Infinity
The dinner is an excruciating affair. Poor Atmos does his best to keep things moving along, but it is clear by the second course that the Regent does not want Steve there. Does not want him to be the actual prince. It’s times like this he wishes that he was able to do the thing that Nat and Clint can and have whole conversations with their eyebrows, he and Bucky used to be able to do something similar and it would come in real handy right now when all he wants to do is come up with some excuse to exit this dining hall and figure out what the hell is going on.
He nearly sobs in relief when it is not him escaping, but the regent. The doors open and every head in the room swivel. A short man with stubby brown wings comes hurrying across, his bare feet slapping on the wooden floors.
“Sir, sir, there is a missive.” Is all the small man says and then both the regent and his wife are excusing themselves. Steve stands, it is proper, and tells them he understands, of course. Once they are gone, he turns to Atmos.
“What is going on? I know I am not the only one who felt that.”
“I don’t...I don't know what you mean?”
“There is something about those two. A sort of energy that feels out of place.” Tony muttered.
“I did not meet them the first time I was here, not on my feet long enough, otherwise I would have known immediately.” Loki stands. “Take me to the center. Do not pretend you do not know.” Loki glares at the minister. He bows his head and takes a few minutes.
“Yes, okay. Come along. We must move with haste.” He headed out a different door from the one the staff had come through with their food. He stopped at the bottom of a long white staircase. “If you can fly, you will beat us. Leave this palace on the ground floor. Find the the short bridge, leave form there and go straight toward the sun. Do not stray from the path. If you head straight and true, you will come along a patch of soil that is blackened. Whatever is there, started this.”
“Let’s go.” Steve grabbed Thor's hand, and they took off. He knew Sam and Tony wouldn’t be far behind them, but they had to get their suits. Thor grew Mjolnir from the walking stick he’d taken to camouflaging it as and then they were in the air.
Flying straight into the sun hurt his eyes, So he kept his head slightly down and followed Thor’s path. They flew for a long time before he started to notice the darkening soil below them. It turned from a ruddy brown to a deeper chocolate color and then it was black, all color stolen from the ground. Steve shouted when he saw the perfectly round spot in the patch of black.
“There Thor, land.” They both dove down, landing simultaneously. Boots thudding made dust float into the air.
“What has happened?” Steve knelt down, his hand going right to the destroyed ground.
“I do not know, but it emanates from that disc. Loki was right, this is similar to the energy you would find in Jotunheim. Do not touch it, please. Let Loki when he arrives.”
“Which is now.” The prince walked out of air like he does, all nonchalant in his amazingness.
“Brother, you did not come with the others?”
“No, Only needed you to be here to lock onto you and follow. Stark and the Falcon are close behind, but the skiff will take longer. I offered to bring your Doctor Banner with me, but he chose the more sedate route.”
“I can understand that.” Steve stood and walked over to where Loki was standing over the perfect circle in the ground. “What is it?”
“It is an ancient artifact. Not truly from Jotunheim, but it reads close enough. Now, this, this is something else.” He turned and looked Thor right in the eye, something Steve noticed he actively tried to avoid.
“As much as I am loathe to admit this, we need Odin. If any of us tried to touch that, it would kill us. One does not trifle with Infinity Stones.”
“Should I call for the ravens? Or bypass them and go straight to Heimdall?” Thor asked. Steve wondered if he knew what was in the found, what an infinity stone was, but he didn’t want to interrupt.
“HEIMDALL!” Loki called out. And that answered that.
The rainbow bridge hit with a thundering roar. When it cleared it was not just Odin, but Heimdall himself.
“Step Back! Now!” Odin boomed. Steve grabbed Thor’s hand and stepped back a few steps. Loki only took one step back, but he actually looked spooked, which Steve hadn't realized he was capable of. Tony and Sam landed a few feet away, and Steve held up a hand.
“What’s the play Cap?” Tony called out, his voice booming through the suit.
“We let the king deal with this. I’m not sure what an Infinity Stone is, but if it’s killing a planet, I don’t think any of us should touch it.”
“Just so.” Thor told him. “They are cosmic powers. Father, I thought they were all accounted for?"
“I thought so as well, son. It appears we have been misled.” The skiff landed behind him and Thor, and Steve waved the others to stand right behind him. If it was going to blow when Odin did whatever he was planning, he wanted to be in front of the others to take any hit.
“Infinity Stone?” Bruce asked, watching the proceedings with interest.
“Indeed. There are six of them. Space, Time, Reality, Power, Mind and Soul. They have been around since the beginning.” Heimdall said in an even voice. He stood over the circle and had his sword pointed down.
“The Soul Stone and the Space Stone are both in the vaults of Asgard. Time is on Earth, in the hands of the Sorcerer Supreme. This one feels like the Reality Stone.” Odin told the group.
“It arrived one hundred and five moons ago. Naenia became sick one hundred and four moons ago, and it began to suck the life from my home faster than before around fifty moons ago.” Atmos told them, shame and fear in his voice. “I am sure that Isade has something to do with it, he keeps us from learning anything, from trying to save ourselves.”
“If your regent has something to do with this being here, then he must be taken into custody. One does not stumble upon Infinity Stones.” Odin didn’t give any semblance of mercy in his effort to focus.
“Hey, I’m useless here, bring me back to the palace, me and Nat’ll get the regent locked up tight,” Clint told Atmos. The man looked lost, but Steve nodded.
“You will be safe with them.”
“As you wish. Come along.” He led the two spies back to the skiff.
“Hey Nat, don’t kill him. We need to talk to him.” Steve called out. Nat just grinned and hopped onto the skiff.
“That woman terrifies me and turns me on equally.” Sam said, then ducked his head. He probably didn’t mean to voice it out loud.
“Everyone, step back further.” Odin called out. He and Heimdall were hovering over the circle. “Loki, come here. Only you.” Loki moved forward with measured steps.
“What do you need, father?”
“I will need a field around the stone. Heimdall can pull it up, and once there is a shield around it I can transport it, even I will not willingly put my hands on a stone that is not contained.”
“As you need, father.” Loki shook out his hands before pulling them up to his mouth, Steve watched in fascination as he spoke to his pale fingers. When he pulled them away they glowed faintly of green.
“He is one of a kind, my brother, is he not?” Thor asked. Steve just nodded. They really had no idea what he could do, not really. Bruce, Sam and Tony crowded around them and they all watched as Heimdlall slammed his sword into the ground.
A shock wave sent them almost tumbling, but Thor kept them all standing. Steve had lifted off the ground enough to not get knocked down, and his boyfriend shook his head and smiled at him, and then they all turned back. Steve held his breath as Heimdall struggled to pull his sword back out. His giant arms were shaking as it slid out inch by inch.
“Now Loki!” Odin called. Loki’s hand began to glow just as the tip of the sword breached the scorched ground. Steve saw a bright flash of pulsating blue before it was muted by the magic shield Loki slammed at it.
Loki stumbled, drained, and Steve rushed forward, catching him, as the bubble fell out of his hands. Odin grabbed it right before it hit the ground.
“Loki!” Steve called out. Odin knelt down next to them, the glowing stone wrapped in a bubble in one hand.
“His seidr will need replenishing, he will be okay. Simply needs rest and then a large meal.”
“My King, I shall go back to my watch. Call for me when you need.” Heimdall gave a short bow and then he was gone in a swath of rainbow light.
“Thor, come help your intended. Your brother is not as light as he looks.” Odin jokes, But Thor came loping over and scooped Loki out of Steve’s arms. Steve stood and dusted off the seat of his pants.
“Right, so now we have no one who can teleport, no skiff, and no rainbow bridge. How do we get Loki back to the palace?” Steve asked, worried about his friend.
“Huginn, Muninn, I have need.” Odin spoke to the wind, his voice low and measured. Steve looked to Thor, who was still holding his brother's limp body.
“Father’s ravens. They bring him knowledge or messages, help him when in need. They will find what we need now.” Thor tells him. Steve is so grateful that Thor is, as always, graceful under pressure. Steve’s head is going a million mile a minute and having his boyfriend be a rock is helpful in ways he doesn't know how to put to words.
“Twin ravens?” Bruce asked. Thor nodded. “I thought that was a myth.”
“Much of what Midgard knows of us is truth, merely made bigger.” Thor murmurs, eyes to the sky. Steve followed his gaze and then he heard it. There was nothing to see but the flap of wings was easy to hear when it was so recognizable. “Here they come.”
Steve only expected the two ravens, but behind them flew a horde of the pegasus. The two ravens landed first, claws digging into burnt soil, making noise enough for something five times their size. Behind them, the pegasus landed one at a time, hooves digging and stomping. The lone white one tossed it’s mane and neighed loudly, voicing it’s obvious displeasure of having to leave it’s home.
“Come, let the most noble of steeds carry us back to the palace. I shall want to speak to this regent.” Odin climbed onto the white pegasus and grabbed its mane. He leaned down to speak in its ear, calming it immediately.
“Bruce, come on, I’ll help you up. And Tony, come out of your suit and ride with us.” Steve called out orders, glad when his team fell in behind him. Tony grumbled but his suit folded away and he jumped onto the smallest pegasus.
Bruce was nervous but Steve promised to stay by his side. He was going to ride even though he had his own wings. Thor got Loki onto the one with a saddle and then wrapped the reins around Loki’s waist. Steve was the last to mount, feeling weird about it, but wanting to be as close as he can to his team.
Flying on the pegasus was odd, and Steve wasn’t sure he liked it. He was so used to controlling how he moved when in the air but the beast under his ass was not good at listening to commands at all. It baked left once simply to avoid a low hanging cloud. By the time they landed at the port, his ass and thighs were numb and he was ready to write off all horses and their winged counterparts.
“Thor find the minister and see if we can get Loki laid up somewhere.” Steve asked his boyfriend. “I’m going with your dad to find the spy twins, I have no doubt they collared Isade and I’d like to talk to him myself.”
There was a gnawing bit of instinct in him that told him he needed to talk to this man, this regent who got his hands on something he shouldn't have and then possibly used its power to bring his planet to its knees. If he was capable of that, was he capable of staging a kidnapping? Or even worse, a murder? Listening to Atmos’s timeline of events had left Steve with only one thought.
Steve, Odin and Tony strode into the great hall and found Nat and Clint sitting cross legged on the thrones. It was amusing to see, but the sight was of course marred by the two wrapped in ropes on the floor in front of them.
“Found em trying to leave. Bags were packed, coffers were emptied.” Clint told him, all while twirling an arrow between two fingers. “There is a young one with Atmos, he was with them. Kid or boy toy, not sure. Minister dude was not happy.”
“We’ll deal with him in a minute. Thanks guys. You look good on the throne.”
“London.” They said in unison, twin creepy grins. Steve shook his head, he knew he’d never understand their connection. He could only be glad for it.
“Now, before I let Odin chat with you, let me ask you. Did you kill the King?” Steve asked, standing in front of the pair. He watched their faces, looking for a tell. It was the wife whose eyes shuttered briefly. “Did you plan to have the Queen and her newborn son kidnapped? Did you steal my mother from me?” He demanded.
“Yes. Yes we did.” She cried out. “It was all him. He wanted the throne.”
“You wretch, you wanted the power and the coin as well.” Isade hissed.
“That is all well and good, and for that I would have you killed, but I will find mercy in me if you tell me where you got the Infinity Stone.” Odin asked. His voice was deathly calm and it left a shudder going down Steve’s back.
“Tha...Thanos. His name was--”
“Silence.” Odin ordered. “You do not speak his name, you will call him.” Odin turned to Steve and Nat and Clint. There was actual fear on his face. “What would you have me do with them? We must make haste for he is most likely on his way as we speak.”
“Who is this guy?” Clint asked.
“He is the killer of worlds. He is obsessed with Lady Death and I am angry with myself for not realizing sooner. We must move now.”
“What about the people here? I will not leave them to die!” Steve told him. “These two must pay for their crimes, yes. But the rest of the population deserves a chance.”
Odin stared Steve down, but Steve would not budge. If there was anything Odin needed to know about him, it was his stubbornness. And Steve could not believe that there was any being that Odin was afraid of.
“Fine, but if we all die, that is on you.” Odin told him. He called one of the ravens to him, “Huginn, go to Heimdall, tell him to gather the troops and get them here.”
“Father what is going on?” Thor strode in, heading straight for Steve. Steve held out his hand, taking his boyfriend’s.
“The Mad Titan is on his way.” Odin said grim. Thor’s eyes grew huge and he looked down at the pair on the floor.
“What have you done?”