rt

Within hours of Thor's thunderstorm demonstration, he and Loki had bid Jane, Darcy, and Erik farewell so they could be escorted across the country to SHIELD's headquarters. It was a strange journey, to be confined in a Quinjet with his brother, a man his brother had murdered right in front of him, a man his brother had puppeteered, and one of the Hydra villains yet to be unmasked.

Loki would remain innocent and ignorant of those and all his other crimes in this timeline if Thor had anything to say about it, which meant that Agent Sitwell's allegiance was the only real problem here. Thor had known merely a fraction of the treacherous SHIELD agents' names, and he remembered even fewer, but he could not forget Sitwell, the lone Hydra operative he had met before Rogers exposed them and recruited the Avengers to take them down.

Barton was piloting the Quinjet and Coulson was alternating between making light conversation with Thor and Loki and with his colleagues. Sitwell didn't often look at the princes, but he was clearly wary of them. Thor waited for a lull where Coulson was talking to Sitwell before leaning closer to Loki. "I must ask your advice again, Brother."

All children of Asgard were taught two languages. The first was the common tongue, a High Vanir dialect from when Buri first founded Asgard as a military outpost of Vanaheim. The second, which took on average a century to master—and the written form even longer—was Allspeak.

There was also a third language, developed alongside Allspeak but for the opposite purpose. It had no name and was taught only to royalty and high-ranking military officials. Where Allspeak used continuous spellwork to remove language barriers, the nameless tongue used spellwork to render the speaker's words incomprehensible to any but the intended audience. Even a master of linguistics or someone fluent in Allspeak could spend the rest of their lives attempting to translate what they heard and get nowhere. It was as valuable a resource for maintaining the security of the realm as Allspeak was for diplomatic relations with others. Thor hadn't often had occasion to use it before now.

Loki met his gaze with a raised eyebrow. "Why the secrecy? Do you not trust these men?"

"I would trust Coulson and Barton with my life."

"Ah, then we do this for Sitwell's benefit."

"As well as any recording devices," said Thor. "The SHIELD has been infested to its core with another organization called Hydra. They seek to sow enough fear and chaos across Midgard that good people will believe they must turn to them for protection. Much of the work I did as an Avenger was helping my Midgardian companions put Hydra's operations to an end, but if those events follow their original course, they will not be discovered within SHIELD for at least two years."

"So you're wondering if you should move against them sooner."

Thor nodded.

"As a rule, spies are a suspicious lot," said Loki. As though to illustrate his point, Coulson's and Sitwell's spines had grown noticeably stiffer since they began speaking this way, though they had not paused their own conversation. "Why should the ones you trust believe you that the colleagues they have worked with for years are untrustworthy? If you succeeded in defeating Hydra before, altering your approach could jeopardize that victory."

Thor frowned. How many people would Hydra kill and how many deadly devices would they acquire in all that intervening time? He misliked the idea. Loki could obviously tell, for he offered, "However, if the changes we're already making lead to trouble with these Hydra operatives, perhaps we could have Heimdall watch them and make a list of their names so that we can take action if we need to."

"That is wise," said Thor.

Loki smirked. "That's what I'm here for."

This got a laugh out of Thor, and he clapped Loki on the back. "Thank you for coming with me."

"Enough of that," said Loki, giving Thor a shove, which only widened Thor's grin. He returned his attention back to the SHIELD agents, whose postures had lost much of their tension at the sight of these brotherly antics.

Thor and Loki received many a perplexed stare when they reached the Triskelion. The sight amused him, and he thought Loki was enjoying it too, by the dancing glint in his eye. They were taken to a large conference room where Director Fury was waiting, Maria Hill at his side, along with a shorter man whom Thor had a dim memory of briefly meeting in New York. He couldn't recall his name. Thor was getting better at resisting the urge to shout a greeting whenever he saw someone he had known before, but he doubted he would ever become accustomed to being looked at with such wariness by former friends and allies. He was quickly gaining a new appreciation for what a valuable commodity trust was.

Barton, Coulson, and Sitwell all took seats at Fury's end of the table, leaving the other end to Thor and Loki.

"So, the God of Thunder and the God of Mischief," said Fury. "And here we all thought you were myths."

"Looks like we were mythtaken," said Coulson. Hill and Sitwell rolled their eyes, the shorter man's jaw tightened, and Fury's expression went even flatter, but Barton quietly fist-bumped Coulson under the table. Thor snorted and Loki allowed himself another smirk.

"Your myths are are woefully inaccurate," said Loki as he and Thor sat down, "but yes, we are real."

"Allow us to formally welcome you to Earth," said the man sitting next to Fury. "I'm Alexander Pierce, Secretary to the World Security Council, and this is Director Fury of SHIELD and Deputy Director Hill." Thor kept his expression neutral with difficulty. He certainly remembered Pierce's name. Rogers had had much to say about the leader of Hydra. If he was here now, it boded ill for their negotiations.

Sure enough, the next half hour was very trying. While Fury took charge of the discussion, Hydra's influence was clear. Thor could understand their desire to ensure that the two powerful alien princes and the world they came from were not a threat, but what Fury and Pierce proposed went far beyond reasonable caution. Did Fury realize that he was outlining a plan in which Thor and Loki could only prove their intentions were good by subjecting themselves to what bordered on experimentation by and servitude to SHIELD? Flickers of confusion and doubt from Barton, Coulson, and Hill at various points only proved that something was wrong.

"Will you agree to these terms?" Fury concluded.

Thor was trying to think of a diplomatic way to refuse when Loki leaned forward over the table, his eyes narrowed and his lip curled in a sneer. "We have come to warn you of enemies heading your way, and we have offered to help you prepare for them and defeat them. I fail to see how subjecting my brother and me to a battery of tests of our capabilities, running numerous scans on our persons, or collecting samples of our blood should be at all warranted. We are the Sons of Odin, Allfather of Asgard, Protector of the Nine Realms. Do not trifle with us. We are not oddities for you to study and we are not dogs you can put on a leash. You need the help we offer freely if you are to survive."

Fury raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?"

"It's a fact," said Thor. "Would that our realms could treat together under better circumstances, but that will have to wait until we have weathered the coming storms."

"Why's an advanced civilization like Asgard interested in what happens to a little backwater planet like ours?" said Barton.

"Your world sits at the heart of the nine realms of Yggdrasil," said Loki. "A kind of cosmic crossroads. It is true that your technology is rather primitive and there is currently little of value you could offer us in terms of trade, but we cannot allow Midgard to fall into the wrong hands."

"Several conquering armies have coveted it in the past for its strategic position," said Thor. "The Shi'ar, the Jotnar, the Kree." At this last one, he was surprised to see Fury, Pierce, and Coulson exchange a brief, alarmed glance, but he went on as though he'd noticed nothing, "Asgard has fought all of them back."

"If you're so good at protecting us from afar, then why make contact at all?" said Hill.

"Not so long ago, you succeeded in taking your first steps beyond the boundary of this planet," said Loki. "It may only be decades before you are capable of entering a field of play you have never dreamed of. Surely you would prefer not to stumble onto it blind?"

"Maybe not, but in my experience, the guys with the most power aren't generally interested in helping the people at the bottom get power of their own," said Fury. "They're only interested in making sure the pecking order never changes."

"You don't understand," said Thor. He had grown so frustrated that it came out more like a growl, and he had to press his hands flat to the table to stop himself clenching them into fists. The level of static electricity in the room was also rising, and he had to keep that under control too. Causing a thunderstorm just now would not be helpful. "Our fates are bound together. A slumbering army of Dokkalfar lurks in unknown space, awaiting their chance to tear down our universe and replace it with darkness. They do not have the weapon they need to accomplish this, but if they obtain it, Asgard will fall as surely as Earth. And the Dokkalfar are nothing to the Mad Titan, who, with his world-destroying legions, is after that same weapon as part of a set of six—one of which he already possesses—and if he unites them all, he will wipe out half of all sentient life with a single snap of his fingers. Earth cannot hope to defeat these enemies alone, and even Asgard may not prevail against them, for they are not our only concerns. It is not just that you need us to survive; we need each other."

Perhaps he was only seeing what he wanted to see, but Thor thought Coulson and Hill, at least, looked somewhat convinced.

"Alright, how would you propose to prove Earth can count you as allies?" said Fury.

"Give us a mission," said Thor. "Something real. We each have centuries of experience in battle, so find us a battle where you would not risk your own warriors."

"To be clear," said Loki before any of the humans could answer, "Whatever this mission is, Asgard is not interested in becoming embroiled in squabbles between individual nations of Midgard. We will gladly do battle with any threat to civilians, but we will not be artillery for one government to brandish at another."

There was a pause, and then Fury nodded. "We might be able to come up with a job for you."

Pierce looked at him sharply. "Could we have the room for a few minutes?" he asked. Coulson, Barton, Hill, and Sitwell all stood up and headed for the door. Thor and Loki followed, though Thor thought he saw the briefest flash of gold out of the corner of his eye. None of the humans had noticed.

X

"You're still in the room, aren't you?" said Thor in the nameless tongue once they were all waiting outside in the corridor.

"Obviously," said the projection Loki had sent with the others, while his real body remained cloaked from view inside the conference room.

"Well don't get caught."

"What do you take me for?"

Thor scowled. Loki grinned. What did Thor expect? That he was going to wait patiently outside while a pair of mortals discussed what to do with them? Particularly after the way Thor had reacted when the shorter one introduced himself, and after what they'd already said straight to their faces?

Within the room, Alexander Pierce seemed to be forcing himself to remain calm. It was a moment before he spoke. "What are you doing, Nick?" he said. "Are you really just going to capitulate to the demands of a couple of aliens we know nothing about?"

"I'm not sure I'd call them 'demands.' It seems like a pretty reasonable request that we don't treat royalty from a powerful world that might be friendly like lab rats."

Pierce narrowed his eyes. "You were never going to insist on the tests in the first place, were you?"

"No. I just wanted to see how they'd react to something that outrageous. You saw how desperate Thor was. That was a man who's afraid he might lose everything he loves, and he thinks working with Earth is his best shot. I don't think they're lying about what's coming." Loki raised invisible eyebrows, impressed. Fury was a perceptive man.

"And what if they turn out to be the threat?" said Pierce. "Or if they do help Earth defeat these alien warlords, only to turn around and conquer it as a prize? How are we supposed to fight back if we don't even know what they are or what they're capable of?"

"If we treat them like enemies when they're offering an alliance, then we won't be giving them any choice but to be our enemies."

"So you want to just throw a couple of powerful unknowns into an already volatile situation and trust that their goals will align with ours?"

"Not really, but thanks to General Ross, I've got at least one powder keg about to go off, and the Council tied my hands. I don't have the funding to send in any kind of response team if Ross pokes that large, green bear again, but now there might be another option."

"You think Thor and Loki could bring Banner in?"

"Something like that. They want a job defending civilians against a situation we wouldn't risk our own men on? It seems like the perfect fit."

Pierce exhaled through his nose. "If this goes sideways…"

"Then I will take full responsibility."