Chapter 40
“Tony, thanks for the information, but like it or not the Order never was yours and you know very well where my loyalties lie.” Natasha was the first to stand up.
“With the winning side?”
“With the first person to let me control my own destiny.” Natasha said. “Operation Birthright is a go.” She said, as she disappeared with the distinctive rainbowish swirl of a portkey.
“One traitor less.” Tony muttered.
“You sure do move on fast.” Wanda said.
“If there’s anything both of us are good at it’s hiding anything but perfection.” Tony said. “It was kinda inevitable. Drugs and PR don’t build a good marriage.”
“What about your kids?”
“They’ll come back. I lived in my moms favorite California villa more than in upstate with my dad.” Tony said. “Though that’s really none of your business.”
“You did just spill your wife’s entire life story to all of us, given she doesn’t really trust us.”
“Lilith doesn’t trust anyone.” Tony said.
“She trusts you.” Wanda said. “If she didn’t you would even know about the Order. I didn’t know for a long time.”
“What would you know?”
“Other than the answer more than you?” Wanda asked. “Those memories were barely even a partial picture, but I can be sure I’m not staying. And I’m certainly not building my own cage.” She said,
“I’m out too.” Pietro said. “I was never really one of yours and you know it.”
Clint didn’t make a show, but when he got up for a drink, he didn’t return, as did Steve.
“Rhodey?” Tony asked.
“This is the right thing. I’m with you, Tones. Carol?”
“I did the same thing already with the army. Except for Paris, it’s not like I leave national borders either way. It won’t change.”
“I can’t afford to step out of line. Ross may not be after me, but I’m with you.” Bruce said.
“Great. Now I just have to lock down my credit cards.” Tony muttered to himself.
“What now?” Natalia asked as she landed in the portkey room of Home Base, AKA Nights Landing, the Black Family’s private island, along with Wanda and Pietro.
“Now,” Lilith said, dressed in her old acromantula skin and basilisk hide overrode uniform, “we stop holding back.”
“Loki!” Thor called. “Loki!”
Hela was walking beside him, very unimpressed. “You have embarked on a futile endeavor.”
“Finding Loki is always an exercise in futility yet nevertheless I do it.” Thor argued. “It’s been this way since we were young and he learned to wield his seidr.”
“Two things both of us inherited. The appearance and the seidr.” Hela mused. “That and Alina’s run of luck.”
“You can ponder this later. Now I must find the nearest and largest source of chaos so as to lead me to Loki.”
“He’s gone to Midgard.” Hela said, stopping suddenly. “That would be even more of a death sentence for him than for me to go to Vanaheim or you to Jotunheim.”
“Of course he would.” Thor said.
“What do you mean?”
“I thought Mother told you what she saw with Gungnir. I do not ponder mysteries much, but I do care to look when I have the chance.”
“Thor, what did you see?” Hela asked, vibrating with curiosity.
“Loki has two half-Midgardian daughters.”