Chapter 32
2016, date redacted
Maria Hill watches silently from the background as Natasha helps James recover, as Steve Rogers frets, as Tony Stark runs himself ragged by inventing with Shuri and Peter Parker in the young Princess's lab.
Maria Hill has always done her best work hiding, waiting. In the shadows of the tree where she hides, but it is not a fearful hiding. It is a careful hiding.
Maria has spent her entire life observing people, noticing, then beating them by running faster than them. It's how she's survived this long, after all.
It's how she and Natasha has. Maria couldn't fault Natasha for running after what the press had dubbed "Civil War", its what she would have done too. Its what she did, during HYDRA, running and leaving.
Coulson and his team were continuing the legacy now.
Natasha was re-writing her own fate.
What was Maria Hill doing?
Nick Fury made her Deputy Director because he trusted, not in her heart, not truly, Nick Fury would never trust anyone's heart fully, but in her steady hands and determination to keep going because the war's not over.
There will always be some war.
Maria's job wasn't exactly unlike Natasha's. They both did espionage, they both tried to keep things together, prevent them from crumbling. They both ran, and hid, and perhaps that was why they fit so perfectly together, like two pieces of a broken puzzle. Because they understood each other. Maria would never hold Natasha running away against her for long, just like Natasha probably wouldn't to her too.
Maria catches up on her work. Pepper was being very kind and shipping off a lot of her work to other interns, but she had work to do and she would damn well do it.
Don't curse Maria, its unbecoming, Peggy would say.
First time she and Peggy had met they clashed, then after that they got on, as Peggy would say, as right as rain.
Peggy had her own steady hands and clear eyes to depend on too.
Maria respected that.
Maria played the babysitter as she watched over the Avengers for Natasha, who was busy with James.
Well, Barnes would be more appropriate.
When Nick Fury called her, she was not surprised.
"This is Hill," she says the familiar words.
"Hill, I got a job for you. Long term, in partnership with the Avengers. Stark and Rogers finally got their shit together, and I've contacted them. They agreed. So, you ready to fight Agent?"
Maria curls her fists around her Glock she always kept with her.
"I never left," she says.
Maria Hill is always ready, how could she not be when her mind and body has never left the killing field?
'Good. Your mission will be hard, but I'm sure you have the capability to do it."
Maria Hill always outran everyone. The first time she met Natasha, she couldn't. She still couldn't. But she always tried. And that, at the end of the day, may not be satisfactory, or even worth it, but when she finished assembling a gun a few seconds faster, when she crossed that finish line, it always felt like a small victory in her own rights.
2017, date redacted
"This is an Asgardian refugee ship, do not attack, the Statesman is under assault, requesting aid from vessels in range. We are 22 jump points ahead of Asgard and our crew is made up of Asgardian families with very few soldiers."
"Hear me and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No. It is salvation."
"Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile. For even in death, you have become Children of Thanos."
Loki knew he had only a few ways to do this. One, hide the Tesseract and run. Two, give up the Tesseract and kill everyone in the galaxy. Three, fake a Tesseract even though the magic strain may very well destroy him. Four, he could send Thor off using the Tesseract and sacrifice himself.
If the Mad Titan was in a toying mood, the last option might very well work.
Thanos would not claim his as his Child again, not after his betrayal, one after another.
Proxima's breath was on him, spear at his chest, just like in Svartelfheim years ago.
"I know what it's like to lose." Thanos said as he turned around to look at a wounded figure at his feet, "To feel so desperately that you're right... yet to fail, nonetheless."
Thanos. He was truly coming for the stones.
Loki had always been particularly sentient about the tesseract. He is deciding between options one and three now.
As long as the Tesseract was safe, as long as it gave the world a chance to finish the Mad Titan and his Children once and for all.
Thanos lifts Thor up and walks towards Loki, "It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. But I ask you, to what end? Dread it, run from it... destiny arrives all the same. And now, it's here. Or should I say... I am." And then he revealed the Infinity Gauntlet in his left hand, the Power Stone glowing in its slot.
Loki would not give up the Tesseract.
The fate of the world depended on him.
Even with one stone, he could destroy the world. But as long as Loki kept it in his secure pocket dimension, not even the other stones could find the Tesseract.
Each stone was like a living thing. Reality, chaos. Time, wise and fair. Mind, controlling, life. Power, force, energy. Soul, the balanced, the mysterious, essence of life. Space, there wasn't a word adequate to describe the Space Stone, just like Loki, he had no labels, he had all the labels.
Perhaps that was why his seidr always danced together with the Tesseract.
He could lead them out of here, if he tried hard enough to conjure enough seidr, just like he had to allow Valkyrie and the refugees to escape, but he was weakened.
Loki had brought this upon the world, he realised.
He had to finish the unfinished game that was still raging on.
"You talk too much," Loki's idiotic brother groans.
"The Tesseract, or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference."
Loki stares at Thor.
He couldn't beat the Mad Titan, but perhaps, he knew someone who could.
"Oh I do, kill away," Loki's resolve hardens.
If this was his last showdown, he would make it spectacular, but not before making Thanos worry slightly.
Thor screams.
Loki would have dragged it out longer, but he sees that there's a literal hole burning through his skull.
No. Mother would be displeased.
"Alright stop!" Loki yells, panting.
"We don't have the Tesseract, it was destroyed on Asgard."
Oh silly, foolish Thor. In his reign under the disguise of Odin he should have gotten Thor into more magic studies.
I'm sorry, Tesseract. Till we meet again.
Loki raises his hand and conjures the Tesseract.
2017, date redacted
Loki wakes up in a pool.
"You have done well, my son," Frigga says.
"Mother," he breathes.
Loki hugs Frigga tightly.
"There is much to be done, battles to be fought, but with your cunning and intelligence. I, Frigga Allmother, bless you, Loki Friggason. Your journey has not come to an end yet, it seems. Go forth and do what you have to, my son. I love you," Frigga says.
"I'm sorry, I love you Mother," Loki says.
Frigga smiles sadly at him.
"I know."