, hesitantly, Leah raised a hand; she rubbed two fingers together, as if she were going to snap her, but instead of that, a spark appeared in between them. The half-elf happened to he close enough that the spark actually jumped to her arm, shocking her just slightly.

"I'm sorry!" The girl cried out, suddenly terrified all over again.

"It's alright, it's alright..." Skye assured her repeatedly. "You did not hurt me."

"No...?" The child obviously wasn't expecting that.

"No, I was just surprised." The Agent nodded. "How long have you been able to do that?"

"A few weeks." Leah admitted quietly. "I was experimenting with it when I set the curtains on fire... that's why they found me."

Skye nodded.

"It's like I thought..." She murmured, mostly to herself.

"What is it?" Sister Millerna couldn't help but ask.

"She's just manifested." Skye answered honestly. "Which would explain why none of us knew about her before. It also means this is just the start of her gift..."

"You mean she'll be able to do more?" Millerna asked, marveled.

"Most likely." The half-eld nodded. "It's rare for a gift to manifest full-force from the start. Most begin being able to do small things, and later on it grows."

"Was it that way with you?" The nun couldn't help but ask.

"I was a bit different." Skye tried to explain. "In that I was born gifted, but my mother hid what made me like that, to protect me. Then it all showed-up abruptly when I was twenty-three. Still, my abilities themselves came up slowly, I wouldn't have been able to handle it if I'd had them full-power from the beginning."

It was true, she had so much power... it might have destroyed her, or pushed her into destroying something or someone if it had all come to her at once.

"Are you really going to take me with you?" Leah asked suddenly, quietly, afraid.

"Yes." Skye answered, un-hesitant, confident, turning to the nun she added. "About that, am I going to need a lawyer?" She shook her head, mostly to herself, as she pulled out her phone. "I probably should get one, keep all bases covered."

"You said you had the right to take her..." Millerna commented.

"I do." Skye nodded, half-absently as she searched through her contacts. "But if I take her under SHIELD authority that will call a lot of attention I would prefer she didn't have to deal with for the time being, not unless she wants to."

"But then, your only other option would be..." The nun broke off as she understood.

"I'm adopting her." Skye announced, without a hint of a doubt in her voice, she turned to the girl. "What do you say little one? Would you like to come with me? Become part of my family?"

"Really?" Leah asked, eyes shining with tears.

"Really." The pregnant woman said with a caring smile.

"Yes!" The green-eyed girl cried out excitedly, throwing herself into Skye's arms.

It was a good thing the young mother-to-be was so strong, otherwise they'd have both ended sprawled on the ground; still, she turned just enough to allow the girl to avoid her belly; not like it would have hurt the baby, her daughter, even unborn, was quite tough already, but still, Skye's protective-mother instincts were impossible to ignore.

"Shouldn't you talk about this with your husband first?" The Sister suggested. "I mean, by the looks of it, you're pregnant and..."

"We've talked about it." Skye interrupted. "It'll be fine."

They had talked about it, before they knew she was pregnant. Their plan had been to adopt a child, probably a gifted one, to try and give them the best life they could. They'd even gone and done everything they needed to become certified as foster parents (though their plan was to adopt rather than just foster a child... Skye was never allowing any child to be taken from her once she'd taken them in). After learning of her pregnancy they hadn't mentioned it again... but Skye knew her match, and she was absolutely sure that the moment he laid eyes on Leah he would be all for taking the girl with them.

"Hello?" She'd finally found the right number. "Alec? It's Skye... Remember the family lawyer you hired when you and Clark adopted that little girl last year? Could you give me her number, please? I'm in need of her services... Because I'm adopting a girl, that's why... I need to have this settled as soon as possible... Because I need to be in New York in three days and I'm not leaving Boston without her..." She smiled wider. "Thank you, I knew I could count on you... Her name is Leah and you'll get the chance to meet her when we get to New York."

She snapped the phone shut and turned to the girl.

"The lawyer will be getting here in a couple of hours." Skye announced to the two. "Then we can get all paperwork done."

"How can you know it'll happen that fast?" Leah asked, curious.

"Because Alec, who's like another of my brothers, is sending Mr. Ross in his private jet." She smiled at the wide-eyed looks of the other two. "He insisted. Now Phil, that's my husband, should be here at any moment. We can use this time to get to know each other and get everything ready so we can just begin signing the moment the lawyer gets here."

It was insane, absolutely insane, adoptions just weren't supposed to happen that way! But Sister Millerna had seen Leah just minutes earlier, looking so sad, so hopeless, kneeling and praying, in an attempt to fulfill impossible expectations, to pay for imagined sins... and she was so happy in that moment, at the prospect of Skye wanting her for a daughter... a woman who had protected her from the one hurting her, someone who was special as well; someone who, instinctively, the nun knew would do anything to protect her family... So maybe it wasn't normal, but it was still right, at least for them.

Sister Millerna remembered Skye from her time in St. Agnes, remembered the way the girl never fully fit in; remembered the whispers from the other nuns and even other children, about no one wanting the brunette for being a trouble-maker. Millerna never understood why such a sweet little girl always returned, why no family ever tried to adopt her, or at least keep her longer than three months at most. Still, she'd always prayed that one day Skye would find a family that would love her, would one day live to her full potential. And apparently she had... Married, with one child on the way and about to adopt another, with brothers (she'd implied she'd more than one), and being second in command of one of the most powerful and respected organizations in the world... (and with connections to the kind of people who had private jets at their disposal and were quite willing to lend them to others whenever...).

Because her curiosity could not be appeased so easily, in the following days Sister Ava Millerna would search old papers, TV shows and even the internet for mention of 'Astrid Avery'. She would learn about the well-loved, respected, beautiful and strong second in command of SHIELD, the woman who was considered as directly responsible for the biggest alliance of superheroes all around the world. A woman publicly known as a 'gifted' herself (and rumored to be from another world, just like Thor and Kal-El, the one some had begun to call Superman). She would learn that the young, misunderstood girl whom she'd once worried so much about had grown to be kind, wise, beautiful and one of the most powerful women on the planet. Also, as dozens of video-clips and pictures showed, beyond the power, beyond the job, the titles and everything else... she was a family-woman. There were so many people she referred to as siblings that there was little doubt at least half of them couldn't be connected to her by blood... still, as far as she was concerned, they were family, and they all felt as strongly as she did. People like Alexander Solomon, of 'Solomon Pharmaceuticals' (and when Millerna realized he was the 'Alec' Skye had referred to with such familiarity, she was shocked); James 'Bucky' Barnes, the fabled 'Winter Soldier'; racing champion: Dominic 'Dom' Toretto, and the member of the X-Men known as 'Scarlet Witch'... Yes, Skye had certainly become one remarkable woman...

The moment Phil's eyes laid on Leah, took in her attire, her expression, and the way she wouldn't let go of his wife... there was no need for any words, the two were a match, they understood each other in a level where words became simply irrelevant at times. It still shocked Sister Millerna, though, as she'd never seen anything like it. The moment the man in the suit stood before her, introduced himself as: Philip James Coulson, Director of SHIELD and Skye's husband... before dropping on one knee in front of the little girl, asking her name and then inquiring if she wanted to join their little family... Skye hadn't even said a word about it yet!

In the end the adoption went by much faster than anyone had had any right to expect, even Skye. Regardless of what she'd said to Alec, she hadn't imagined that Mike (Mike Ross, the lawyer) would be able to finalize everything in three days... yet he did exactly that. In the end it was made easier by several facts: 1) Skye and Phil were already approved as foster/adoptive parents, 2) Leah was considered a special case, being a 'gifted' (though they all did their best to keep that on the down-low), everyone knew her best option for parents would have been either someone from SHIELD, or one of the X-Men, and the fact that important members of both groups backed the Avery-Coulson pair in their claim helped a lot, 3) It would have been next to impossible for anyone to fight against references from important businessmen, heroes, government officials around the world, even the president of the United States! 4) Finally, Sister Millerna's claim that the girl was safer with the prospective parents than in St. Agnes simply couldn't be ignored.

And so, three days later the little family got on Alec's private plane and flew to New York, where everyone was already waiting for them. Mike had even arranged the papers for Leah's new name before he went; she was officially Leah Sarah (in honor of Phil's mother) Avery-Coulson. She had a family!

**xXx**

Six months later it was almost the end of the Summer, and a new Stark benefit gala. That night it was for orphaned gifted. Because after hearing Leah's story, and learning the chances that there were others like her out there, Tony just couldn't stop himself; he also couldn't just donate or even just create a charity and maybe announce it in some small press conference. He was the kind who made as much noise as he could, who made demands of the world and then expected them to fall in line. And since (this time at least) everyone agreed with him, all of SHIELD and most of the Alliance had put their all behind the gala.

Leah was the guest of honor that night. Though Skye wasn't sure it was a good idea at first, her oldest daughter had assured her it was alright. She was proud of being the adopted daughter of Phillip James and Astrid Skye Avery-Coulson, as well as the older sister of stormy-blue eyed, dark-brown haired Lirimaer Jaye Avery-Coulson; who'd been born at the end of May (looking mostly human though with Jotun markings on her skin, and a temperature a degree or two lower than what would be considered normal). Also, the idea that the event might help other children like her, become as fortunate as she felt she was, was more than enough reason for Leah to be willing to stand up to the cameras (though she was quite shy) and smile to everyone.

The family were some of the first to arrive: Skye (who'd recovered her figure almost immediately after giving birth, partly thanks to her special biology) was wearing a pure-white round-necked, sleeveless, knee-length dress with a sheer, violet scarf and heels of the same color; her hair down and her golden skin showing off the tattoos on her wrists and only her favorite jewelry. Phil was in his favorite midnight-blue suit with a crisp white shirt, dark tie and black shoes. Their three month old was in a cute turquoise baby gown, the beginning of chocolate-brown ringlets on her head and bright blue-green-gray eyes (exactly like those of her mother, aunt and grandfather) looking all around her full of curiosity. While Leah stood in a high-necked, sleeveless long green gown that seemed to be made of a gauzy material, with black slippers on her feet, her long shiny hair half up with an emerald clip and half down; she looked as much a princess as her mother and baby sister did.

Hela was in a ¾ sleeved, knee-length off-white dress with silvery appliques and lace as well as silver open-toed heels; Azazeal in his usual black suit, white shirt, dark boots, no tie. Malachi in a child-version of his father's attire, only gray instead of black (he looked quite cute too). Casarmi was in a simple pale blue strapless dress with black heels; though what caught the attention of most was the black-magic rose (a rose of the darkest red, and the closest anyone on Earth had come to a true black rose) pinned just above her heart... a rose that had an aura of magic that belonged to a certain warlock they'd only recently met... called Reid Garwin (the third of the four young men known as the Sons of Ipswich...).

Others from the 'Avery' family arrived too, like Loki (in his favored midgardian attire of grey suit and dark-green scarf) and Tawariel (in a beautiful dark red long dress), Fenrir (in black slacks, shirt and a red tie) with Sif (in a long dress of the darkest pink with a slit to her upper thigh and no back), even the others made brief appearances to show their support to the cause and love to the most recent additions to the family. There were talks among some of them about looking to adopt gifted children themselves.

While the event was very much public they'd managed to keep the press out of most of it by promising exclusive interviews at a certain time and packets of pictures to specific reporters. The one who got to interview the Avery-Coulson quartet was none other than Christine Everheart. The woman usually worked on the West Coast, but Tony'd called her because, apparently, she was one of the few people in the media that he trusted to ask good question and be fair and honest when writing her articles.

They had a specific number of questions for each little family, and short time, so each reporter sought to make the best of it. If any of them was rude, offensive, or asked forbidden questions (like questions about SHIELD's missions, Tony's time in captivity, James's time as the Winter Soldier, or family members who were in no way part of the Alliance) they were sent away and permanently placed in the 'black list'. Such had been the case of one reporter who'd questioned Casarmi's place in the family (more specifically, she was asked if she was their mistress, or pet, or something... Azazeal had almost killed the man, and Hela at least slapped him hard). Christine knew better than that:

"My first question is for Miss Leah, if I may?" The reporter asked, unsure if she would be allowed to question the ten-year-old (who'd only recently begun to look her age).

"As long as you remain respectful, Miss Everheart, you may ask." Phil informed her calmly.

"Of course." The blonde nodded immediately before turning to the girl. "Miss Leah, your recent adoption has caused, shall we say, quite a stir around the world. Some of us would like to know, why did you agree to be adopted by Astrid Avery and Phil Coulson?"

"Because they wanted to adopt me?" It sounded almost more like a question than an answer.

"Don't you think it's... well, dangerous to be their child?" Christine tried to insist.

Finally Leah seemed to understand the question, she snorted.

"Miss, when I was on the orphanage I met a girl who was there because her dad was a fireman and he died doing his job, there were a few who had had one or both parents who worked with the police, or somewhere else in security, and they'd died too." Leah tried to explain. "Many others lose their parents for many other reasons, some that have nothing to do with their jobs. This is no different."

"Maybe for them." Christine just wasn't willing to give the line of questioning up just yet. "But what about the danger being their daughter puts you in?"

"What danger?" The girl asked in turn, looking honestly confused. "Mama and Papa will never let anything happen to me or to Liri!"

"What if they cannot stop it?" Christine pressed.

"My Mama is the most powerful in the whole world!" Leah cried out righteously. "And Papa is a valiant warrior! They will never let anything happen to me or to my sister!"

After just six months as part of the family, the girl already had such faith in them... and it wasn't even the six months, she'd had that faith from the very beginning, from the moment Skye'd first asked her if she wanted to join the family.

"Let me see if I can clarify something." Skye intervened. "Does this have anything to do with Maggie Stark's attempted kidnapping a couple of years ago? And if it does, why aren't you questioning Tony about it rather than harassing my daughter?"

"It was not my intent to harass." Christine backtracked right away, realizing her whole position was at stake. "And I wasn't granted an interview with the Starks... apparently Ms. Potts-Stark doesn't like me..." Which wasn't surprising. "Some of us are worried about the danger whatever kids not only yourself but anyone in your Alliance might adopt would be in, simply for being part of your families. Back during the one interview you gave after your pregnancy was made public you said you had no plans of retiring to take care of your family..."

"And I don't." Skye said strongly but kindly. "You need to understand one thing, Miss Everheart, no child will ever be in any danger just for being with us. I mean that in the sense that all of us have mastered our abilities; and regarding the danger you originally alluded to, let me tell you something you probably do not know about Margaret Stark's attempted kidnapping: Tony Stark knew what was going on from the moment the would-be kidnappers first set foot inside Stark Tower. In fact, he knew the attempt was coming long before that day even. They were watched closely at every moment. The only reason they got as far as they did was because Tony knew that no matter how much he tried to warn people off his family some day someone would be stupid enough to try... he knew that he would need to be hard then, to use that individual as an example, so no one else would try again. That's exactly what happened when Raza and the remains of the Ten Rings stormed the Tower with the intention to kidnap little Maggie. And even if Tony's first plan to stop them and make a show of it had failed, he had over half a dozen contingencies in place, the first and last of which was JARVIS himself, in charge of the tower, he would have never let anything happen to that little girl."

"But not everyone has an AI like JARVIS." Christine pointed out.

"No." Skye admitted. "But we each have our ways."

A second later there were half a dozen blades in the air, all pointed at different parts of Christine's body, two of them particularly close... the reporter froze.

"Arwenamin..." Phil whispered under his breath.

Skye knew she was taking things to the extreme, but she intended to prove a point herself.

"We each have our ways to protect our own." Skye said, sending the blades away. "Don't believe me ignorant of the things that are said about me, just because I choose not to comment on it." She smiled to put Christine at ease again. "I know the stories that circulate, about the scope of my powers, my past, my origins, the family I've surrounded myself with."

"Indeed, you're quite a mystery Ms. Avery." Christine agreed, suddenly eager again. "Will you finally confess to the truth about yourself."

"Of course not!" Skye laughed mischievously at that. "Whyever would I do that? Why would I take away the mystery? People like not knowing everything, Miss Everheart, life would be quite boring without questions left to answer, to try and come up with theories, with different versions of things. It keeps life... interesting. So no, I won't tell you. But I will tell you this, whatever my power, know that I will always use it to protect those I love, no distance will ever be too far for me to go, no task too hard. I was taught one thing when I was young, by my adoptive Papa, and it is that there is nothing in this world more important than family. It's not even about the blood, it's the family you choose that truly matters, doing everything for them; to keep them safe, to make them happy." She took a deep breath before adding. "People have been questioning my decision not to step down from my position as Deputy Director of SHIELD now that I have my two daughters. But what no one seems to understand thus far is... why would I stop doing what I do, when I do it for them?"

"I don't understand..." The reporter admitted.

"The whole reason I joined SHIELD was to make a difference, to do the right thing, and most importantly, to help protect those who could not protect themselves." Skye explained calmly. "I... we fought a war, against Hydra, to achieve that. We've fought battles against Doom, and Amora, and many others, and will keep doing so. And as proud as I might be for what we've managed to do for the world... truth is I did not do it for the world as a whole, I did it for my family..."

"You know, that's not what one would expect heroes to say." The blonde blurted out, shocked by Skye's frankness.

"It's the truth." Phil stated. "Rather than a party-line out of a comic-book. Maybe you expect us to say we fight for the world... but the truth is that no person who's being absolutely honest will ever say that to you, Miss Everheart. Because no person, human or not, could ever possibly take upon their shoulders the responsibility of saving the whole world, and hope to stay sane. We promise to fight for the world, true... but when the moment comes to fight, we always have a focus. Because there's no other way to do what we do. We choose a small number of people, and we focus on saving them. And if in the end we manage to save the whole world, that's good, but it's not what we went in for, and we know it, deep down."

Christine nodded quietly. She still didn't fully understand, then again, she wasn't the kind to be a Warrior, to fight to protect others... so probably trying to understand the way they thought was beyond her. Still, she couldn't help but respect what they did, and all the people they'd protected in the years since they'd been doing it.

She could also respect them choosing not to give up their positions, and choosing to have a family even as they kept fighting. And really, if the little show the brunette had given her was even half of what she could do (and even with her limited knowledge Christine somehow knew it was much less than that) there was no doubt that she could, in fact, protect her loved ones.

"Time's running out." Phil reminded her with a look at his wrist-watch.

"Yes, of course." She nodded. "Just one more question then, for Ms. Avery." She took a deep breath before speaking again. "Among the things said about you, there are those who claim to know you under a myriad of different names: Skye Bennett, Skylar Wright, Karen Starr, Karin Kostan, Xiao Wang, Astrid Avery, Meneliel... which is your real name? Is any of them?"

The question took the half-elf honestly off-guard and she needed to take a moment to think before answering. She'd said she wouldn't be revealing the truth of her full-power, of her past... but there were some things she could say; some things a part of her had been wanting to put into words for a while already:

"I've had many names, that's true." She began quietly, but more confidently as the words came to her. "Due to... certain things I won't go into. I've always been adaptable, one needs to be, to survive. In my case I took it to the extreme, going as far as changing names, changing myself as needed. There was a time when I convinced myself it did not matter, that names weren't really important... I know now that's not completely true. And there is, indeed, one name I consider most important, that I feel like truly mine, above all others, one that is me..." She smiled brightly. "My name... is Skye..."

* * *

><p>First things first: The cast:<p>

Leah - Christina Ricci when she was young (around the time she was in the Adams Family).

Sister Millerna - Carrie Fisher (Imagine an older princess Leah, with short hair).

Sister Reynolds - I actually don't have anyone in mind for her. I dislike her too much to saddle any actress with the part. So she'll be left to your imagination.

Second order of business. A reviewer presented me with a theory of their own concerning the Jotun population, and I loved it. It fits wonderfully with this universe. Regretfully, I cannot really include it in the story itself. So, I'm giving it to you here (I liked it that much).

I said that Jotun had more males than females, many more. I never said why (never planned a specific reason, to be honest). The theory presented to me by JPElles states that, being a warring race, they would want (and need) more males, therefore some magic in their own biology, gave them more males than females. In the present, with no more war, that would see the numbers of their females rise. Also, having met Loki and his family, they know that it is possible, at least for some of their race, to mate with others, which would allow for more hybrids in the upcoming generations. It all fits well with my plan of peace and harmony throughout the realms.

I didn't plan on Leah at first, she just came to my mind one day and I couldn't not include her. She's also a good representation of the future, I think. Lirimaer on the other hand... that girl has been in the cards almost as long as Menel has been a series. To be honest, I planned her first, then introduced the whole thing of Skye being unable to have children (and even that I did not do until I have a more-or-less decent plan on how to reverse that when the time came... the Norns weren't actually in the cards at the time, but the blessing was). The name was important, as it's a connection back to the beginning, of Skye's life as well as of the series.

Christine Everheart was included for two reasons: to present the whole 'protect your family' thing, and because I couldn't think of another reporter. On that note, if anyone can guess where Mike Ross is from (I didn't create him), you get virtual cookies! (I have nothing else to offer). Emma Swan is a character from "Once Upon a Time", she was a last second addition, if you don't know her or the series, don't worry.

Like I've been saying time and again, this is the end. I know at least some would have liked to see me go into the conflict with Thanos and the Infinity War (especially with the alternate version already mentioned). However, I cannot think of how it would go, other than Skye would make sure never to become the Infinity Lady (meaning she would never lay claim to any stone). Also, take in consideration the kind of Alliance we have here, without Ragnarok lessening their numbers, they have a much better chance at it... I just don't have it in me to write it (if anyone else wants to take the chance, you're free to, just let me know so I may read what you write).

I have other responsibilities: two series of fics that require my attention, as well as other works. Then there's my first original novel which was just published last August (if anyone's interested, you can find it in Amazon, under the same name I use here... it's in Spanish, as that's my first language).

Regarding the other series: To those whom it may concern... I'm about to dive straight back into Nightingale, more specifically: Nexus, the sequel, which will include my take on Thor 2, and a few other things.

Finally, I would love it if more people commented, at least this last chapter. As a way to celebrate the finale. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't, I'm open to suggestions, constructive criticism, and if you're readers of any of the other two series, I will welcome requests for them as well (not for Menel, this one is truly finished, I'm afraid). Please! I really, really hope we might be able to surpass the numbers we achieved when this all began (the original Menel One-Shot) which were 24 right here and 14 on Ao3.

Thank you all for following me on this awesome journey, even when it got more than a little insane. Hope to see you around! Namarië!


End file.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers, Family, Romance