Time Converges

“One little phone call, Carter, that’s all I ask.”

Peggy shrugged, unbothered, at Nick Fury’s dark scowl. “Hill was well aware of what we were doing, and if you weren’t paying attention to what she was telling you, then that is hardly my problem, now is it?”

His expression only turned into colder annoyance. “The Avengers are still under SHIELD’s purview. I at least deserve to hear it from you when things are getting hot.”

He did have a complaint there, one that she could grant. “And I apologize we didn’t call you in directly, but you left the Avengers in my hands because you couldn’t be in all places at all times. There will be other times when I don’t call you directly. This may have been your own pet project, but it is much bigger than that now.”

Fury didn’t like hearing that, but he couldn’t tell Peggy she was wrong. “Duly noted,” he admitted, grudgingly, leaning back in one of the leather chairs in the conference room of the SHIELD offices in London. “Chief Blevins has given me his run down of the SHIELD response in conjunction with the Metropolitan police and the British government. Outside of a few fender benders and at least one small boat capsizing at the sight of a giant alien ship plowing into campus, there were surprisingly no fatalities. Blevins tells me the university will be shut down for an extended period for repair, however, likely will cost hundreds of millions of pounds.”

“Historic buildings in Britain don’t come cheap.” Peggy shuddered to think of the price. “The more important thing is that no one died that day, not on our world or anyone else’s. Thor states that initial reports say that only one area on a planet called Vanaheim was damaged, by RAF fighters accidentally releasing weapons on what turned out to be an abandoned storage shed and a field of crops. They made it back to Earth safely and no one on Vanaheim was injured.”

“Pardon me for saying I care less about Vanaheim than I do Earth, but for what it’s worth I’m glad no one was killed.”

Peggy politely stepped around that sentiment. “Thor also removed what I guess is a bilgesnipe that was running loose around Greenwich, something that had come through during the convergence event. Stark had wanted to keep it as a pet, but Thor convinced him that nowhere on Earth got cold enough for the poor thing.”

Fury blinked his one good eye, slowly, shaking his head. “You know, I didn’t even have a second thought about the sentence you just uttered. Like...I just took it at face value. That is how absurd our lives have gotten.”

“You are talking to a woman who time traveled to get here, directing a team with an alien, a man in a flying robot suit, a green giant, and a man who survived being buried in ice for seventy years. This is the second battle with aliens and wormholes we have fought in six months. I think I left the realm of understandable long ago.”

That only seemed to make Fury laugh, a chortling guffaw as he ran his hand over his dark, bald head. “Shit...what have we gotten ourselves into, Carter?”

“You were the one who said that this universe was far stranger than anything I could ever imagine. Clearly, you had some idea.”

“I did,” he admitted, ruefully.

A knock sounded at the conference room door and Amanda Sterling, the assistant to the Chief Blevins, peeked her head in carefully. “I apologize for interrupting Director Fury, Director Carter, but it appears that there is a Thor Odinsson here to see you both?”

Speaking of absurd…how did this woman not know who she was speaking about?

It was almost as if he couldn’t help himself. Fury stared incredulously at the unfortunate woman with his singular gaze. “Six-foot-five blonde guy with a metal hammer in his hand? Uses it to fly. Looks like he stepped off the cover of a trashy romance novel you see in the check out at a grocery store?”

Miss Sterling blushed, nodded slowly, confused by why Fury would be so dubious in the moment. “I mean, yes. He said he was here to meet with you both.”

Her response did not assuage Fury’s growing surprise at her seeming lack of awareness of who Thor was. “He is here to meet with us. He’s an Avenger. Prince Thor of Asgard, heir to the throne, has a brother who tried to take over the planet a few months back. Maybe you heard about that?”

The woman flushed. “Well...yes, but I hadn’t caught names and faces...but…”

“It’s all right, Miss Sterling.” Peggy shot Fury a firm glare, quelling his outraged disbelief. “Where is he at now?”

“He said he was going to meet with Dr. Banner in the labs. I showed him where to go. I hope that was all right.”

“That’s fine,” she assured the woman. “Thank you.”

Poor Miss Sterling slinked away, unsure what she had done to earn the reproof of Director Fury.

“How does she not know who Thor is?”

“Not everyone lives and breathes in the madness we do,” Peggy pointed out, rising from the conference table. “If he’s meeting with Bruce, he’s found something for us to look at.”

In the week since Malekith’s invasion of London. It was, of course, still being blasted across the news media as the discussion turned once more to outside threats and the Avengers. Peggy had ignored most of the direct discussion in the face of the very real problems on the ground. Swaths of the historic campus were destroyed. It would require years of repair. While destruction had been limited, particularly in comparison to New York and the wide destruction there, it didn’t mean that it didn’t exist. But the bigger issue had been with the British government itself, who felt rather put out that they hadn’t received wind of the invasion - never mind Peggy’s repeated efforts to speak to anyone in the Home Office and to get them to take her seriously. Once again, Fury and SHIELD were on the defensive with an individual government. At least this time SHIELD had a leg to stand on. Peggy left that argument to Fury, however, choosing not to make a bad political situation even worse.

The labs for the London SHIELD offices were located on the floor below the main office areas, smaller than the ones in New York, Washington and Los Angeles. They served Bruce Banner’s need just fine. He was already at one workstation, glasses on as he studied a clear computer monitor intently through his reading glasses. Behind him sat Steve and Natasha Romanoff, both huddled around a tablet shared between them. Across from Banner stood Betty and Stark, each frowning at the read out on the monitor on their own. Thor, looking weary and worn, hovered at the very end of the table, gravely.

“What do we have,” Peggy called, Fury on her heels as she marched into the lab space.

Thor looked up at her as she called out. “I went to Svartálheim to see what became of Malekith. He was dead, crushed by the very ship that Banner and Stark so thoughtfully stopped from crushing me.”

Banner, who had been Hulk at that moment, ducked his head in vague embarrassment. It was Stark who nodded, patting Thor on the shoulder. “Any time, big guy. Glad it was him that took the force of that, not you.”

Thor looked briefly touched by Stark's sentiment. “In any case, I found the Aether there. I contained it before anyone else could get it and brought it here for safe keeping.”

“Found it?” Peggy looked down at the lab table, where sat a rather unremarkable box of metal, a series of lights flashing intermittently. This differed from the screen above, where a dark crimson, viscous material writhed, shifting and oozing disturbingly.

“What is that,” she asked, frowning at the image as it swirled.

“That’s what we are trying to figure out,” Banner admitted, ruefully, glancing to Betty. She took up the lead, pulling up a tablet from behind her.

“Just on the quick scan we did before you and Director Fury got down here it looks like it’s an extremely volatile substance, shifting and changing its material state, at will and sometimes at once, made up of all manner of substances. I frankly can’t make a ton of sense out of it, honestly, but it looks like if there is an element out there in the universe, it has it there on the molecular level. So far, since we’ve been looking at it, it’s been primarily shifting from liquid to plasma state.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Fury intoned, frowning at the mesmerizingly churning liquid.

“Maybe,” Stark drawled, frowning in thought. “You said it’s called the Aether?”

Thor nodded. “That’s what my ancestors called it, at least.”

“Well, our ancestors said that aether is the stuff that fills in the spaces in reality, a sort of fifth element that holds it all together.” He approached the screen hovering over the box, frowning up at it. “It’s sort of like a lava lamp. Kind of soothing if you stare at it long enough.”

Banner shook her head, eyeing Stark skeptically. “Aether is just a myth, Tony, debunked along with alchemists and turning lead into gold.”

“Well, I thought elves were something you only saw in Tolkien films or on the walls of some teenage nerd-boy with a hard on for D&D, but here we are.” Stark’s dark eyes flickered to Thor. “You said this was the Elf King’s special weapon?”

“As I understood it, though, I fear the substance is more grim than that.”

As he spoke, he reached to a counter behind him, where he had placed his hammer. Alongside it was a large, beautifully gilded tome, the sort that looked so delicate and extravagant that Peggy didn’t think she had seen one outside of a church or museum on Earth, and even those were extremely rare. Gently, the large man picked it up, running a hand gently over its golden cover, a soft smile flickering as he turned to the table, placing it next to the container with the Aether inside.

“I asked my father about what the substance was and what guidance he could give. He didn’t have much, but he strangely directed me to a book of fairy tales we had in the library.”

Thor opened the opulent book, flipping pages of what looked to be finest parchment, all covered in vivid paints and striking gold. It was astonishingly beautiful, a priceless piece of art, seemingly hand painted and inscribed with what Peggy had to guess were the runic letters of Thor’s native language.

“That’s gorgeous,” Betty breathed. Even Stark, who had more priceless items in his possession than most anyone, was suitably impressed. Like a silent moth to a flame, Steve rose from his space behind Banner, moving over to the beautiful tome on the table. Of course he would notice. She could see his expression slacken somewhat in awe as he stared at it, reverently, his artist’s eye overwhelmed.

“My mother had it commissioned when I was born,” Thor admitted, his expression bittersweet. “I hadn’t looked at this in years. She used to read to us from it when we were small...to Loki and me.”

His expression pained for just a moment before it was gone. He had informed the others of Loki’s death, and while none were terribly sorry that he was no longer a threat, most everyone at least respected Thor enough to understand his grief, somewhat, even Stark. Still, he didn’t linger on it, as he carefully fingered through pages in the thick tome, coming to land on a page painted in the dramatic colors of the night sky, twilight blues, deep purples, and inky blacks, all swirling around clouds of pale pink and lavender gas, spangled across with twinkling, silver stars. Spinning around in a perfect circle were six brightly colored gemstones, vivid against the colors of space.

“Is the picture actually moving?” Stark was now enraptured.

“It does that. Magic is what my mother told me. I don’t know how it works otherwise.”

“What is it?” Steve hand twitched, itching to touch the shifting colors.

“It’s the story of a king’s folly,” Thor explained, his finger running along the runic letters on the other side. “As the story goes, there once was a mighty king who wished to bring perfect peace to the universe. He sought the wisest sages he knew, sorcerers with powerful magics, asking them how he could achieve this great feat. They told him that the only way to accomplish something so daring would be to go on a quest to gather six magic stones. Each of these stones was a powerful artifact, gifted with the ability to do one specific task, but brought together, they could grant the wielder the ability to change the universe however he wished. They warned the king that the stones were scattered across the universe and were difficult to find, but if he succeeded, then he could make peace. So, he called his greatest warriors to a banquet in the halls of Asgard and told them of his dream and set the quest to find these magic stones.”

“Magic stones?” It was Stark’s turn to look skeptical. “Seriously, what, are we talking like collector’s cards? Pokemon? Got to catch ‘em all?”

“Tony,” Banner chastised him.

“What, I mean you get to knock me on aether, but I can’t call out magic rocks?”

“Let him finish his story, Stark,” Peggy ordered. He at least acquiesced at her withering glare.

Thor, who had no idea what Stark’s reference was even to, picked up the threads of his tale. “Well, as the story went, or so my mother told it, the warriors set off to the corners of the Nine Realms, looking for these stones. It took them years, so many people nearly forgot, but one-by-one they brought back each stone, all but the last stone, which was never found. So, the king used the ones he had and found they each had magic properties. He thought that it would be enough for him to bring them all together, to forge a peace by his sheer force of will and the magic of these stones, but it didn’t work. Rather than bringing peace, the universe grew to hate him for it.”

Gently, Thor rubbed a corner of the velum with a wistful smile. “It was supposed to be a cautionary tale on a ruler’s pride and the folly of using weapons to force peace. Sadly, I don’t think it was a lesson I understood well as a child. I admit, I was always into the bits of the warriors having adventures looking for the stones. I hadn’t thought about the story in ages, not till Father brought it up. I thought it was all make believe, but they said that each of the stones has a magic property.”

He reached to tap the page with its slowly spinning circle of stones, the dark red one rising to the top. “In the story each of these is said to do something different. The red one was said to be as bright as a ruby and as dark as heart's blood. They said that with it one could change the composition of anything. You could turn water to stone, or wool or silk, or…”

“Lead into gold,” Stark provided, using Banner’s alchemist example, glancing at the scientist.

“Sure, I suppose,” Thor conceded. “I know nothing of the Aether, only what Father told me of Malekith, but he was using it to try and turn the entire universe from one of light to one of darkness. I was led to believe he had found some random stone and infused it with his energies, turned it into his weapon filled with dark magics, but what if that isn’t what happened. What if this was something he found, a...magic stone if you will, that he figured out how to use, long ago?”

“A magic stone?” Steve finally broke his gaze away from the gorgeous book, frowning at Thor incredulously.

Thor didn’t seem particularly phased by Steve’s disbelief. “It is like I told Jane, once, what you call science on your world is called magic on mine, they are one and the same. I am sure with enough looking at your computers you would figure out the properties that make it do the things it does.”

Betty shook her dark head, leaning a hip against their work table. “Steve, it sounds crazy, but I think he might be onto something. When you look at the composition of the stone, how it’s made and what it’s made of, it doesn’t make sense. It has literally a little bit of everything in it, all the things that make up the universe. And it can’t keep its own material shape, at least not for long. One minute it’s a gas, the next a liquid, sometimes it’s got bits of solids in there. What if that’s just how it operates.”

“You know how much that doesn’t make sense, right,” Banner pushed back, gently, less to call out her supposition, Peggy guessed, and more to be the voice on the opposing side.

“Yeah, it shouldn’t do that, but it is doing that, and we both see it with our own eyes.” She shoved the tablet in front of his skeptical face. “Besides, look at the gamma radiation levels. What do you see?”

Banner looked slightly green - in the ill sense, not the Hulk sense - at the mention of gamma radiation, but he looked. Whatever he saw caught his attention, as he frowned down at the screen. “It’s giving off that much radiation?”

“Yeah,” she replied, perhaps a bit smugly.

“How much is too much,” Stark wondered, backing off a step or two from the table.

“I mean, not enough to start freaking out, but the signature is the same as the one we got off of Loki’s scepter.”

“And the Tesseract,” Betty reminded him, turning to the book on the table, frowning down at its gold leaf pages, even if she was unable to read the words. “Does it say what any of the other stones do? Is there one that lets you make wormholes or control minds?”

“Actually,” Thor smiled brightly as he realized he had swayed one of the scientists. “There is, as a matter-of-fact. One of the stones allows the wielder to step from one place to another far away in the space of a breath. Another allows you to sway the hearts and minds of others.”

One-by-one he tapped the slowly turning stones on their enchanted page. “This one allows you the power to destroy or to build up. This one makes you the master of time. And this one, the most mysterious one, no one knows what it does. It’s the one no one ever found. It's said it is the most powerful one of all, and the most dangerous.”

They were insane for entertaining this. They were listening to fairy tales, stories from a children’s book, taking them in as if they were real. And yet...Peggy let her gaze slide sideways to Fury, who met it with his good eye. He was considering it too. Perhaps, like herself, he had seen too much to discount it outright. Hadn’t Loki said that Thanos was looking for something...something powerful? He had said half of what he was seeking was there on Earth.

“What do they call these stones, Thor,” she finally asked.

“Errr..the translation isn’t exact, but in English I believe you would say something like ‘eternal’ stones, or perhaps ‘infinity’ is more accurate. Infinity stones? ‘Always have been, always will be’ sort of idea.”

“I always wondered if you spoke English or if we just heard you in English,” Stark piped up at Thor’s impromptu translation.

“I speak most major Midgardian languages. Learned in the schoolroom. I don’t know dialects or anything, but I can manage in most places. Besides, several of your languages aren't terribly different from Asgardian...or maybe Asgardian isn’t different from your languages…”

Peggy nipped this conversation before it went terribly much further. “So they are...Infinity Stones?”

“I suppose we could call them that,” Thor agreed.

“And they are powerful,” she underscored, trying to make sure she had this story correct.

“Yes,” he nodded, waving to the box on the table. “Very much so. You saw what that one did. You saw what the Tesseract did. And you saw what Loki’s scepter did. It may sound like a story, but every fairy tale is rooted in some truth. What if these items are all just these magic stones?”

“And what if that is what Thanos is after,” Fury rumbled slowly beside Peggy, his expression inscrutable.

It hit her all at once...the memory of Scott Lang sitting with her at the automat, of him telling her about this person, Thanos, who managed to snap his fingers and half of the universe disappeared in an instant...of how the Avengers had failed to stop it. It wasn’t often in one's life that things fit so neatly, that they ever were granted such clarity of purpose. Perhaps she could argue she had it the day that she thought Michael had died and she left behind everything to join the SOE. That was nothing compared to now, as she stood between these Avengers, staring at the gunmetal slate-colored box and the gilded, shining book beside it and realized what this was all leading to.

“We need to make sure that we hide this,” she said, softly at first, resolve strengthening as she looked up to Steve’s similar expression. “We need to hide all of them. These are what Thanos is looking for. It’s like you said in the story, Thor, he wants to be able to wield all of them, to grant his wish.”

Romanoff, silent for much of the proceedings, finally spoke up from behind Banner. “What’s his wish?”

“To kill off half of the universe from what I understand.” Peggy only knew that, nothing more. “Scott Lang...or at least the version of him that I met...didn’t offer me more than that. I don’t know if he knew, frankly, only that half of the universe disappeared overnight.”

They all sat with that for long moments, the implications of what that would mean. Trillions of lives, most likely, billions just on Earth alone. Their families, friends, perhaps even half of them standing in this room. The idea left Peggy feeling sick. Losing Steve alone would crush her, not after getting him back again, but to lose any of them, this small group of people who had come together despite all odds. Peggy didn’t think she could bear it.

“Why only half?” Stark asked the obvious question.

“I don’t know.” Peggy hadn’t really thought to ask, really. “But I do know your brother, Thor, was working with Thanos. Loki said half of what Thanos was looking for was here. I think he meant the stones.”

Thor considered that. “I mean...it is possible. I know Father hid the Tesseract here, though I don’t know why and he’s never told me, save that it was safe here. Perhaps others have done the same. No offense to your planet, but in the greater scheme of the universe, it’s rather small and insignificant. Perhaps that is why it was chosen. Who would think to come here?”

“You know, that’s our home you are shit talking right in front of our faces,” Stark snorted, dryly, moving to stare down at the page at hand. “We know where the Tesseract and the scepter are, and now we have the box of weird, red sludge. So...where are the others?”

“Not on Earth, if Loki is to be believed,” Banner pointed out. “Which means they could be anywhere in an endless universe.”

“Which is a place I know something about,” Thor assured him. “I have ties and contacts out there. I can have them begin to search for them.”

“Yeah, but is it something we want to advertise we are looking for,” Steve replied, frowning, glancing back at Romanoff. “We need something a bit more discreet.”

Thor picked up Steve’s meaning readily, looking to her. “Do you have an idea on how to approach it?”

It had taken them all long enough to acknowledge her. Romanoff raised a shoulder, a small line between her brows marring her expression. “I mean, I don’t know what it looks like out there in the great, wide cosmos, but I do have a sense of how these things work. I got some tips and pointers I can give you. If you have people you can trust to execute it out there, I can help you hash out a plan to start looking.”

Surprisingly, Thor looked grateful for this. “Thank you, Natasha. My brother was the one who had this talent, and I will own I’m ill-equipped with the more subtle forms of information gathering. Any advice you have would be helpful.”

It was rare a spy ever was thanked for doing the dirty work they did. Peggy would know, and it pleased her to see Thor at least acknowledge the necessity of it, even if such subtlety wasn’t his style. “Finding the other half of the stones is one problem, the other is dealing with the ones we have. What do we do with this one?”

“Take it to Asgard,” Thor said almost immediately, with his usual assurance that Asgard was the safest and greatest place to keep anything in the universe. That earned a chorus of negative responses from the group, much to his surprise.

“Didn’t you say that Asgard was compromised when the Keebler Elves from hell attacked your planet,” Stark pointed out over the general denials. “Asgard’s defenses are down and you are still repairing them.”

“My father’s vault has its own security. Besides, we have the Tesseract there and I assured it’s safety already.”

“Which is perhaps all the more reason we shouldn’t keep this stone near it,” Steve pointed out. “Perhaps one of them is safe on Asgard, but two would be inviting trouble, and with your defenses down…”

Steve trailed off with a meaningful look, one Thor reluctantly nodded at. “I see your meaning. But we can’t keep it on Earth for the same reason. You have little in the way of defense and already have the scepter in your possession. That would draw as much attention.”

“It’s a fair point,” Banner offered, leaning against the lab table thoughtfully. “Got another place you can put it.”

Here, Thor faltered, considering. Whatever came to mind for him, he clearly didn’t like. “There is a man...not one I know personally, but one I’ve heard of through some less savory places in the galaxy, who likes to collect rare things, all manner of things. It is said he has rare samples of everything, art, armor, pieces of literature, space crafts, various species...people.”

“People?” Steve did not like hearing that.

Thor was obviously not thrilled with that either. “I did not say he was a good person, and he’s very powerful on top of that, and not precisely easy to find. He is outside of my father’s realms, but he could be someone who would be interested in taking the item and keeping it.”

No one in the room looked particularly thrilled by that option, but it was Fury who gave voice to the most immediate issue with it. “If he’s a man who likes collecting things, and the point of this entire magic stone business is collecting them all, do you really want to give a powerful item like this to that sort of person, knowing he will want to take all of them. We may be creating a bigger problem than we need to with this.”

On that score, Peggy felt Fury was right. “I hate to say it, Thor, I know our options are limited, but if it came down to a choice between a man who keeps people in a collection for his own amusement holding a powerful object that could reshape the universe, or between us and our ragtag planet with little defense, I would still say that the best hands for this are our own…at least for now. Perhaps, given some time, we can figure out a place and a way to protect it off our world.”

“Where was it kept before Jane stumbled on it,” Betty asked. “Could we put it back there?”

“I don’t know. My father knew, as he is the one who hid it, but...well, I don't believe my father will be speaking to me for a while.”

Thor grimaced, painfully, regarding the group. “I have...had a conversation with Odin, one that was not easy to have. My father has longed wished for me to be king, to take my place on his golden throne, but I feel after what has happened the last few months, seeing what became of my brother, the loss of Mother, knowing what has happened in the Nine Realms, especially on this planet, I can’t just sit idly by and watch it all fall apart. Being king is a hard business. It involves choices, ones that change you. I saw it in him. And...I think I like being a good man...a man who tries to do what is right for the realms, to help as many as I can. And to that end I’ve chosen not to take my father’s throne. Instead, I’ve chosen to be here, to stand and fight alongside all of you.”

He waved a hand to Banner first, then to Stark. “You two, when I was injured and unable to save myself, you thought of nothing but to throw yourselves before that ship and try to push it away from me! And you, Natasha! You look to be a delicate, fragile woman, but I have seen you best creatures twice my size without a second thought, and from what I understand you wit and intelligence are equal to your fighting.”

He turned to Steve standing beside him. “And you, Captain, I have heard tales from Darcy of your heroics. All of them agree you are one of the best of men, brave and true, someone I would gladly fight beside and call my leader.”

Finally, he turned his affable smile to Peggy. “And you, Peggy, you’ve never flinched at who I was or the strangeness I brought with me. You not only embraced it, but you embraced me and brought me into this, and I thank you for it. All of you, Selvig, Betty, Darcy...Jane,” he paused, lingering on her name fondly. “You all have accepted me for who I am, without expectations. And I hope that, if it is alright with you, that I can stay here among you and fight by your side.”

That...hadn’t precisely been the conversation they had been having. Peggy glanced to Fury, who looked back at her with the same confused, surprised look everyone else seemed to have. But it was Stark, blessedly, who cut through awkwardness with the ability only he ever seemed to have in these situations. He held out his hand for Thor to take, firmly clapping him on the shoulder. “Welcome, pal! You’ll love Earth, so many things to see and do here.”

“I am sure,” Thor assured him, the pair sounding every inch like an advertisement for a resort somewhere.

“Be that as it may,” Peggy brought the conversation back to the topic at hand. “We were discussing where this...thing was being kept before Jane found it. I am guessing from your long speech that you are on the outs with your father and we won’t be able to put it back there.”

It clearly only just occurred to Thor how much he had veered the conversation off topic. “Errr...yes.”

“Well then, I suppose that settles that,” she threw her hands up, mildly, clasping them together. “The item stays here, then, for now.”

She turned to Fury, who already had a calculated expression on his face. “Do you have any ideas?”

“Was already thinking of one.” His single, dark eye glittered thoughtfully. “Item like this, we don’t want the knowledge of it getting out of this room. My suggestion, we keep it off the SHIELD files and reports. Leave off any mention of it.”

“Why,” Steve barked, frowning at the idea of simply lying about it.

“Because if it’s in a SHIELD file, then anyone will find it,” Romanoff explained, patiently. “It’s not just SHIELD agents who have access to those files. You put it down in black and white, people will find out and more than a few of them will start getting curious. Human nature being what it is, they think they can find it and maybe make something of it. Like Fury said, best to keep the knowledge of this between ourselves and bury it deep somewhere.”

“I got a place that fits that description,” Fury replied, nodding to the box. “I can stash it and no one will even know to find it there, save me.”

It hit Peggy, then, just how little she knew Fury. How many secrets did this man have, and who from? Did anyone know all of them?

“That works for this thing,” Steve acknowledged, cutting through Peggy’s train of thought. “But what about the scepter. SHIELD still has that.”

“Far as anyone knows, it’s just a bit of alien tech,” Romanoff reasoned, shrugging. “They don’t know about any magic space stones. It’s under lock and key with SHIELD. The minute we do anything strange or untoward with it, someone will notice and start asking uncomfortable questions. Best to leave it there for now, pretend it’s nothing big and simply keep an eye on it.”

It wasn’t a perfect idea, but Romanoff did have a point. The minute they acted unexpectedly about the scepter, people would wonder why. “It’s a temporary solution for both of them for now, at least. Do you believe the Tesseract will be safe enough on Asgard for now, Thor?”

He nodded gravely. “For now.”

“As imperfect of a plan as this all is, it is at least one.” She looked first to Steve, who she could see was mulling it over, and while unhappy with the flaws in what was presented, he seemed to concede it was a solution.

Stark, on the other hand, looked vaguely troubled. “This was the purpose the Avengers were founded for, to protect the Earth from threats no one else could. I suppose this is where we test our metal.”

She glanced up at Fury who nodded, darkly. “A lot is riding on this.”

“I know.” It was all she could say.

For long moments there was the weight of heavy silence, the knowledge of an uncertain threat that lay before them all.

“Well, with that cheery bit of news,” Stark finally broke the fragile quiet with the force of a ball-peen hammer to a sheet glass window. “Why don’t we say we break for lunch?”

They all shifted then, looking to one another, as if shaking off the heaviness of what they now realized lay before them. Only Peggy remained thoughtful as she watched Banner and Betty discussing their findings between them.

“Penny for your thoughts, Carter,” Fury asked quietly, beside her.

“Just...thinking about playing with things we don’t understand.” She shrugged, considering what she had just discovered about the Erskine’s serum and just who had access to it. “Do you really think we can keep something like these stones secret?”

Judging from Fury’s expression, he doubted that. “Not for long, but for long enough to think of a different solution. After all, what choice do we really have?”

He was right, they didn’t have one.

“Did you know the CIA has been experimenting with Abraham Erskine’s serum,” she asked, bluntly, shifting topics on him on purpose. “That they have been farming it out to pharmaceutical companies to try and see if they can recreate it?”

Fury at least had the grace not to deny it. “I know something of it.”

“And you didn’t stop it?”

He shrugged under his dark coat. “Not a lot I can say to the American intelligence community on the matter.”

“Except to remind them that all serum-related research is the property of SHIELD.”

“Like that actually stops them,” he shot back, seemingly amused she would think it would. “You dealt with General Ross, you know that didn’t work with him. If we complain, then they just take it underground. It’s that simple.”

Despite the cynicism of his response, he was right, they would just find ways to do it where no one would notice. She didn’t have to like it. “Did you know that the US Army had created a unit of super-soldiers sixty years ago?”

“I did,” he acknowledged, shortly and rather darkly. “That's one of those dirty little secrets the US Army doesn't want getting out there, so of course I know about it. And I know that the program failed. All the subjects are now dead.”

Peggy couldn’t tell if the idea of it outraged him at all or not. “The last subject, the one they called Weapon II, his blood is still out there. They are giving it to people to use, hopefully to recreate the serum. I don’t know if that is what this Mandarin was after or not, but the fact that it’s out there…”

“That genie is out of the bottle already, Carter,” Fury said, with weary firmness. “It was out of the bottle the minute that they took samples of Rogers’ blood. We can’t force it back in, we can just try to control the ones we know about and hope none of the rest are successful.”

Peggy hated that answer. “If we can’t control who has Steve’s blood, how in the hell can we protect a pair of magic space stones that some alien dictator wants to get his hands on to kill half of everyone?”

For a long moment, Fury seemed to ponder that, before chuffing lightly, shaking his head. “I don’t know, Carter, I’ll be honest. But somehow, we got to figure it out.”