A Change To The Worlds
It was time for the handmaidens to change. The younger acolytes were gathered to see the newest one appointed. The old handmaiden was looking over the acolytes for atypical problems. Most of them had this down pat, their orders were absolute, their needs were known. The orders had been around longer than history had been written, always a handmaiden overlooking priestesses who trained acolytes for the time of a mortal life then another was appointed to be the handmaiden of their Goddess.
Though now and then one did get missorted. The handmaiden for Life and Family stared at her acolytes. Something was wrong. She blinked a few times. "Melinda?" she asked quietly. That girl looked up at her. "You know you serve a Goddess of family and life, correct?" she asked. The girl nodded slowly. "Then how do you expect to do that when you don't want children?"
"I can take care of the children already born, making a new family whole by protecting their lives and happiness, Handmaiden Alana."
She considered that. "That's actually a good answer. Are you sure you want to go down this path later on? It'll mean things can be different for you."
She nodded. "I want to nurture those who're already born but need a family. Darcy and I both do."
Darcy bowed to her. "That's true, Handmaiden Alana. I would rather adopt."
"Why?" she asked. "You are much like our Goddess, Darcy."
She sighed, looking at her. "I'm also infertile. I told them that," she said, starting to tear up at the odd look she was getting.
"Hush." She came over to calm her down. She was so young, only fourteen. "You nurture very well, Darcy. You do the Goddess' work, even though you can't have children. That may keep you from being a handmaiden however. Both of you." They nodded they knew that. "Melinda, isn't your mother a priestess of the Sun and Darcy, yours a priestess of Magic?"
"Yes, ma'am," they both replied.
She sighed mentally. "Is that why you serve, girls? You don't have to. It's not forced on our families."
"I serve because I wish to serve," Melinda said, staring at her. "Children will need my nurturing and life giving, Handmaiden Alana."
"All right, I can see that. There's places in family and life for those who take care of the ones who're not theirs by blood." She looked at Darcy. "You, Darcy?"
"I wasn't sure which," she admitted, staring at her. "They all interest me in some ways, Handmaiden Alana. The Searcher was most confused but agreed I was an acolyte. He put me in yours as I do tend to take care of those who need comfort."
"Hmm. Did Handmaiden Hortense know that?" She nodded, biting her lip. "Well! I wish she had told me!" She smiled at her. "It's not a fault. Some of us do hold more than one's area in our hearts." She ruffled the girl's hair with a smile. "My two mothers were a Celestial priestess and a changer, Darcy. I'm well aware of how you get torn at but find a niche in the middle somewhere."
The girl brightened at that. "But that does mean that you probably won't be rising up the ranks. The Goddess chooses those who do Her will fully, not with intertwining. There's special places for those that intertwine," she assured her. "But being a straight priestess isn't usually one of them. Outside maybe the Handmaiden for Lady Magic."
"If I had that skill," Darcy sighed, staring at her.
"Point." She patted her again. "We'll talk later, during a conference. That way I can make your mother see the right way your path should go. I foresee you finding many who need you to nurture them and it will change history, Darcy." She went back to the altar to pray that at her Goddess, who surely knew but may not have noticed it.
Darcy was the sweetest, most hyper child ever sometimes. Bouncy, smart, smart mouthed, and yet caring and liked to cook and fuss at people. She felt her Goddess acknowledge that idea and it would do the girl good to get into the world. She was a changer, she'd do fine as a semi-normal who knew but didn't *know*. Her place wasn't as a priestess or a handmaiden, it was out there doing the real work of fussing at people.
She got a Message and looked at the girl. "Darcy, look for Celestial sorts later. They'll need you to help shape the future. The Goddess wills it." The girl nodded, biting her lip again. "Many of us end up doing the work without wearing the chitons, ladies. Most of you won't stay in the temple. You'll go out, find your life and family, show the Goddess your devotion by how you practice the ideals of Life and Family." They nodded at that wisdom.
Darcy sneezed and partially changed then changed back as quickly to cover that up. The handmaiden grinned at that silliness. The girl reminded her of her mother. She truly did.
***
Just after her twenty-fourth birthday, Darcy met her first Celestial follower. Who had no idea what she was doing. She had no idea about the Goddesses, or changers, or anything else. It was amusing and Darcy could nudge her toward things.
Jane stared at her. "That's old religious nonsense."
"Not really." She smiled. "People have studied the stars and their patterns forever, Janey bug. Some of them knew more than we do today. We don't know half of what the Egyptians knew about the stars. If they could use them to find the circumference of the earth within feet before there was even the concept of algebra...."
"Yes but that was lost and now it's just semi-religious mumbo jumbo, Darcy."
Darcy leaned closer. "Then the changers wouldn't exist," she said quietly then smiled. "I'm proof it's not all that way, Jane." She sat up again. Jane gaped at her. She shrugged but smiled and nodded.
"You know about them? You hear some weird things about changers taking in families of their human servants to have educated with their own kids."
"No, Jane, my family of dragons has never had servants," she said dryly, making Jane flinch and stare at her. She smiled and nodded. "Though, my mother was a priestess."
"Wow." She blinked a few times. "So you got educated that way?"
"That too. That was after school. Like catechism for Catholic kids." She shrugged but smiled. "I had changer lessons some days too."
"Wow." She tucked her chin down then looked at her. "Did they keep stuff on the stars?"
"Not a ton. Rome got there. And then the Church got there," she said dryly. "The Celestial orders kept track of things like solar events and convergences. A lot for the Goddess of Magic's people because it matters to them. They have information on star patterns and shifts. I know that much, it's in a textbook. Which I did ask Mom if she could get a copy of for you."
"Thanks!" She smiled. "I had no idea they were still around."
"Many of us hid from the churches somehow, Jane. Sometimes in plain sight. There's a religious order of nuns who're actually priestesses. They got made to convert to not be killed sometime in the fourteen hundreds."
"Celestial? Or whatever they're called?"
"Moon actually."
"Moon?"
"The seven Absolute Goddesses, which every culture has always paid homage to. Every single culture had someone in their pantheon of belief that covered that area. Sun, Moon, Celestial, Earth, Magic, Death, and Life/Family. It's said that the Moon Goddesses handmaidens are willowy and mentally whisper thin, the Sun Goddesses handmaidens fiery tempered warrior bitches.
"Celestial maidens tend to be more stout and less earthy. Death's handmaidens are usually great fighters but not always. Death doesn't just mean wars and assassinations. Death's a natural part of life that was celebrated and revered yet feared.
"Some are agents and assassins, or warriors and soldiers. Not all though. The Goddess of Life and Family tend to be very motherly sorts. Though a few I know can't have kids and are going to mother and nurture those they adopt."
"The ones for the Goddess of Magic?" Jane asked, looking confused.
"Tend to be Fae or a relative," she said dryly. "That's kind of an exclusive club."
"Yours?"
"My mother was Fae raised. But we're changers. That can happen sometimes."
"So you went to the temple for the Goddess of Magic?"
Darcy snorted, staring at her. "How often do I nag you to eat, Jane?"
"Oh, the family one then." Darcy grinned and nodded. "Wow. Is that just a changer thing?"
"No. The girls I was raised with mostly weren't changers. There was a deer changer in there in an older class than mine. One of the younger ones was some sort of herbivore changer. Not sure what type." She shrugged but smiled again.
"I had no idea that even still existed."
Darcy nodded. "It's not hidden but in a lot of areas, churches still get really mad at the old ways being seen. Call us all sorts of pretty names. A few tried to burn the temples because they weren't godly. All that beautiful stuff humanity should be over long before now."
"Can your mom get me that textbook?"
Darcy pulled her phone over to text her mother, who agreed she was getting it. "Yeah, she said that's fine. The handmaiden over the current priestesses is really interested in what you'll do with it and if it'll help at all." She thanked her mother then put the phone back down.
"Handmaiden? Like an advanced priestess?"
"No, the Handmaiden is the top one. The only one that talks to the Goddess directly. In terms like the Catholic church uses, she'd be considered a saint. There's a high priestess over each order who'd be like a Pope like being. Which has brought some arguments." She shrugged a bit.
"The Celestials had a huge fight with the Magic priestesses over Galileo. So much drama," she said with a hand wave in the air. "So so much drama." Jane giggled. "Just mentioning his name will get an argument started among those two groups. It's forbidden to start though."
"Were there funny rules?"
"No. Not really. Though they did really up my baking game." She grinned. "Casseroles not so much but baking is my thing."
"Huh." She nodded at that. A package twinkled into being on a table nearby so Darcy grabbed it and let Jane have the textbook. "That's neat."
Darcy just grinned. "Yeah, my mom's pretty cool most of the time."
"Thank her for me." She dug into the textbook that noted star shift patterns. They weren't wholly pertinent to her field of study but she could probably do a lot with them. It at least gave her historical data to look at.
Darcy got up to make Jane food, because Jane never ate without being nagged. Now she understood why she got asked to look after Celestial leaning people.
***
SHIELD showed up and Darcy was not having it. She was nervous about being arrested but changed, then and there, staring at the agents bothering Jane. She settled down in front of the doorway, staring at the agent in charge, who was horrified. "Howdy." The guy backed away slowly. "In case this doesn't hit the conscious mind, I'm protecting Jane and Erik. Completely, people. And that new guy who's Thor by the way."
She looked at one agent. "You smell tainted, like bad meat. You should get to a medical person soon to have it checked, dude." She looked at them again. "So." She smirked a bit. "What're we going to do about you guys being thieves?"
"The local Council will probably yell at you," one said.
Darcy shrugged. "Yay? My mom heads ours in Virginia. All they can do is complain but I can point out I'm protecting my charges." She looked at that guy again. "Really. Hit someone medical. Today. You smell like you're about to die from whatever's wrong with your liver. Then we can all watch you die." He hurried off. She looked at the new agent in charge who had just gotten there. "Hey." She smiled at him. "So.... Why are you guys thieves?"
"Are they your hoard?" he asked calmly.
"No, they're under my protection," she said firmly. "And don't try bullshit with me, Agent Coulson. Even if the one trying to fix the tranq dart, he won't win. They don't work on dragons."
"We have ones that do," he admitted.
She leaned down to stare at him. "No, you don't. They faked it." She smirked. "We talked to them. They had to send in reports to multiple Councils. Mom got a copy for me just in case." She put her head back up.
"Darcy, this is not your battle," Thor said quietly.
She looked at him. "Shut the hell up, Thor. I alone decide what battles I take part in. The same as you would've." He shrank down at that. "And go make Jane drink some water." He went to do that. She looked at the agents again once she had blocked the doorway completely. One did fire a tranq dart at her. She giggled and let it lay there then plucked it out to hand to Coulson. "So....."
"We believe it's in the best interests of security for humanity...."
"If you guys gave up and died as an agency since you're responsible for whole lots of stolen science things being sold to terrorists?" she interrupted. "So do we!" She grinned and nodded. She yawned then waved a paw. "Still not you guys. Jane kept me up all night." She shifted to get comfortable, staring at Coulson. "The fact is, SHIELD is responsible for selling sixteen different terrorist groups stolen information.
"Including what happened in Buena Vista last month," she said dryly. "You're also responsible for attacking some priestesses who just wanted to live life because they wouldn't work for your jack booted thugness." She yawned again but sighed and did the small spell. It kept her awake and made her sigh in pleasure. "Magical coffee infusion," she shared with a grin.
Coulson's eyes went wide as he stared at her. "First, how did you do magic? That's not something most dragons can do."
She giggled. "The change itself is based in magic, Agent Coulson. Didn't you learn that already?" He blinked a few times. "Also, the world's a wider place than you think. Will someone bitch at me for protecting people from you? Yup, sure will. Because it's not supposed to be my job. Pity because I'm here."
She swatted Thor, making him go back inside. "And you're not getting Jane's science at all. Because you guys funnel it to terrorist groups for profit. Jane's science can probably destroy something. We're not going to let that happen. Ever."
"We can arrest you."
She nodded. "You can try. It won't matter. It really won't." He glared. She stared back, shaking her head with a sigh. "You're so mortal and muggle to use a book term. It's really annoying. What are you hiding, Agent Coulson? Did you not know your bosses sold things to terrorists?
"I mean, you're worse than the CIA at that stuff. It's all over the underground. Including what you guys stole so we can all be on watch for it. Like the thing with the sedative dart. She encoded things and it's not the right formula."
"We reworked it."
"Hmm. Yeah, sure," she said, bending her face down closer to his. "If you can *prove* to me that nothing of Jane's will get out, I might move. But you can't, because it already has." She put her head back up. "Jane, get my laptop please? Log me into the bulletin board out of Culver?"
Jane brought it out. "I have no idea where that is, Darcy."
Darcy changed back to use the laptop, showing the agent the bulletin board. "You can't prove you aren't. You've already fucked up with us."
He took it to read and winced. "That was not us."
She clicked on a link to a video. "Yeah, that's you guys. That's off Jane's board from yesterday. You took pictures." She took the laptop back to hand back to Jane then changed back, staring at him. "I don't care if that hammer thingy drew you here. If Thor himself did. Whatevs, dude. Jane's science is too dangerous to let fall into thug hands. At all."
"We can still arrest you for obstruction."
She giggled, staring at him. "Sure, you can try that. And we get to tell them why since that stuff was used earlier. It's on the news. We can prove that." He looked at one of his agents, who was looking that up. Coulson made a displeased sound. "Until the time that SHIELD isn't the problem in the world, you will leave Jane Foster and Erik Selvig the hell alone.
"Or else I have to proclaim a blood feud. Which may seem ballsy of me but I have friends who'd probably love to help me. Including the other scientists that you've stolen from. Who then had to defend themselves because you sold their stuff and it hurt people. I know that bulletin board mentions eight different lawsuits."
"I saw that notice," he admitted. "We want to figure out what's going on."
"A hammer fell from the sky and then Thor landed?" she guessed, looking at Thor, who sighed but nodded. She looked at Coulson again. "People are doing the actual work that SHIELD should but you're being a pain in my tail." She yawned again. "Oh! That's why." She looked at her other side and bit something, then sighed as it popped.
"Sorry. Little bug thing bit me last night." She looked at him again after spitting a few times. "If I have to proclaim Jane my family I can do that." She shrugged. "We can't let SHIELD have a single thing. I know you'll still try. And I want my i-Pod back as it was a present from my late father."
"Your father's alive."
"That's my stepfather, Coulson. One of two. My biological father died when I was seventeen." She summoned her i-Pod back then put the earbuds in and laid down in front of the door again. "So. I guess we're done with this negotiation as you can't prove your intentions are honest or good. SHIELD has no good faith. Or good ideas." She stared at him. "Anything else today?"
"We do have to confiscate that again."
"Try," she offered. He tried to make a grab for it and Darcy nearly bit his head off. He backed off looking alarmed. She smiled. "I am a protective matriarch. Bit young but still....." He backed up another step. "I can't let you guys endanger the world. Sorry." She put her head back down, rocking out to her music.
Coulson made a hand motion. "We'll regroup and come back to have a polite dialogue later, Miss Lewis."
"Sure. You do that." She waved a paw. She stared at him. "It won't change that Jane's science was used earlier to rob a bank." He grimaced at that, stomping off with his thugs. "Have a great day," she called with a wave after them.
"I thought matriarchs had children," Thor said quietly.
"Some of us adopted," she said dryly. He piped down again, going to talk to Jane and Erik about things while Darcy rested in the sun with her i-Pod.
"So about that magic being in the quantum sphere," Jane quipped. Thor sighed but explained it better to her.
"Sure, you believe that," Darcy called. "Because there's not the handmaidens, Thor." He shuddered at that fact. She got back to resting and healing the injury from that stupid bug that had tried to poison her.
***
Coulson came back alone that night at dinnertime. "That agent was poisoned," he admitted. "Thank you for informing him so he could get treated."
"I hate to see people die," she admitted, staring at him. She was back in human form so she could bake. It was hard to bake with paws. She always overworked the bread dough. "Did you figure out who sold Jane's science?"
"I did and he's in jail."
"Good of you. Thanks," Jane shot back from her seat. She accepted her plate and moaned. "Thanks, Darcy."
"Welcome, Jane." She handed one to Thor then to Erik, who grinned at her. "You're welcome too." She put hers on the table then looked at the agent again. "We don't use polite guest rules here. Not for agents."
"I understand those protocols, Miss Lewis. We believe Thor is a danger and that hammer is a problem."
"Then again, your boss is paranoid. Very paranoid. Has PTSD too." He nodded that was true. "You've already proven we can't trust you. Even if they worked for you, they'd never share things with SHIELD."
"Her science has the potential to create a new arms race."
Jane snorted. "The Einstein-Rosen bridge? I doubt that."
"It could lead to multiple break-ins of sensitive areas," he told her.
She stared at him. "Do I look like the Bimbo of Science that Dr. Meyers is?" Erik Selvig laughed at that, shaking his head. "I know I'm blonde but not that species of them. I'm from a whole different genus." She ate a bite and moaned. "Oooh, when did we get cloves, Darcy?"
"I found a few and made sure they were okay," she said, looking at Coulson again. "You guys can investigate the hammer all you want, Agent Coulson. That's not ours. If it's Thor's then it'll come back to him when it's ready. Magical artifacts as talked about as she is for her ability to choose someone worthy would be able to do that." He winced at that. "But I won't let you turn Jane into your puppet. Or me. Or Erik. Or probably Thor."
"I can protect myself, Darcy," he offered.
She looked at him. Then at Coulson again. "He's like twenty-two."
"Oh." He sighed, putting his hands into his pocket. "We're still going to monitor you."
She nodded. "I can make sure photos won't show up on her board."
"How?"
She grinned. "That science called reflection. There's windows and they make stuff to cover them that won't block out light but will block out photos. They often use it on car windows."
"Oh, that stuff. We can tape past it."
"And get blurry pictures," she shot back.
"Point. We don't want to seem hostile."
Darcy snorted. "Yeah, sure you don't," she said sarcastically. "All you've done is be hostile and prove you're a threat to us. Someday all of this stuff is going to hit more than various science students. Then what is SHIELD going to do when it implodes?"
"We'll rebuild," he said. "We're not that evil."
She stared at him then leaned closer. "One of the lawsuits was how you used Dr. Delvanica's thesis from her undergrad and took out a foreign orphanage that was also fronting for an arms dealer," she told him. Then she straightened up. Jane spluttered at that. "Didn't move the kids either." He frowned, looking that up. She called up the story for him, letting him have his phone back.
"That was the CIA." He stared at her.
She pointed at something in a picture. "That's your agent. He was here earlier before I sent him off for being sick. So we'll get to see him die slowly as he realizes it. At least he can make any plans for any family he has, like a plant or something as I doubt he could handle a real family."
He enlarged that and stared. Then swallowed and nodded. "That is him. I'm going to see what that was. It was listed as a CIA op." He stared at her. "We would not normally hurt children. We would've found a way to get the arms dealers outside that."
"Yet, Stark," she shot back. "And all that stuff that got left there when he escaped. Where is it?" He blinked slowly. "I'm assuming that you guys confiscated it since news reports have your people in his panties with him."
"I was not aware we confiscated it."
"Then who did?"
"I need to check into that," he admitted, sending in that question. He looked at her. "We'll still have you under surveillance. You're also in very deep trouble."
She shrugged. "I'm doing what comes by instinct and nature. You bothered my nest."
He scratched his eyebrow. "I can see that problem but...."
"No buts, Agent Coulson." She sighed. "You can argue all you want. It doesn't deter the fact that I'm in the right even legally. There's legal reasons to obstruct and evade capture when the evil is trying to get you. You're as bad as other kidnapers apparently and I'm not going to let Jane fall into your trap. At all. If she wants to work for SHIELD I'll help her set up protocols that'll mean no one can hack her computer. As I did earlier."
"I noticed."
She grinned. "I'm not super great but I tend to be good enough."
He nodded with a sigh. "I've noticed that earlier today." He stared at her. "We'd rather work with you."
"Hell. No," Jane said. "You stole my work and it got used to hurt a bank full of people." She ate another bite, not looking that way.
Coulson nodded. "That was not the intention, Dr. Foster."
"The road to hell and all that," Jane quipped.
"I'll be looking into that and stopping those," he told Darcy. "You're correct that it is wrong of us to do that."
She nodded. "Have fun with that. I doubt you're going to find too many agents who're actually clean of those sort of problems. Also, tell that archer guy that he's sweet to buy me a coffee yesterday and I'll pounce him to hug him for it later."
"I can tell him," he sighed, staring at her. "He's one of us."
She smiled. "Is he?"
"He's an agent."
"Not by his profile. He's a freelancer by his profile in your system."
"I need to look at that to see if someone fixed his file on him." He nodded once. "We'll be monitoring you."
She nodded. "Have fun watching us pull wedgies of the universe out of our buttcracks, dude." He walked off shaking his head. She came in and sat down, digging into her dinner. She and Jane shared a look then she looked at Erik, who was sighing and shaking his head. "What? Didn't want adopted?" she guessed.
"No, I'm fine with that. It could bring more trouble onto your shoulders, Darcy."
"Or they could realize I'm right and they're core rotted," she said. "It took them less than a full day to prove what sort of beings they were."
"True," he agreed with a nod and a sigh. "They do give some grants for specific work."
"Then you go for it, Dr. Selvig. If that's what you wanna do." She shrugged. "I can't let myself or Jane fall into their hands."
"Jane agrees," she said. "They don't need my work. They don't need to test Thor for being an alien either." Thor nodded since his mouth was full. She looked at Darcy. "Can you do a lot of that magic stuff?"
"No, not really." She grinned. "We're all blessed with a tiny bit since we can change."
"Huh." She nodded, digging in again. They'd talk about all this tomorrow, when they weren't running on adrenaline from the agents being thugs.
***
Darcy was scared, truly scared. That Destroyer thing was going to destroy the whole town. Even if Thor gave himself up. She knew he was Thor, really Thor, could feel the magic around him. She had no idea about all that had happened, yet, but she knew he was the real thing. But the Destroyer was focusing on the remaining people. It blew some fire near them and she instinctively changed to shield Jane. "Hell. No," she growled. The robot stared at her then at Thor, trying for him again. "Jane, back."
"Darcy!" she complained.
"Jane, move back by a few feet please!" she demanded but sounded a bit panicky. This was not what she was ready to do today. It really wasn't. Lady Sif nicely pulled Jane back for her. "Thank you, Sif." She changed back and moved with them. Thor was stomping out to go talk to his brother's creation. Which was great. Darcy stared, holding onto Jane. Jane was the sort to do the heroine thing and go running at her hero in distress.
Thor died, came back to life thanks to his sacrifice, and was back to normal Thorness apparently. Jane did get free to go meet him at the battle site. The robot was depowered but Darcy was staring at it. "We need to destroy the robot," she said quietly. "Erik, tools! That thing can wake back up! IT'S STILL ACTIVE!" she shouted at the agents, waving at the robot. She could tell that Loki was still powering it. His magic was still there.
Erik handed her the tool bag. "Are you sure, Darcy?"
"Yeah. Damn sure." She hurried over to look at it. "Of course it's up there." She sighed and climbed, not very successfully. But it needed to be done.
Agent Coulson came over. "Miss Lewis?"
"There's still magic. He can repower it."
"What do we need to remove? We want to examine it."
"Examine the parts. Never put it back together again," she said dryly. "Because someone else could power it. Loki and Thor aren't the only ones with magic on this planet." She pointed. "That's the access hatch."
The archer guy she had liked for buying her coffee came over to climb up there. "I need a philips," he said. She handed up the tool bag for him. He stared. "This thing's not really wired."
"I need to see. If there's crystals there's ways to remove them safely." They helped her up there and she looked then took off her outer shirt to cover her hands so she could reach in to grab the crystal. It still zapped her good. "Oh, shit," she said, rubbing her forehead.
"Jane, tell him not to go yet!" she bellowed. "That damn crystal just gave me a vision!" She still got it free, getting zapped again. Another vision, this one more minor. She panted but handed it over. "Behead it," she said, looking at the archer. "Anyone with significant magic could power it."
She got helped down and rushed over, grabbing Thor's arm. "The vision showed you sending Loki into the Void during your battle," she said, staring at him, eyes unfocused from the headache. "Don't. It'll lead to him being captured, tortured, and coming back to invade the world."
She swallowed. "Also, make nice with your older sister. Before you have to use Sutur's head." He flinched, staring at her. She stared back, panting. "If he falls, all is lost. Including your mother during the convergence coming up next year and a bit."
Thor blinked. "Tell me everything, Darcy." She explained what she had seen. Thor listened then nodded. "I will take that counsel and save him from falling. Even by his own hand," he said quietly. "Though we will be having words anyway." He looked at Jane, giving her a kiss before stomping off to go into the desert to go back home with his friends so they could fight this problem.
The archer guy came over because he was the only agent she wouldn't rip into shreds for getting near Jane. "Can we get a report on that vision?" he asked calmly and quietly.
She looked at him, nodding. "Because if Loki falls, he's captured. He's tortured. He's coming back under that one's power to take out Manhattan. And you're going to destroy SHIELD for him." He blinked but caught her before she passed out.
Jane sighed. "That's not good." She and Erik helped him get Darcy back to a soft surface so she could rest. She told him what Darcy had told Thor, getting a nod back. "I have no idea about any of this. This isn't scientific in the least."
"No, I get that. It's kinda creepy," he said with a grin. "SHIELD sees many weird things. This is a bit more than that for even us." He sighed, looking at Darcy then wrote out an email address. "Have her send me a copy so we can go over it. That way I can take precautions?"
"I can do that," Erik assured him with a nod.
"Thanks, guys." He went to tell the others. Coulson gave him a horrified look that he hadn't debriefed her. "She's snoring," he told him. "It'll be tomorrow. She can email."
"Point," he said mildly. "Let's hope that...Thor can manage it then."
Jane leaned out. "If one of you has Darcy's phone, I need to let her mother know in case there's something about dragons that could make her hurt worse." It was found and handed over. "Thanks." She opened her text message app and found her mother's name then sent one starting out that it was Jane, not Darcy, and why it was Jane and not Darcy.
Her mother sent back a very short swear word then a minute later a recipe for something to ease the headache and an order to have her record it if she could. Jane said she'd probably be able to email it the same time as she did to SHIELD. Which got another swear word sent. Jane grinned at that. Then another order. "If you can do that," she said, sending that back and about how Darcy had decided to adopt them as her nestlings to protect them from SHIELD. That didn't get an answer.
***
Jane blinked as the agents the next day were staring at a woman walking over from a rental car. She nudged Darcy with her knee. "Is she yours?"
"That's my 'aunt'," she said, going to the doorway at a hobble. She had fallen off the couch and twisted her ankle. "Auntie."
"Darcy." She walked closer, tipping her chin up. "Hmm. You really did adopt some people to be your family, didn't you?" Darcy nodded slowly. "Well, that's sweet, dear. Now, tell me what's going on with that vision."
She stared at her. "I know you're an aunt in quotes, Auntie. And a high priestess."
"I am." She smiled. "And you seem to read more on my own spectrum. How did they want you to be a hearth goddess follower, child?"
"The Searcher said I had a few I could go toward but that was dominant?"
"That figures." She took Darcy with her into the desert to talk to her about what had happened, why it had happened, and what else was probably going to happen now that she had adopted family. Because Jane's aura shone of the protection magic on her. Finally they stared at each other. "Handmaiden Hilary, over my own order, sent a message to you. Even if the Seven are absolute, one can undo or redo things sometimes when must needs."
Darcy blinked, shifting to her other side. "How?"
"It's an emergency. Sometimes the Goddesses will hear prayers from others."
"They probably get them all. They just listen harder to the handmaidens," she said. "That's why you're priestesses."
"True."
"Am I the one in that prophecy?"
"I do not know if it's you or your Jane." She shrugged. "It could be hers."
"She has no idea about any of this. I had to tell her about the Goddesses. Didn't go into detail but I had to tell her that they existed."
She sighed. "Not everyone pays attention to it, even these days when we're resurgent." She patted her on the cheek. "Fly back, child. I'll escape those agents being nosy."
"Yes, ma'am." She changed and did that. Her aunt drove off in the opposite direction to head back to report to the handmaiden. They had found more and more acolytes were being split between the Goddesses. Things weren't as simple anymore. Darcy had used the powers of the Goddess of Death's priestesses without realizing it. Plus her own home temple of Life and Family. It was odd. But that one prophecy was disturbing. Was it Darcy? Was it Jane? Was it someone else?
***
Erik looked at Darcy a few days later. "The Seven Goddesses. Why not something like love?"
"It's an emotion, not an absolute." She looked at him. "It's something that many feel, but not all, and it's different for everyone and even in different situations. The Seven are all Absolute. That's capitalized. Even if we change planets, there's still the stars, the moon, the planet, the sun, death, life, and we'd make family, and even if magic was weak there, there'd be energy to call upon for them."
He considered that. "But everyone has emotions."
"Yes, but not all of them experience them. Not everyone knows what love is, and real love is rare, Erik. Love differs if you're talking about how you love your kids or your wife versus how you love coffee." He snorted but nodded he understood that. "Not everyone gets to feel those. At all.
"Some people never learn what love is, even if it's in their lives. They have something they consider good enough basically and close enough." She shrugged. "Is that enough for them, yes. Even if they have their own kids and try to teach them what love is, they often learn that it's close enough. It's an emotion that can slip past you so easily."
"I can see that." He considered it. "Most people would've considered a love or a war god one of the absolutes though."
She shook her head. "War is a *thing* that doesn't have to happen. War is something we gifted onto ourselves. The hatred, the anger, is something we give to each other. Even at minor levels. Love's the same way. It's something we gift to others. We're all sorts of balls of emotions but we feel them differently. Even if you'd talk about how you love a wife, someone else will feel just as strongly but differently about how they love their spouse."
"I get that. In both cases. So the seven?"
"Death, life and family, magic, sun, moon, stars, earth. All absolutes even if you're on a ship in space."
"Magic could just be personal energy."
She smiled. "Magic is personal energy that you're able to use. The stories about us praying at deities to get it, not true. It's all self based. We can add onto it and channel it sometimes, but that's something that takes a lot of training."
"Your mother?"
"She learned since she was little but she's actually a acting as a priestess of Death. She's a hospice nurse. As she put it, she eases their path by making it less stressful on them to go there."
"So death isn't war and assassinations or just murder."
"No. Nurses and docs deal with it daily as their career." She shifted to face him better. "Death is an absolute because no one can escape it. Not even things that think they're immortal. They may be picky to kill but they still can't fully escape Death. Some people see the end result and want to help those ease their way into it.
"To learn to celebrate that which was ended. Funeral directors mostly." He grinned and nodded at that. "Nurses and docs fight it every day though. Them, they're in a war against Death. And she's happy about it because someone should care about the life that's close to ending."
"Not the life and family?"
"No. She's a hearth, a marriage, a ...a living life Goddess."
"Not everyone has a family."
"They're still living a life, even if it's not a happy one." She stared at him. "No, sometimes you get those loners that are miserable. And sometimes it's not their faults they're miserable and alone. But they're still living a life. Even if it's one that you don't appreciate for them."
"I can understand that. Family comes into that."
"Most people come from somewhere," she agreed dryly, smirking at him. "Even if they're given up for adoptions they had a set of parents somewhere."
"Point. So is birth one?"
"No." She shook her head. "Half the population can't do that. And another ten to twenty percent can't for medical reasons beyond not having a uterus."
"I didn't think about that. The stars are always there. The sun and the moon are always there. The earth is of course. Life happens because we're alive. Death happens. Magic?"
"Energy. There's personal energy all around us. In some ways, Star Wars got it a bit right. The Force is all around you. Sometimes it nudges you with things like sixth sense or feelings of oddness. Sometimes you can ignore it. The same as you guys can ignore things like family. Doesn't mean it's not there, it's just not something you all think about."
"Huh." He considered that. "Jane's bridge."
"Calls on huge bits of cosmic energy, not personal energy." She smiled. "Though it'd still probably fall underneath that category as it is energy distribution."
"I can understand that. Did Jane ask?"
"No. It gives her science a headache."
"It gives me one too," he admitted. She grinned, punching him on the arm. "Did you train or something?"
"Almost all the priestesses have regular jobs these days. It's only some retirees who can retire to a temple to clean it and take care of it while teaching the younger kids. I did learn a lot. Including upping my baking game a lot." She smiled.
"Do you do daily prayers?"
"No, I send a shout-out to them every now and then. A lot of mine are 'thanks for letting the bread rise in this weird lack of humidity out here' ones right now. And thanks for Jane surviving Thor."
He nodded. "He could've really crushed her in bed."
"I don't think they got quite that far but he's also aware I'm going to smite him if he does."
"I had the same talk with him," he admitted. Then he sighed. "That lady?"
"Auntie? She's a priestess that was over Mom's training. Aunt in quotes."
"Ah." He nodded. "That makes more sense. Many kids have those."
"Many of us."
"How did you pick where you trained?"
"There's Searchers, who figure out which way we're tilted. In my case, and I'm guessing a lot of us, we can be in more than one temple's area but they pick the one that best suits our personalities and future wants. I got put under the family goddess because I'm a nurturer and I fuss at people who need it." She looked at Jane, who was asleep on her laptop, then at Erik. "At least there's no drool this time."
He laughed. "She can do that." He went back to his own science, picking up that textbook Darcy had gotten for Jane. It was interesting and held a lot of information that he could've used a few years back to make his earlier sciencing easier.
Darcy got back to her data entry. It needed to be done for both scientists.
***
Jane and Darcy were in London with Erik when SHIELD showed up the next time. Long after they were needed but that was just like them. Jane stared at the agent there to annoy her, then walked off shaking her head. "I need to use Darcy's i-Pod," she told herself. "So I can ignore things."
"That's why there's margs," Darcy quipped, staring at the agents. "See, there you go! You can do something *good* for a change," she quipped with a hand wave. "Since we called you yesterday about all this and then six hours ago when it started!" She walked off after Jane shaking her head. "This is getting totally stupid."
Jane looked at her. "The agents? I thought they already were."
"Humanity." She glanced around then at Jane. Who sighed and shook her head but it would be fine. They'd figure it out and evade notice for a bit. The ones at the college that had been hit by the portals, they were fine. The ones who had helped the students being affected were mostly fine. A few had gotten some light combat injuries. The college itself was a wreck and on lockdown for the rest of the week until they could find all the damage and assess it. Clearly their library at least wasn't safe to be around.
The agents shared a look then got to work cleaning up and covering up the mess. Too late since social media and regular news reporters had gotten the videos of it. Including of Thor on the subway. People were analyzing the videos to see who people were. A few were more easily identified through the college's system. Some because they were avoiding their mother's calls. Their mothers called the news people to report their son being there to ask if they were okay.
A few parents just drove to go check on their kids and swat them for stepping into a battle that way. The one changer on the campus who had helped guard an area was hiding from the local community council. They were going to fuss so hard. She didn't want to hear it so she was getting drunk in that same bar. Thankfully the officers were guarding the bar since so many that had been involved were hiding in there.
SHIELD agents showed up at the bar, showing ID to the officers on guard. "We need statements for SHIELD," the leader admitted, sounding tired.
"They're singing karaoke and drunk," the lead officer quipped with a grin. "Good luck with that."
Another looked over. "Was it true those two women called you guys yesterday? Wish they would've warned us."
The local team leader looked at him. "We did get a head's up that something weird was going on. Especially since some people disappeared into those holes. We were on edge and thinking about locking down this part of the city. Should've done that yesterday too." That got a nod of understanding. "The higher ups thought it'd be fine, just a simple weird thing. Nothing like that with Avengers on the Tube and the hammer thingy flying around lost."
The agent nodded, still looking tired. "We ignored it because they hate us. We figured it wasn't anything huge. We were stupid," he admitted. The officers all grinned at that admission. "Can we try to debrief the science geek?"
"Good luck. She's holding a talk about how stars twinkle to some of them," a lower officer nearer to the door said. "Someone asked her."
"Sure." The SHIELD team went in there. The team leader looked at the kids. "Hey!" They stared at him. "Those of you at the college. One of the dorms was found to be dented but structurally all right. If you're in the older of the dorms, it's solid and you can go back home tonight if you want," he announced.
"The newer dorm with the red brick, it's got holes in the walls on the eastern side. They have cleared that dorm for the night and they ask that you guys find a couch or something until tomorrow when they get someone official up to check it for the city." He looked around.
"The library is closed, of course, and the educational building that held the teacher training classes is also closed. That one's mostly rubble." A few nodded with a grimace. "So for now, those of you who can, if you want to, go sleep it off. Tomorrow's going to have some complaining people."
"Including some upset parents," one of the team told them then yawned. "We had to pull two mothers off our team for shouting at us about where their kids were since they weren't answering calls."
"Sorry if it was mine," one guy quipped. He finished his beer. "Hey, Doc, can I crash with you guys?"
"There's only one couch and I sleep on it," Darcy quipped. She grinned at him. "I could share but we're both too drunk for that."
"Point. Pity." He grinned at her then at Foster, who smirked back. "Let me go find a comfy bed that won't mind if I puke." He got up and wobbled out. The officers helped them get back to campus so no one ran into muggers, potholes, or tried to drive. That left the science team and a few other students who needed a bed for the night. The agents got them settled in a nearby motel that wasn't the best quality but it was safe enough for them to sleep it off. Or to have a 'whoo hoo, we survived' party as Lewis put it.
Jane looked at the staring agent. "What? I tried to call."
"We heard. Fury thought you were blowing smoke up our skirts," the second of the team admitted dryly.
Darcy shrugged but grinned. "We'd never call you guys if we could help it. But that was big shit that the Avengers could've handled instead of some kids. And us." She and Jane clinked glasses. Ian was passed out on a booth for now. His tolerance for alcohol was pretty weak. He'd grow it as he went on with science. She sipped her drink, shrugging at them. "Convergences happen due to space stuff lining up."
"So that was a natural phenomenon?" the team leader said, coming back from helping a drunk kid walk.
"Yup. Happens about once a millennia," Jane said with a nod. "All the realms lined up prettily. The same as we have one that lines up our solar system's planets."
"Okay," the team leader said. "So we'll have another one sometime."
"I mean if Asgard survives," Darcy added. Then she grinned at them. "Places can be ended."
"True," he said patiently. "Are you drunk?"
She snorted. "We don't get drunk the same way, Agent Thug." She finished her drink. Jane pouted. "I don't. Bigger interior body spaces."
"Point. Dragons would take more alcohol to get the same level of relatively drunk that a human would get." She looked at them. "Thor's back at home. Again."
They just nodded. "We just want a timeline and how to tell if it's coming," the team leader said. "Anything you have on what you noticed scientifically. In case it happens somewhere else?"
"Why would it?" Darcy asked. "The heavenly body alignment maybe but portals don't open during that."
He blinked at her. "How would you know?"
"People have been studying the stars since the first person looked up and went 'ooh, shiny!'. Some even kept journals."
"Oh. All right. So it can't happen at all for a thousand years?"
"Not for that reason," Jane said. "Could other things open portals? Yes but that's magic stuff and I don't like to think about it." She finished her drink and put the glass on the table. "Ask Dr. Selvig tomorrow. He's the one that noted it first." She helped Ian up, making him moan. "Bedtime, Ian."
"C'mon," Darcy ordered. "Home time, Ian." She walked him off with Jane helping Ian's other side.
"We can give you ladies a ride," the agents decided. "Six blocks is too far in his state of drunk." They got them home and checked on Dr. Selvig, who was at home and drunk. They'd talk to them in the morning while they watched for more weird things.
***
Darcy looked at the local priestess the next afternoon, staring at her. "Why am I getting a vision of a future of Asgard that's them dead?"
She blinked. "I do not know, dear. Which one are you?"
"Darcy Lewis, Amalda's my mother."
"Oh, I know of her." She considered her then took the notes on the vision. "Do you usually have them?"
"No. I had my first one getting the magic out of the robot Loki sent to destroy Thor." She winced at that. "That's the second time I've seen that one. It's not right. That's millions of people dead for one person's anger at her daddy."
"I'll note this to the Goddess during my prayers and to the Handmaiden, but I don't know what we can do about it."
Darcy stared at her. "Can we warn the brethren up there?"
"I...." She considered that. "I have no idea how. Do we have covens up there?"
"I mean, Frigga was supposedly a goddess of Magic. She had to have priestesses. Didn't she?"
"I'd suppose." She went to look at the directory of temples. "We do have one listed but I have no idea how we'd tell them."
"Well, Heimdall guards the bridge," Darcy quipped. "Jane's rebuilt it." The priestess gave her an odd look. "The one I work with, who's part of my nest? Jane Foster?"
"Oh, I've barely heard."
"Well, we were at the convergence yesterday. Thankfully the textbook Mom gave me for Jane had something on the last one."
"Oh, that's ...why were you?"
"Jane studies the Bifrost and portal things. That was a whole lotta portals. Where else would we have been?"
"Point I suppose. I know nothing about that. I chose to live more simply."
Darcy nodded. "Which may not be possible. Read the second one!" She did and gasped. "Yeah. That's on earth. Down here. More than half of everyone, and everything, gone due to some purple fucker's wants and desires."
"We may not be able to mitigate it." She stared at her. "Death comes to us all."
"Yes but it shouldn't come that way to so many at once. That's a destruction of a realm! A whole ass planet! Which violates their Earth Goddess." She winced and nodded at that. "They're part of us apparently. We're one of the nine realms. We've got to do something. Tell someone. Start evacuations maybe? And see if we can stop the purple one?"
"I can pray that at the Goddess and alert the Handmaidens."
"Please! Thank you!" She shook her hand and left, going to think. She ran into the SHIELD team, staring at Coulson. "I thought you died."
"I got brought back," he quipped.
"Great. The vision that Asgard's going to die came again with one that showed over half of humanity going at a different person's snap."
Coulson blinked. "What?"
"Did you not read the ones in New Mexico?"
"I did. I did a nice report on them. You're not proven." She pointed up the street toward that college. Then toward New York. "Oh. I..." He cleared his throat. "Tell me again?"
She pulled up the copy on her phone to share it. "Tell Stark today? Please tell Stark today? Before things get out of hand and over half of everyone and everything is gone?"
He read them both, grimacing. He sent them to himself. "Yes, I can do that. Though he believes I'm dead."
"Even if he beats you until you are, he still needs warned. Get your archer guy? Someone!"
"I can do that. Have you had many visions?"
"No. I haven't and so far I'm not wrong. I've had two and they both held true."
"Good point. I'll have someone go brief Stark today."
"Thanks." She walked off with a sigh, rubbing her forehead. She felt like the world rested on her shoulders and she wasn't cut out for that sort of duty. She was a priestess of family and living a life, of nurturing, of fussing at geeks. This was not the life she wanted. So why had any of the Seven gotten her into it? Was she destined to become one of the ones that people talked of in hushed tones because they had broken Laws but had saved others doing so?
Coulson frowned, looking at his team. Then he sent the junior agent to print those emails from the plane and hand them to someone he trusted in SHIELD. It wouldn't get there before that one was killed by something odd.
***
Phil Coulson had on his most determined face as he appeared in New York's Avengers building. He walked in and security stared at him, one backing up. "I need Hill and Stark. Immediately. It's an Avengers level problem," he told that one.
"You died."
"Nick. Fury," he said bluntly. "Though Hill knew."
He nodded, calling that up to Hill, who said he was a myth. The former agent told her it was a myth that was standing there and claiming a future Avengers level problem. She came down off the elevator a minute later. "Conference two is open, Hill."
"Thank you." She led Phil that way. "It'll blow your cover."
He handed over the visions. "From Lewis. The one in New Mexico who had the visions that came true about Manhattan and Loki."
She read them, frowning at the first. "That's a replay of one."
"Which means it hasn't been stopped. Go to the other one." She did and stared then nodded, calling Stark down. Stark walked in with a repulsor glove on. "Mr. Stark."
"Shape shifter?" he guessed.
"Nick had me revived by alien methods," he admitted. "It took months of torture."
"I can believe that," he admitted. "What's up?" Hill handed over the visions. "These are?"
"Visions. The same young woman saw the one for Manhattan and why. She tried to divert it via Thor. It wasn't enough apparently. She had that one about Asgard then as well. The other is new and worse, and down here."
Tony read them, frowning at them. "Is she *special* that way?"
"Dragon changer," Phil admitted. "Works with Dr. Foster."
"The stacked brunette?" Stark guessed. Coulson nodded. "Pep and I had a bet that she was a changer of some kind. She thought an herbivore. I thought maybe a deer. She reminds me of Bambi."
"She's a golden dragon. Also a member of the Goddess groups."
Stark winced. "I've barely heard about that when I was younger. My mother complained."
"The Seven Goddesses," Hill said. Phil nodded. "Which one?"
"Family. She trained under the Family goddesses. Her mother, a Hospice nurse, trained under Magic priestesses. Lewis has a tiny touch of it. And is really hateful towards SHIELD thanks to my overreaction."
Hill sighed. "At least she's trying to warn."
"She doesn't want half of everyone to die." Stark looked at them again. "Can we fight this off?"
"I think we must try," Coulson admitted. "I have no idea why he's purple, where he comes from, any of that. You may have to ask Thor if he shows back up."
"He showed up last night in London," Stark admitted. "It was barely seen." He looked at Hill then at Coulson. "I'll tell the others. I have no idea how to stop that."
"We need to stop him if he shows up. Somehow."
"We'll see if we can figure things out."
Coulson's phone rang so he looked at it. "Oh. Another vision. Tell Stark not to start that Ultron program. Before he kills a country and the team has to go on the lam from the law and Ross." He looked at him, showing him the message. "Something magical in that Destroyer robot started it off."
"Charming. London's probably washed with magic right now from the portals. Though I hate magic anything." He handed the phone back. "I'll take that advice for now and tell the others. They're going to get you."
He nodded with a sigh. "I was forbidden to tell them."
"Yeah, that'll save you for maybe a second," Stark said, walking off. "Have fun with that playtime."
Hill looked at him. "They're both out of the tower."
"I almost ran into Barton in the airport. I had Melinda sidetrack him."
"Good use of their feud," she decided. "Be safe, Phil." She left, going to consider how to do things. Could the team even handle that big of a threat?
***
That night, Stark called a dinner. Two people had to appear by video on a tablet in front of their usual seats at the table. Bruce was somewhere meditating and Romanoff was somewhere working. "All right, team. We've got some news. Coulson...." He paused. Steve sucked in a breath. "Yeah, him. Fury," he told Steve. "He said he used something alien and tortured him for months." He looked at the cameras and others again. "He brought visions from the one who foresaw Manhattan and tried to avoid it via Thor."
Thor grimaced. "I have seen it but I could not stop him falling."
"Can you stop your big sister from killing all of Asgard?" he asked. He handed them to him. "And what is that purple guy with the tacky glove?"
Thor read them, grimacing. "I have no idea how to stop that one."
"I'd start with evacuations," Steve said once he had read it. "Though I have no idea about how to stop the purple one. Why is he purple?"
"That is the Immortal Thanos," Thor told him. "It is something he's done and desired in many places. Why would he kill more than half though? That's beyond his usual."
"If they're in a plane and the pilot disappears, then the whole plane dies," Stark told him. "Plus whoever they crash into."
"Oh." He considered that. "How would we stop him?"
"We need ta figure that out," Clint said, passing them to the right. Hill passed them on since she had already seen them. Pepper read them and grimaced, sipping her white wine while reading. "For your people first and then ours."
"Is this one special?" Pepper asked.
"Dragon changer," Hill said. "Trained in a temple of one of the Seven Goddesses."
Pepper blinked. "I thought they were weird old time religion things."
"Not always," Hill admitted.
"Aye, she proves she learned much from her Goddess," Thor agreed. "It's made sure Jane has kept alive." He looked at Stark. "He is immortal."
"No known way to kill or regenerates or what sort of immortal?" Stark asked.
"The rumors do not state how. I can ask some on Asgard if they know of more. Apparently I must go evacuate most of them."
"Today," Pepper said. "Just in case it's soon." She handed them back to Tony, who put them beside his plate and sat down. "So how can we help with this?"
"We need plans for emergencies anyway," Bruce Banner noted. He read the email Stark had sent them both. "That's going to be horrible. The mess after our battle in Manhattan was bad enough and affected over a million people. We need to know that people aren't going to die from this for just being in a building that gets hit. The purple person will be killing billions of people."
Tony nodded. "So what can we do?"
"Can we find a way to kill him absolutely?" Steve asked. "Something not tried? Something even if it's mystical? Or mythical?"
Thor nodded. "I can ask. I have no idea if we have knowledge of his people, much less him, Captain."
"That'll help," Steve agreed. He looked at Tony, who looked old to him for some reason. "If we do have to fight him, how and where?"
"Where? Not sure. The vision didn't state a location beyond warm forests with warriors." Steve nodded he had seen that. "How? Weapons may not work. I have no idea. And being alien he may bring alien germs that could take out even more. It'd definitely be a *battle* though. If not a whole war."
"We'll need allies," Natasha said quietly. "There's only five of us."
"If we have to, we can invite anyone who'll jump in," Stark told her. "I don't care if they're evil. If they're going to help, jump in!"
She nodded. "We can put around knowledge of that. Perhaps we can find out more that way as well." She sighed, popping her neck. "Is either soon?"
Thor shrugged. "I know not about ours. It happens first." He looked at that one again. "My father is grieving his wife, my mother, so it must be relatively soon." He looked at her. "I will go up tonight." That got a nod from the others. "Make apologies to Jane for me." He got up to leave, taking those with him. When he got up there, he found something amusing. His father, looking healthy and not grieving.
He nearly rolled his eyes but he was used to this sort of plot. He had grown up with Loki. He walked up to him and bowed properly. "We must talk, *Father*. I have news from a seer on Midgard." He looked around. "Leave us for an hour please." The guards and everyone left. He stared at him then walked up there, dropping his hammer on his 'father's lap. "So."
Loki changed back. "He was not here and we had omens of chaos and destruction," he said dryly, staring at him.
Thor nodded, handing over the visions. "You cannot take his place at this time, Loki. Did he give me permission or did you?"
"I did." He smirked. "It makes you happier to be around with your mortal Jane." He read them and groaned. "Oh, bloody hell!" He sighed and opened that bit of plaster to show the original fresco, which he had seen repaired once when he was very young.
Thor looked up then at him. "We must figure out how to fight her."
"We must move people today," Loki countered.
"Aye, that is a good idea," he agreed patiently, staring at Loki. "You're in my rightful spot."
Loki stared at him then shoved the hammer off his lap. "You taking it means that Odin's rule is over with and therefore she's free to appear, Thor." He stood up, staring at him.
"I had not thought on that," he admitted. Sif walked in and stared at Loki coldly. "Leave him be," he ordered. He looked at Loki again. "Use that to get most everyone to safety. It could be this month, could be this year. I'd not have our people die."
Loki nodded. "I can do that tonight." He looked at Sif, handing her the papers when she came closer. "From a seer Thor knows of."
"She touched the crystals in your Destroyer and it opened her to them," Thor told him.
"She would have to have magic to do that."
"Yes, she's a dragon." He smirked a bit. "A nurturer from the Goddess of Family and Life."
Loki shivered. "They're usually gentle until they must defend themselves or their families."
"Yes, Darcy is," he agreed with a nod. "She stopped SHIELD getting near my Jane as well."
Sif cleared her throat after reading those. "Is she clear that this is going to occur?"
"She had one about our fight with Loki that led to him being tortured and put under gaes to invade Manhattan," Thor told her, staring at her.
"The cube," she said bluntly, staring at Loki, who nodded and sat back down, becoming Odin again since people were coming again. "Oh, now I see."
Thor shrugged. "He is correct that it is Odin sitting in that chair that hampers her showing up. Otherwise," he said, staring at Loki. "We should chat."
"When there's no emergency," he said, waving a hand like Odin would. "Get me Heimdall!" he bellowed. His voice was a touch higher than his adoptive father's but the guards didn't seem to realize it. "And the healers!" He looked at Sif then at his brother. "We can't send them all to one place, she could easily show up there as well," he said quietly.
"Aye," Thor agreed with a nod. "I can perhaps arrange a spot on Midgard for some of them. We have allies who can probably help as well." He looked at Sif, who nodded. "The other is even worse. They have more people on Midgard."
She nodded. "That is since he took out most of the remaining survivors," she said quietly. "How can I help, Thor?"
"We face Death every battle," Thor told her. "I have no idea yet if you should lead that battle with us or if you should make sure the juniors and others evacuate, Sif. That needs precision planning and probably protection."
"It would," she agreed. "We'll figure it out together, Thor. Then I will talk with your brother."
Thor snorted. "Perhaps," he ordered. She glared at him. He stared back. "Would you blame him for being tortured?"
"He has done other things."
Thor nodded. "As have we all." She backed down at that. "That is much later, after we have made sure that none of this happens if we can. We need you both and your skills."
"Point." She looked over as a healer came in, nodding at her. "Healer Elmira." She looked at Thor. Then handed over the papers. "Visions from someone on Midgard who touched magic."
She read them, grimacing. "Is she correct?"
"She was about why Loki invaded Manhattan. Ours she's had twice now," Thor said. "With very few differences."
She stared at him. "I can prepare the healers for a war."
"Do so while evacuating many," Thor ordered quietly. "I want no one not able to fight here to be sacrificed."
She bowed to him. "I can do that, Prince Thor." She looked at 'Odin' then at him again. "We need to start with the outer villages. She'd probably show up there first." Heimdall came in, bowing to them. She handed over the papers at Thor's hand wave and sitting on his mother's former throne.
"She has tested our boundaries," Heimdall admitted. "But not appeared yet."
"Then we will move most everyone," Odin told him. Heimdall nodded. "This week if possible. Sif, can you plan how and where?"
"I can and talk to our allies," she said firmly. "We'll need more than one refugee village." She looked at Heimdall. "Is the bridge sturdy enough for that?"
"Yes, Jane Foster stitched it back together." He looked at Odin then at Thor. He realized, of course. He had seen it. "The other I have heard rumors but if you talk of him he appears."
"We will not court that," Thor agreed. "I must know of him though."
"I'll have the academics show up," Heimdall agreed. He got people back in there. Including their Council.
"A seer on Midgard, who is a dragon and was opened to it by touching magic," Thor said. "Had visions of our fate and that of Midgard." He let them see the notes. "We must know of the purple one today and we must move people today."
Odin nodded. "We can contact our allies to let them shelter. If we do fight Hela, we'll have to destroy Asgard to destroy her. As that charming one wrote of Ragnarok."
The Council looked them over. "The academics will come tomorrow," one told Thor. He was one of them. "To speak of this purple one's people."
"Thank thee. We must battle him later. I have pledged to help Midgard protect itself from things like this." He sighed. "Though I wish not to have this war now."
That got a few nods. The head of the Council looked at them. "Is this what you wish to happen, Odin All Father? To run instead of battle?"
"While many warriors court Death's embrace, the greater majority of our people are not warriors. They simply want to exist and will do so safely so they're not sacrificial victims."
The head of the Council nodded at that wisdom. "We will work on them evacuating tonight."
"Sif is in charge of that," Thor ordered. "It'll take warriors to protect them and she has the planning to move people that way."
"If we start tomorrow, then we won't all be bunched up on the bridge the day she shows up," Sif told him. "The most vulnerable first." She looked at the healer, tipping her head to her. "Those in your care as well."
"Of course. We have places we can send them."
"Off Asgard," Thor reminded her. "To defeat Hela, who draws power from the very planet itself, we may have to destroy it to end her." She blinked then moaned but nodded, biting her lip. "Today if possible."
"I will tell the others, Prince Thor. Will you be standing there to fight her?"
"Aye, as it is my duty to do so," he agreed. "As it is my father's. This is apparently my sister and our family reunion will not go well."
"Then we will start to move people tonight." She bowed and hurried to tell her people. They could talk to healers on the other seven realms to find their people a safe place to finish healing. The Council pulled Sif to help them figure out how to get people moved and where to move them to. They could contact their allies.
Their allies didn't want to allow it but they would look poor if they let everyone die. Some would end up on ships in space to find a new place out there. Some on Midgard. They didn't have a person down there to speak to but Sif knew of someone. She went to talk to them. SHIELD could help greatly now.
Thor looked at his 'father' then sighed. "We will talk after I see what color a purple being bleeds." He walked off.
"That's fine," Loki agreed happily, waving a hand. "Do have fun and let me know where I can help, my son."
Thor looked back at him. "I know very well you'll be doing your duty as I am, *Father*." He left to go talk to others. Some were already complaining. Oh well!
Loki shifted on the throne, considering how best to help. He knew how to get Sutur's head from him. He knew how to destroy Asgard without it. That may work easier. He wasn't sure. He really had to look at the Seven Goddesses' people to see why they hadn't warned him. He went to do that first. The Goddess of Death's temple was barren and all dead. "So that's why we didn't hear from their lips," he decided with a nod.
***
Darcy looked up from her prayers, actual official prayers in an actual official temple, to find a Handmaiden staring at her. As told by the chiton she wore that was dark green and had a gold belt of woven thread. She finished off and turned to sit on her heels, staring at her. "She has to be warned that the one who takes her name in vain is doing wrong," she said.
"It is not your call, Darcy."
"It is my call. I foresaw it. I have to do something to help end that! It's not right that a whole realm dies!" she complained. "Then half of everyone down here! Hela isn't Death, she's war, she's anger, she's vengeance, she's fear, she's rage, but she's not Death! Not a follower of her, she just gifts it to her to assuage her feelings."
"Death comes to all."
"Yes but Death comes to all at their proper time. Death comes to all at their proper time, and even though it may seem that some take an earlier step than they should she has called them to Her Family, to dine with them, to become one of the Adopted to merge with her family for all time and space. Even if some are chosen by others outside ourselves, their time is their time," she recited.
"Indeed."
"And it's not time. They can be saved."
"They're probably doing that."
"You guys haven't even warned your temples up there," she said bluntly. "Thor told me so." She stepped back, looking horrified. Darcy stood up, staring at her. "I may love my Goddess deeply but part of that love of nurturing is seeing people live a life until it's time for them to join Death's family. War isn't a good reason for it, it never was. And in this case a whole group of people are going to be dead.
"Genocide is always wrong. Not even the Goddess of Death would say otherwise as her tenets explicitly state it's wrong. It'll violate the other six Goddesses as well as there won't be a planet so therefore no one to see the Sun, Moon, or Stars." The handmaiden winced and nodded once. "She must know and hear. Even though I'm not a priestess, and I never aspired to be one, she can hear the rest of our prayers too supposedly.
"And then we have one down here who'll take out half of us! Of everyone and everything! And guess what, Thanos won't want any of us as we're against his rules. So we're all gone somehow." She waved a hand around. "All this, all the Goddesses. All violated by the will of a Man. And one really angry woman who hates what her father tortured her into and then wants to give it back to him. Life does not stand for that! Nor should any of the Goddesses!"
"Calm yourself."
"I am calm. If you can be calmer in the face of genocide you're on something or you're not worthy to be a handmaiden as you're violating the Goddesses' beings." She got slapped. Darcy shrugged. "Had worse than that from a man I turned down last week," she quipped. "Trying to kill them off after the Sacred Seven did so much to protect us all? Is our history done with? Because if not, then all the Goddess' tenets say to fight such things. The same as we have in the past."
"We are not warriors."
"Bullshit. Plenty of us have fought. I did when an agency tried for my nest and then when Loki of all people tried for Thor in my former town." The handmaiden slumped, staring at her. "I'm not a warrior but I can't let this go! No one should let this go!"
"We handmaidens will discuss this."
Darcy shook her head. "You've already failed. The temples on Asgard are destroyed. They're all dead. Some left in the rubble, some just left laying around prettily in Death's temple according to Thor." The handmaiden winced at that. "She must know that things are being done in her name that aren't her Works. If she still wants genocide then we've got the wrong thing in the books."
"Some people will be saved."
"Less than twenty percent of them. That's well below replacement rates for a population so that's genocide." The handmaiden winced at that, looking down. "I will not stop my protests on this point. If I have to step up and find a way to fight, so be it. I may not worship Death herself, but I damn sure know it's not time for humanity to join her en masse."
"The world does have too many people."
Darcy snorted, waving a hand. "That doesn't make his doings right. A reason isn't an excuse. He's mentally ill. He's so mentally cranked he thinks that he's doing *good* by doing it. And according to my last vision, it'll mean someone like me has to go solve this shit somehow. Mostly through science that I don't practice." That got another wince. "So yeah, let's talk to the Goddesses? See their wills on this matter? Can we help the Asgardians move perhaps?"
"We have a city set up for them to flee to when it's time."
"It started last week."
"Oh. I didn't know." She looked at the statue then at her. "The Goddesses wants us to have strong wills in their names. You prove that, Darcy, but we cannot change everything. Even if we foresee it. Some will still die."
"Yes, the most vulnerable. The orphans. The sick, the disabled. Is that her Will?"
"No, but it's humanity."
"It doesn't have to be. We take care of our peoples. Always have. There's evidence that cavemen took care of their disabled people. Apparently modernity has made us lesser than they were." That got another wince. "If you won't help them, then let someone else take over who will. We've had this sort of talk many times during major wars in the world. We've always stepped up to help. The few who hated that, they left."
"I wish them all to live but it may not change much."
Darcy stared at her. "It'll have to change some. Or else we won't win either so you can sup with the Goddess of Death herself for eternity shortly after that purple turd shows up. Because he's a man and wouldn't want any god before him. Especially not a goddess."
"I understand the concerns."
"Then do something with them," she ordered. "It's not hard! I've helped. I've warned. I'm willing to take up arms if I have to, even though I have no training in war. I'm one of the most pacifist to ever come out of the dragon bloodlines."
"You're said to be, yes." She stared at her. "Your family will rest with her eventually."
"Yeah I'm aware of that but you also gotta remember she wants us to fight joining her for as long as possible to not violate her sister, Life." She walked off.
The handmaiden sighed but did kneel in prayer to get guidance on that. Her goddess, she was upset, she could feel it. She was not wanting to welcome a whole realm at one time. Darcy was right, genocide was against all the rules of all the Goddesses. They had not warned their brethren when they should have. The Goddess was upset about that as well. So what could they do to help beyond helping the evacuations?
***
Darcy looked at her least favorite poli-sci teacher at Culver on the skype call. He was sneering. "I have a good point in bothering you today, Professor. It's not well known but Asgard is having to evacuate."
"A natural disaster?"
"Odin's first born daughter. Ragnarok is happening apparently." He snorted. "She's already killed over thirty percent of their people. They're trying to flee everywhere. Ours have helped a tiny bit. Let a mere five hundred come down here." He winced at that. "Can we find a way to talk to people to get them another refugee village at least? There's that many on ships fleeing there. And then it's been seen that we'll have one on earth that'll end about half of everything and everyone."
"Seen?" he asked.
She blinked a few times. "Yeah. And the one who saw it, she hasn't been wrong yet. She touched something Asgardian and it activated it." She shrugged. "It sucks. Greatly."
"You?" he asked, sipping from his cup. She sent over the visions. He read them and groaned. "Oh. Those are notes that were given to Thor?"
"Yeah, oh. While the bigger guys like Stark have been warned, we little people gotta have some plans too and you know people who can handle that when it goes tits up."
"True. I know people who can handle it. They'll think it's future disaster planning, Lewis."
"And in reality it's probably about two or three years from now and Asgard's falling right now."
He nodded. "I can ask them to see if we can open more refugee spots. Is that all you wanted?"
"I know very well you hate me and you counted me down for my religion, Professor. And I proved you wrong. Repeatedly. So yeah, that's why I called." She smiled. "I hope you have a great life and make it through this because someone's going to have to teach history otherwise and it'll be me." She waved and hung up on his groaning. She tipped her head back and sighed. Jane stared at her. "I can't let a whole realm die. Or ours."
"No, we can't," she agreed. "If I had a way to help. We can't connect the bridge to another realm suddenly that doesn't know about us."
"If there was one, Odin probably messed with it and they'd hate him," Darcy said, rubbing her forehead. "I'm just really frustrated."
"I can understand that. So am I. We're aggravated spectators here. We can't do much to help."
"If I have to learn the art of war, so be it," Darcy told her, turning to look at her. "How do I work that portal stuff? I'll have to get the people out of a soul stone by the vision."
She blinked a few times. "You?"
"Me and Erik."
"Oh, hell. Humanity's screwed. You can't do the science."
"So teach me, Jane. Before I have to go get the soul stone myself somehow."
"It'd make you a target."
"Maybe." She nodded. "But it'd mean he wouldn't have it." They shared a look then Jane got her into what she'd need to help that sort of portal problem. They'd figure out a solution first and then let it out to make sure others had it in case it was needed. Once they knew the purple guy was close or there.
***
Story notes:
Since that error code at the top is keeping me from putting up which fandom it's in i pulled out the old posting index to modify and add up there.