fossilised | For Steve

For Steve

The war had been raging for a long time now, and James Buchanan Barnes had been drafted some months ago to ship out to Europe and fight with all the others in the trenches and on the front lines. Telegrams came back daily with the news of more brothers, sons, fathers, and husbands killed. More friends who will never return, and still there was no end in sight.

But then something even stranger began happening on both sides of the timeline.

All the newsreels were reporting strange anomalies centred in New York City and Washington D.C. that could only be explained by time itself unravelling in places. Buildings that changed to vast monoliths of glass and steel for a few minutes and then back again, a faded billboard for asthma cigarettes becoming a full colour motion picture of a man eating soup. Some people had even said they had met men and women claiming to be from the future, though this was all hushed up.

It only lasted a few days, and then it was sorted. Sealed, the government official offices said, just a trick by the Nazis to confuse us. Forget it and go about your day.

But there were pieces of the future lost in the past for good.

The Winter Soldier-- Bucky-- whoever he was now, confused fragmented memories all he had to go on, had been thrown through time unceremoniously into a street that looked altogether familiar and confusing. He hid from the authorities who were collecting all the anomalies with ease, even though his manner of dress was out of place now with jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. He didn't change it. He found his feet taking him somewhere only half remembered.

An apartment with a key hidden under an old brick. Why did he know it was there?

He didn't know. He just let himself in, quiet as a whisper, and made his way through to the bedroom where someone was asleep under the covers. Skinny, blond, somehow also familiar (the man on the bridge? The man in the Potomac? The man at the museum? No, that didn't make sense, that man had bulging muscles, but somehow he was sure they were the same). He didn't say anything, just stood there and watched impassively, waiting for the man to wake up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With Grant fine with taking some steps back with Bucky, the look on the other Steve's face sorrowful and the one on the woman Thor's face frightening, Tony decided not to get involved there. And he certainly wasn't going to get involved with Loki. So he paused beside his Thor, scratching st his head, and watched the reunion of his younger self and Bruce's feminine counterpart.

Anthony turned in Ruth's embrace, pleased to see her, and cupped her keeps to kiss her soundly. "I'm not worse than Ola," he pouted. "We're exactly the same."

Their daughter was their pride and joy, an impossible miracle, but one that both were protective of. Even if she was on Midgard with her nanny while her parents had been ripped through time and space. Or something else ghastly.

Tony let out a slow breath. Ola. They'd both said the name he'd dreamed of and that left a really bad taste in his mouth. Rather than stand here feeling awkward, he echoed Thor's initial thoughts about getting everyone inside and talking. But he did one better.

"There's plenty of space for everyone," he called, clapping his hands. "We just-- wow, okay other me, you can look elsewhere. Thank you. Anyway, I'm working on the issue at hand. Until then, can we stop causing trouble and just... Relax? Thor, little help here?"

"Your slave has grown so old here, Sister, even if mine has shrunk!"

"He is not old, he only seems so, he has never even been given the gift. They do not keep slaves here, my sister, he believes himself free."

Loki sounded disgusted with the whole situation, this whole realm utterly disgusted her as it should upset anyone who had seen how things should be. This was not a place of prosperity or health, this was a place of suffering where the fractured countries of mortal men fought one another while all suffered.

Ruth laughed quietly into the kiss, returning it happily, before she tugged her Anthony into the fray to listen to the others speak.

"Tony is right," she said, squeezing the hand of her Anthony. "We all have to work together to sort this out, so we need to stop bickering. Sorry for the presumptuous words, Princess, Prince, Queen, but there's another me which means another Hulk maybe rampaging around Asgard and I'd rather get that sorted out."

Bucky took that opportunity to retreat to right beside Grant, expression troubled as hell and voice low. "Where's Steve?" Their Steve, the right Steve.

Steve, and Sam, were already jogging across the grass thanks to JARVIS alerting them, and though Steve could have gotten here in seconds, he had stayed at Sam's pace. Falcon did not look entirely pleased by what he was seeing (so many pale, duplicate faces in a variety of sizes and ages and genders), and so he stood back and rubbed across his eyelids as Steve stepped into the poorly lit clearing. "Just what is going on here?" he demanded before he took a good look around.

Yes. He settled on himself in his leather pants and red tunic, standing tall and proud with longer hair thst touched his jaw and eyes just as pale blue. The blonde woman beside him did a double take, but so did he. "Steve --?"

"That's right ma'am," Steve said trying to be pleasant as he held up his hands to cull anything else being said before it could be. "I don't know what's going on here but I think--"

No. He had to stop. He was getting confused too, until Tony decided to come right out and summarize everything.

"Loki, Thor, me, you-- they're from the slaving universe with a female version of Bruce." He might have smiled and waived at her. No. He definitely smiled and waved at her. "Everyone but the two of us seem to be women. Oh, and Bucky, who was friends with Lady Thor but evidently died." So that was sorted. "Bruce probably is back where we accidentally got Loki from."

Anthony decided to take over here, because he was just as insufferable.

"Prince Thor doesn't have any slaves. His brother, Prince Loki, led a war on Midgard and was captured and tried as Traitor. These people are at war with one another, have no real healthcare and they're constantly at each other's throats but they think we're crazy for swearing fealty to Jotunheim. That version of Steve tried to feed me packaged, salted meat cut thin on bread. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen. Minus that metal arm. They're about three hundred years behind us in technological and medical advances."

"Alright, no. Stop. This is too many people and too many conflicting opinions of what's going on and what needs to happen."

Steve was effortless in taking charge. It had always been inside him, even when he had been a skinny kid who hadn't known when to back down from a fight, and it was still there now. He was the head of the Avengers, and he was also responsible for protecting Bucky and Grant, all things that he took very seriously.

"People from another time and reality, Grant excluded, with all due respect you need to learn to accept that this isn't your reality and stop insulting everything here. We're not interested in a fight, all we want to do is get you home and get Bruce back, that's all, so can we please all work together to make that happen?"

He stared directly at the female versions of Loki and Thor.

"And that means no domination plans, no fights, and everyone here reports to me. Is that clear?"

"Okay yeah," Tony said, arms cross over his chest, "but you kind of--". Steve gave him a look and Tony rolled his eyes, glancing back at Thor. But even Thor wasn't saying anything. He protected this Realm but he did not rule it. When they marched to battle, he differed to Rogers just as his own men did to him. Of course, they also mostly did their own thing, but the strategy was Rogers to compile and orders to give.

Thor just had a feeling that he was being judged by the two royals. His other self had indeed joined her sister and both were standing with their slaves looking blank for a moment. "Needs we must discuss this," Lady Thor said, linking her arm with Loki's. They could not annex a Realm outside of Yggdrassil. They did not have any ties here. And honestly, seeing James again and not being known? It weighed heavily on her.

Once she managed to get Loki away, Anthony, Ruth and Steven close by but at a respectful distance, Thor lightly took her sister's face in her hands.

"Can you find us a path home? I wish not to be here. We have our own Realms to rule and this place distresses me and my slave. We wish to be free of it. If you can not, will your slave be capable of it?"

Loki too wished to be home, but she had the chaotic fire in her nature that could not be quelled by any different reality, and that made her unwilling to back down when she could fix this place. Bring it to kneel, make it understand what their correct place among the Nine Realms was.

"I cannot take us home myself, Yggdrasil is withered and I barely had the strength to draw from it to bring you here to me. To find a path back would be near impossible by myself, though with the help of my slave and his wife, there may be a possibility."

She reached out and tucked a piece of blonde hair behind Thor's ear gently.

"I know that your heart aches because he does not recognise you, but he is not your James. He sits proudly in Valhalla awaiting your company, hunting each day and feasting each night, so do not mourn the ghost of one who does not stand before you. Sister, I wish for home as well, but can we truly leave a place in such turmoil? Your other self is a disgrace to Asgard."

Had there be anyone within range of hearing, Thor would never have allowed herself this moment of weakness. But she told Loki everything. Of all of her siblings, natural born or fostered, Thor loved no other more than she did Loki. As such, Thor told her everything, about James, and now about Steven. It was not the best of ideas, she knew, but Loki had never once let her confidence slip.

Thor trusted her with everything. And their slaves...well. Their slaves knew better than to ever let what was said in the presence of their mistresses slip either. Yes, Thor did think herself better than the mortal's but at the same time, she trusted them too.

At the touch of Loki's cool hand, Thor sighed and reigned in her pain. James was not her James. Her James was dead. She had Steven now. That was just the way it had to be.

"You are, as always, correct, Sister." Loki had been Queen for many years now. It had tempered her and caused her to grow in more understanding than Thor herself had. One day, Thor would rule all Nine Realms as Queen of Asgard, but until then, she deferred to her sisters Loki and Helblindi to ruling matters. "We can allow these Realms to further break down Yggdrassil. It is our sacred duty to right them."

She turned her eyes to gaze at Anthony and Steven.

"First, we need more information. Only then may I form a proper strategy. The Thor of this Asgard is too weak to be allowed to rule."

"As I brought you hear, I made certain that a message would make it through to my eldest sister's ears. She will rally the armies of Jotunheim and Asgard to our cause, all we need do is assist in the building of a bridge to allow them entry here."

If that meant pretending to go along with only going home, then she was willing to do that and quite capable of it too. She knew when lies would serve the greater cause, and she employed them as easily as the truth. It may be more tricky for Thor, for she wore her honesty in each expression, but she was not wholly incapable of deception.

"We must spend our time wisely, discovering all we can about this Midgard and the Asgard that has disgraced itself, so that when Helblindi arrives we can meet her with a strategy already formed. Anthony, you must go to those who counter my sister's slave and former slave and learn from them, Steven, go to the one who counters my Anthony and learn from him."

It would be better if they did not stick to their own opposite, that had already brought trouble.

"Thor, you and I must find out more of your counterpart's failings, and what state Asgard stands in. Without Jotunheim as an ally, I do not see how it can have achieved the greatness it enjoys today for us."

The strategy was more than sound and Thor nodded. "I need you to find a way to bind Mjolnir to me and me alone. Our brother, Thor, should not be allowed to possess it's might." Thor herself might not be able to hide her heart as well as her sister, but she was highly capable of strategy. If they could fool the dwarves time and again, they could fool a dim witted version of herself and the mortals. Loki's Anthony and his wife was beyond capable. They had not only managed to erect a permanant Bifrost between all Realms and Vanaheim, but they had been instrumental in subduing the Dark Elves during their uprising a century ago so that they could once more prosper as all other Realms did under Asgardian control.

The slaves were in agreement, Anthony looking excited with his hand in Ruth's, and Steven looking determined. Her slave, beautiful and strong, bowed low on blended knee with his fist to his chest. Anthony did not but Steven had been taught the ways of Asgardian slaves for centuries, thanks to her beloved James, and he had enjoyed his place, she was sure. Her hand lightly found his cheek and she stroked it back into his hair, golden strands pulling at the scrollwork on her vambraces.

As the trio moved away and the sisters linked arms again, Anthony sniffed down at Ruth. "So what do you think? A few thousand years and I'll look like that." The Gift was not something to make him immortal, it was something to extend his life. And, one day, he would indeed grow old.

It sounded as though even when they had been brothers, the Thor and Loki in this world had not worked as one, and Loki sorrowed for that. He loved his sisters, all of them, but Thor was the one he held the most fondness for. They had never needed to compete, for both knew they were destined to rule their own realms, they merely worked together and covered for one another's strengths and weaknesses. To be together in this campaign was right, and she would be all the more secure when Helblindi also came to lend her might to this war.

For it was war.

Ruth may not be a slave of Loki, but she was still the Queen of Midgard and Ruth knew her place. She didn't resent being ordered around at all, she loved her Queen as all mortals did, and was always proud of her Anthony for having such a high position. At least they could work on this together.

She snorted and lifted a hand to run through his hair, tugging on it lightly. "You're kidding, right? I'll have left you by then, got a younger model. Maybe I'll go redhead next time, you know Nathaniel has a thing for me?"

"Next time?" Anthony snorted. "And of course Nat has a thing for you. Everyone has a thing for you. Even me."

Nathaniel was not a threat, though he knew Ruth and the other man slept together frequently when Anthony was away with Loki. He actually was a good influence for Ola too, even if he was broody and quiet. It was too bad he wasn't here. He could get information out of an orange if he wanted to.

"But doctor, there's no next time after me. Let's not kid ourselves. I'm the love of your life." Arrogance was something that Anthony had in spades. "And Nathaniel is going to be long gone before I start going gray. But that beard... I actually kind of like it. When we get back, I might grow mine out." He rubbed his baby face. "What do you think, Steve? Little bit of hair on the old cheeks?"

Anthony shifted his arm to wrap around Ruth's slight shoulders as Steven lifted his hands in silent defeat, deciding that he wasn't getting involved in this. He had learned after all of these years!

As they neared the lighted house, though, Anthony slowed to a stop and looked at his wife. "Ola's all right, isn't she? Nat and Pepper are going to take care of her until we get back, right?" As long as Clint didn't come over. He didn't see what Nathaniel saw in that guy. Man. Anthony hated him. He probably lived in the air ducts.

"Ola will be fine, honestly," Ruth was used to being the one of them that had to calm Anthony down. Though she had her anger issues, she had excessively good control and perspective, and her husband was always the one to fly off the handle with terrified premonitions about childhood diseases whenever their daughter dared do so much as cough. "She's working on a project about agricultural cloning, she won't even miss us."

Ruth tangled her fingers into Anthony's and squeezed them reassuringly, before stretching up to kiss him lightly. "If you feel the need to grow a beard to make yourself more manly, then far be it from me to stop you."

Okay, she had sort of enjoyed the goatee look as well.

"Try not to think about Ola, we have work to do here so we can get back to her. Are you ready for this?"

"I was born ready. Literally," Anthony laughed before he tugged Ruth on, up the hill towards the little house where everyone inside was having a frantic conversation about them, very likely.

Steven had already gone inside the main house and the conversation levels had dropped immediately, but he was his charming self, apologizing for getting everyone upset by the time that Anthony and Ruth arrived. Tony's eyes shot to her immediately. Anthony saw that, but it was to his advantage to let him look. He knew where Ruth's heart was, he had it. And she had hers. Which is probably why no one but Bucky really cared that his eyes looked over the man bookended by more Stevens.

"This..." He took a deep breath. "Just wow. This is so surreal. Hi. I'm Anthony Howardson. It's good to meet you everyone." See? Look how ready he was for this Ruth! "And this is my wife, Ruth Rebeccasdottr. We have a little girl at home named Ola. She just turned nine. I work for Queen Loki. I know you guys aren't that great with the whole slave thing, but it's better than you're thinking. I have my freedom. I just work closely with her and... I'm sorry, Prince Thor...you're just amazing. Okay, enough gushing. Can we go around the room and introduce ourselves? Yes?"

It took almost an hour to get through everyone. Even Grant, who was just so fascinated by all of this that he was just about jumping in his seat to hear that even in yet another reality, so different from their own, he and Bucky were best friends.

It was good to go around the room and introduce themselves, it gave a feeling of working together rather than 'us versus them' which seemed to have started up. Also it seemed like the people from the other reality were no longer trying to conquer them, just trying to help them re-establish the link between their worlds so that they could all go back to where they needed to go.

Hopefully soon.

Bucky's introduction was very short and quiet, he mentioned nothing about the Soldier, just said that he was here with Grant and Steve. He listened to Grant talk about art college, and Steve talk about the Avengers, and it was a relief to know that everyone had this in hand.

He ended up cornering Anthony, though, when the main introductions were done. "I don't want to sleep with you," he said, perhaps a little more bluntly than he should have done. But he had needed to get it out in the open so that no more propositions came his way. Poor Anthony, was he used to being rejected?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For Steve

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject