Schism

Loki was rather stunned when he returned to Asgard. Apparently his mother and mostly-brother were, as the Midgardians would say, “on a tear”.  Asgard was in for quite the surprise - and wonder of wonders, he wasn't the one responsible for it! 

Thanks to Tony's ingenuity, Heimdall was able to access the evidence regarding Loki's abuse and mental torture by the Other. Heimdall had even apologized to him upon his return. Loki still hadn't gotten over that.  And watching Thor call out the Warriors 3.5 for their behavior towards Loki, well - that was a sight to behold. For all Loki's insecurity about how he'd fit in his family, the connection forged between Frigga and Thor and himself on Midgard felt as strong as Uru.

Odin, unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), was unmoved by the facts. At least he could do nothing to Loki as the evidence of the situation on Midgard had been made public by Frigga and Thor. And Odin was in no rush to reveal Loki's true origins to Asgard lest he lose his power base. Loki was deeply disturbed by this worrisome behavior - it was irrational, unfounded, and dangerous to Asgard, who depended on their King's rational judgement. He could only hope he wasn't the only one who was aware of Odin's state of mind.

As if things couldn't get any more disruptive, signs of the impending convergence of the 9 realms began, and Heimdall informed Thor that his Midgardian woman had disappeared from Sight. Thor, much to his father's disappointment, returned to Midgard to investigate, while Loki and his mother hurriedly researched the potential impact of the convergence on their respective worlds so they could devise some protection. 

To say Loki was shocked when Thor returned with Jane AND the Aether - which was currently INSIDE Jane - would have been an understatement. Even worse was learning of the Dark Elves' connection to it, and the thinning of dimensional walls associated with the convergence. The implications were too much to ignore - but of course, because it was Loki who put forth the theory, Odin ignored it. 

Unfortunately, Loki's suppositions were proven correct.

*****

Tony despised panic attacks.

Panic attacks sucked, public panic attacks sucked more, panic-attack-inducing-nightmares sucked even more, and scaring the woman you loved half to death during a nightmare sucked on a whole different level.

Dammit - he needed help and didn't know where to go to get it - cause fame and therapy really didn't mix - been there, bought the t-shirt, had the t-shirt sold to multiple media outlets and broadcast all over the place. Feeling like there were no good options was doing NOTHING to help manage the anxiety. AT. ALL. 

Now Happy was in the hospital thanks to some crazed terrorist - UGGGGG! Tony'd found some interesting information about the explosions the bastard was setting off but nothing concrete. Pepper wanted them out of town cause he kinda antagonized the terrorist, and Maya Hansen was knocking at his door?  

Then everything exploded!

*****

Malekith and his Dark Elves breached Asgard's defenses and attacked, intent on possessing the Aether.  Thor and his friends joined Odin and the guards to defend the palace, while Loki remained with his mother and her guard to protect Jane and keep her and the Aether from Malekith.  As Malekith's main forces attacked the palace, Malekith, the Kursed and a handful of his elite guard breached the Queen's chambers.

With a stunning combination of magic and bladework, Frigga and Loki held them back. As they were about to defeat the invaders, the Kursed broke away to thrust his great sword at and through the queen. Loki slashed at Malekith and teleported across to his mother, pulling Frigga mostly out of the way of the sword, but he wasn't able to teleport the both of them fast enough - and was run through himself!

Loki collapsed against his mother as the doors to the chamber flew open. Thor let loose a cry of anger and anguish as he flung Moljnir at Malekith. The Kursed rushed to the aid of his master and they escaped over the balcony and away from Asgard to regroup.   

As Thor drove Malekith away, a mortally injured Loki used what magic he had left to heal Frigga, unwilling to let her wounds worsen. Thor turned and rushed back to his mother and brother, ripping off his cape to try to stop the flow of blood from his brother's chest as his mother roused. Frigga, weak from her injury, was unable to heal Loki, only managing to relieve some of his pain. Loki roused enough to see his mother recovered, tears coursing down her face.

"Oh my sweet boy, what have you done?" Frigga brushed Loki's hair from his forehead as Loki smiled weakly. "Protected what I love", he whispered.

"All of Asgard will know of your sacrifice, brother," Thor choked, tears falling freely from his own eyes.

"I didn't do it for them," Loki replied.

Thor nodded in understanding, holding Loki close as he died, skin turning greyish blue and raised lines appearing on his face and hands. 

*****

Regenerating fire-people.

What. Was. His. Life?

Thanks to Jarvis' accidentally landing him at the first bomb incident, and to finding a genius kid with an understanding mother and a tinker-fest-garage, he'd somehow managed to piece together part of the mystery surrounding the Mandarin. He hadn't heard anything from Shield - he'd thought they'd figure out he was alive so he'd have some kind of back-up, but he was beginning to wonder if their Hydra problem was more insidious than he initially believed. Thank god for Rhodey. Now he was headed to Miami of all places. 

*****

Odin, enraged by the attack on his castle and his wife, became unhinged, willing to risk all of Asgard in revenge, accusing Thor of cowardice for not joining in the madness.

"YOU ARE NO LONGER FIT TO BE KING!" shouted Thor, raw with grief and done with his father's machinations.

Gungnir, the King's Staff, finding Odin no longer worthy to protect Asgard, agreed and flew to Thor. Thor's first act was to  confine Odin to his quarters, with the full support of the Einherjar who were present to witness Gungnir's transfer of rule. Frigga, now recovered, magically bound her husband before verbally ripping him to pieces and leaving him to deal with the results of his selfishness and power-madness. 

Thor and Frigga visited the infirmary where Loki's body was being kept in state until his funeral could be held, as Thor's Warrior friends waited outside the door.

"We will go to Vaneheim and confront Malekith there." Frigga stated, voice hard as stone. "He took my son; he will not take your Jane, and he will not take the Aether."

With his mother's magic, Mjolnir's power, and the Warriors' fighting prowess, they defeated Malekith and rip the Aether from him. Relieved to have succeeded, but hearts heavy with grief, they returned to Asgard.

*****

For a genius, Tony realized, the decisions he made when the people he cared about were under threat were... not the best. Bold, ballsy even - but getting his loved ones almost killed, along with almost getting himself killed? When he got himself out of this particular conundrum he was definitely going to work on getting his head on straight. 

Those were the thoughts that popped into his head as he woke up and discovered he was zip-tied to a bed frame in a makeshift lab, realizing he'd been betrayed by Maya. And the cherry on top of that shit sundae was having a whiny mad scientist slide into ridiculous by blaming Tony for his sociopathic supervillian greedy murder fest...because Tony had blown him off at a post-lecture NEW YEARS EVE PARTY?!? What. The. Hell. 

"Al. Can I call you Al?" Tony tried not to rant, but it was looking like a loosing battle, "Do you have any idea how many people approach me with their 'ground-breaking proposals' at that kind of event?"

Tony stared at Killian in disbelief, because, seriously - this asshole was blaming terroristic life choices on him?

"A MINIMUM of 10. And ALL of THEM had the common sense to introduce themselves professionally and make appointments to follow up with me.  They certainly didn't push themselves into an elevator at a freaking NEW YEARS EVE party dressed like a hobo and try to sell their idea while I was on my way to have drinks, talk science and potentially get lucky with a beautiful woman." Tony could see Killian was fuming and he was 95% sure it wasn't extremis related, but screw it, he was on roll.

Then the son-of-a-bitch showed Tony a live feed of Pepper burning with extremis while threatening to burn him, then killed Maya and left to kill even more people. The bastard's henchmen didn't know what hit them when Tony's suit showed up. Now all he had to do was meet up with Rhodey and kick the bastard's ass.