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.

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It was not quite so simple or black and white as Loki believing that mortals were to be crushed like ants beneath her boot, for she did not. Midgard, and therefore the mortals who inhabited it, were under her rule and therefore her protection. Their rightful place was beneath her, but she was no tyrant and the people of Midgard loved her as their Queen. It was just the rightful order of things.

"I do not speak of Baldir, do not be a fool, he is your sister and not my brother. I speak of Bylestir, third son of Laufey and Farbauti."

Loki ignored the mortal as he huffed his way out of the garage to go and speak to whoever this 'Cap' was, informed by his invisible servant that the man was currently fast asleep and was he certain that he wished to wake him?

Either way, the two siblings were left alone before long, and Tony could go and examine where there had once been a Hulk and now was no longer.

"We have no such--" Thor cut himself off, hand running over an impressively thick beard, cropped close to his chin. He was having trouble grasping this diversity between realities. They were far more convergent than he had imagined, though he did not imagine much. He bad been told of Grant and of the work of his fellow Avengers moving through time and space to reach out to close breaches made by other humans, but he was needed elsewhere and Midgard was a low priority. Yes, even for the love of Jane Foster, Thor could not waste time with dalliances. Not when there were the periodic uprising in the Realms to squash so thst people could live in peace.

He could not but help to think that we're his brother here, he would find this version of himself to be fascinating. Perhaps even appealing. Or maybe not. They would likely argue that their own ways were the only way and end up with Thor in the middle of a battle of sorcery.

No. Thank. You.

He snorted ever so slightly as he watched this sister and let the name she spoke click into understanding. "How is it you call me brother and call the children of Laufey siblings as well? It's as if you grew up knowing us both as kin and that is not possible."

"How is that not possible?"

She had grasped this difference in their realms easily, it was no difficult feat to imagine a wholly convergent world, but it still fascinated her to learn of the differences. Surely something as intrinsic as the friendship between their realms could not be changed.

"It has been a long-standing tradition for the children of the royal lines of Jotunheim and Asgard to spend half their childhood upon their sister realm, forming kinship with those that they will no doubt lean upon during rule later. I spent much of my formative years upon Asgard, and you spent much of your later childhood upon Jotunheim. You may not be my blood kin, but kin you still are."

She shimmered with green energy and changed her form without thinking about it, the blue of a Jotun worn with an ease that the Loki of this universe had never managed.

"Is this not how your childhood was spent?"

That form was not one that Thor was comfortable with. Seeing Loki, even as a woman, was better for him to grasp than Loki in Jotun skin. He did not take a step back so much as he did slide a door behind him in order to brace himself. He had no idea if she would attack. The Loki he knew likely would have taken any moment of surprise to first stab him and then tease him for it. Or perhaps look guilty, as if he had no idea why he had lashed out.

He still saw his brother best when he closed his eyes, standing on the Tower Stark built, faces close, a knife in his gut. Loki looked so afraid, not of Thor or for Thor, but for himself. It was far better than seeing him lie dead in his arms upon that forsaken Realm-- Thor growled to release himself from the pain of it.

He would not be blinded by this witch in Loki's stead. He would not let himself be fooled by her. He had been hurt enough, hurt so much lately in ways he had never been able to tell the others. They knew Loki only as a bringer of evil upon their worlds.

"I spent no portion of my childhood upon Jotunheim. You were raised solely by Odin All-Father and I believed you to be kin for nearly your full life. We grew up as if we were blood and you are now dead and gone to dust," Thor replied.

Too emotional. She would likely exploit that. He knew it the moment the words left his lips.

Now all of that was very interesting, and very troubling. It was obvious that they were not actually blood kin in this reality, the wording choice suggested that Loki was still a child of Jotunheim but had not known it. Why? Why had he been raised solely by the All-Father? Why to believe he was Aesir? Did that have anything to do with whatever criminal behaviour he had engaged in, whatever had left him dust and dead.

No, not dead.

She raised an eyebrow and, almost cruelly, changed her shape to become male. An easy enough transition, assured that she would mimic the other Loki perfectly for they were still one even if she had not met him.

"Have you no thought in your head that makes sense, my brother? No Jotun in the history of our realm has ever turned to dust upon dying, what you saw was nothing more than sorcery and illusion."

Loki of whatever gender and whatever lineage was cruel and made him feel so very alone. It was something everyone so easily had forgotten. Being raised so closely, being raised as siblings, had not always been easy. Loki was not Thor's only brother but he had never been anywhere but at his side for centuries. He had only recently been forced to sunder with his brother, three times in less than a decade. The first had been agony and then numbness. The second had left more rift than he would have liked. The third had skewered him straight through. He had not yet recovered. He did not believe it would ever be possible to.

And so seeing this Loki as he had been in his life left Thor angry and incensed. He grabbed the throat of the imposter and held her up like a hunting catch. "You will not play your games. He resides in Valhalla for the deed of a heroic death and nothing you can say will change that!"

Loki's sister was just as filled with fire as this one stood here but would she bellow such things to any upon Loki's death? Would she hold her memory so carefully? This Thor bled from wounds unseen. And this illusion had caused him much more distressed than could have been imagined.

Should Loki pass in glorious battle one day, she had no doubt that Thor would mourn her passing deeply, but not like this. This was a wound that bled beneath the surface in a continual stream of agony, the pain of failure and of too much loss. A hatred, a fight, a grief that none would share with him for all only cared to remember the evil that Loki had done rather than the centuries of kinship before. Perhaps that was why he clung to this illusion so tightly, it was armour to protect him, to remind him that at the end Loki had done something good.

A heroic death.

Fool.

She allowed herself to be lifted, uncaring and unaffected by the rage and grief other than as a curiosity.

"Tell me, Thor, when he died was he condemned as a criminal? Did he have a way to escape such a life beyond the destruction of himself? You are blind."

Thor’s world might have crumbled, but he was resilient enough not to snuff the life out of this version of his lost, doomed brother. He had ever been the fool, there was no doubt in his mind about that now, not with this new revelation come to light. He felt double the fool that all he needed do was mention a singular fact to this sorcerers and she knew without further prompt the likely scenario.

He was thrice the fool for not wanting to believe her, but Thor did set her down, overcome and angry. It showed in his face, schooled better than her sister’s could ever be, because Thor had more need to hide his emotions than did she. The sorrow bled fully into his heart and he settle himself against the corner of the desk before he let Mjolnir drop from his hands.

“You had naught to do with this?” Back again to the task at hand.

Thor would deal with finding his brother later, though without Frigga, that might become impossible. Loki could well be the most powerful weilder of magic in all the Nine Realms. He simply did not wish to discuss this with the Loki before him.

A part of her heart hurt for the pain he suffered. No matter the shortcomings of her sister, and she had many, Loki loved her truly and always had. They had been playmates since before she could recall, and had grown to become companions in all other ways. Other than Helblindi and Bylestir, Thor was the one who she loved the most in this or any world. To see him suffer, even if he was not her Thor, it was not pleasant.

She reached out and cupped a hand to the back of his neck, a gesture that had survived between realms as affectionate.

"I had naught to do with this," she confirmed, changing back to her original female form. "I had been celebrating Bylestir's seventh centennial within the Royal Palace of Asgard, for he is spending his years on that realm currently, and had stepped out to take some air. A step beyond the threshhold of the palace, and here I stood. I know not how or why."

"Stark will discover the cause. Should he not, you and I shall journey to Asgard and speak with the All-Father. There is no better sorcerer within the Realms than you, should you truly be my sister, and I believe that you are." He couldn't help but press his forehead to hers. His ache was real and it was sharp still. "Once we find a way to return you to your home, perhaps you will help me find my brother."

It was less of a question and more of a hope. He did not demand it.

"I think first, however, we must decide in which ways the Midgard I protect differs from the one you seemingly rule. It would not do to have you so determined to rule that which has no ruler. The mortals here would not take kindly to such a thing. But-- Tell me more of your sister. Is she as mighty as I?"

"Mightier."

Loki's smile was equal parts teasing and proud, the same sort of smile that the Loki of this world used to wear many years ago when he spoke of his brother, back before their relationship soured. But then, this Loki never had to worry about being in Thor's shadow, for she had never been intended for the throne of Asgard. She was of a different line, to be jealous of Thor would have served no purpose.

"None wields weapon as she does, she has even felled Helblindi in single combat before, though she lacks the brain for strategy and planning. Her heart is good, her head is empty, and she is beloved to me."

"None is capable of beating me," Thor said, though his growl was less an attempt to discourage such talk and more to enjoy the teasing, a moment he had forgotten he enjoyed at all with his brother. He was indeed the fool to be so easily lulled by a similiar version of the fallen prince, but Thor, no matter the shape, was simply that way. It make no difference the gender.

The door pulled back with a few sleepy eyes individuals standing inside the threshold when Tony made his displeasure known of the two Asgardians standing with their heads together and hands touching one another above the shoulders. "Seriously? This is not a love story. Banner and the machine are literally gone!"

Thor turned his head, not quite having to snap out of an enchantment, and felt his face contort in a frown. "She is my sister. We have love for each other that even you would understand, Stark," Thor said, frowning. "I know you are without siblings. I am sorry you do not know such love."

"She isn't really your sister," Stark wanted to point out and behind him, Grant actually bubbled. The others had stopped seeing him as Steve awhile ago but he liked to hear the distinction being made.

"While this is true in someways it is incorrect in others. But you are correct to fear for Bruce Banner. I do not imagine he has stayed himself for long wherever he is. He must be defeated and returned safely."

It was still so strange for Loki to see mortals behave so arrogantly around those of Asgard, but it seemed that Midgard was truly not ruled by aught but themselves in this strange reality. She could not help but wonder if they were still peaceful and prosperous, without homelessness or hunger, for what was the use of allowing one's pets and possessions to grow weak or ill?

Steve made her eyes light up, and she crossed to touch him on the forearm with delight, thinking that someone she recognised had at least come through to this bizarre place with her.

"Steven, is my sister nearby?"

This was, after all, his sister's personal slave. Devoted to her, just as her own slave (Anthony) was devoted to him. Sassy, a little irreverent perhaps, but only because she had served Loki for many years now and knew that she was valued. The only reason that she did not recognise Stark as her Anthony, was that hers was younger by some twenty years - or appeared as much, he was actually over a hundred, but she used the apples of Idunn on her favoured slaves, much as most Asgardians did.

It was normal for people to know his name. Steve was a public figure. But this person was not whom he hadn't expected when Tony has yelled at his sleeping face that a Loki was big breasts had stolen Banner and their dimensional portal. Actually, he hadn't known exactly what to expect, but this was not it. "Ma'am, not sure I know your sister," Steve said slowly, one hand coming up to cup her elbow. The squeeze was brief and not intimate, just a way to give a little bit of comfort.

He happened a glance towards Tony, bearded and deeper voiced with lines on his face that he did not have in his youth, arms crossed as he sat in the edge of the desk, and frowned. He didn't understand. So Tony filled him in. "That would be Loki. Queen of the planet in her world. And Thor is her sister."

"That is rightly so," Thor agreed. "And it is unlikely that she would have come upon this world as you have done or she would already be at your side."

Tony gestured with one hand at Thor and nodded. Sometimes he wasn't so dumb after all.

Ma'am. She was used to Steven standing tall and proud, he knew his worth as Thor's personal slave, but he also knew how to show correct deference to his betters. She raised an eyebrow and literally walked around him in a slow circle to examine him from every angle, someone investigating and curiosity in a zoo.

"As you say, yet the sight of her personal slave made me hope. It seems you are not the Steven with which I am acquainted, however."

She could not help but wonder if Anthony existed here too. He would probably be utterly unendurable without knowing his rightful place. He was allowed much more leeway than most slaves, obviously loved deeply by his owner, but he still knew his position and did not overstep where it mattered. Without a master, she had no doubt that Anthony would be a nightmare.

"I am afraid that I do not know how to retrieve your Banner."

Slave? Steve stood still as she circled him, examining him like some animal, but he did not look even slightly happy about it. His strong arms stayed at his sides and he felt his brows rise. "I'm proud to be no one's slave. We're all our own people here." This was Loki? That was worrying for many reasons. Had slavery been what Loki had been initially hoping for? It did not occur to him that in another place, he was happily Thor's slave. His soul didn't allow for such s horrible thought and he was glad his friend didn't want him as slave now.

He stepped back out of Loki's circle of influence at the moment, back to where Grant and Bucky stood. He was being protective of his family, the shield on his back ready just in case he needed more than his size and body to do it.

"We do not believe in slavery, Loki," Thor agreed. "None on Asgard hold such needs of desires to own the life of another as we do animals. "It is something you must understand before we depart. And you must understand about Jotunh--"

"Wait wait wait," Tony said, interjecting his whole body and not just his words. "Depart? No. We have a man down. That machine was mostly Banner's." He didn't give snyone credit lightly. "He did the fine tuning. He ran the metrics. I can duplicate his work but it's not going to be perfect."

His first attempts rarely were. Steve had gotten himself blown up a few times in the early stages of Banner's machine to go back to rescue Bucky.

And Tony's inventions were always so prone to explosion it wasn't funny.

This entire reality seemed so backwards. How could they not believe in slavery? They spoke of it as though it was a disgraceful thing, when they had improved the lives of Midgardians vastly through their vassalage to Jotunheim and, to an extent, Asgard. They were well fed, well protected, allowed to keep their own communities and develop their own technologies. Many families would never see a Jotnar or Aesir, working, living, loving, enjoying themselves on Midgard. No wars, no famine, what could be wrong with that?

"I can feel the path I was pulled through, seidr does not fade so quickly. I cannot take myself or another back there, though I may be able to pull one close to me through. Perhaps Thor, Helblindi, or Anthony."

He was not sure how useful the first two would be, other than to be a welcome bastion of support, but his slave was extremely technologically gifted.

"Perhaps Anthony, he may be able to assist you in repairing or recreating your machine."

"Me? You want another version of me around?" He wasn't stupid. If Steve was Thor's slave then he probably had to be there as well. But why hadn't Loki recognized him then? Even clean shaven.... Well maybe it was like a racial thing. All hairy people from Earth look alike? He wasn't all that curious and it didn't occur to him that he could be potentially much younger than he was now.

"One Anthony Stark is enough," Steve confirmed and even Thor was nodding his head along as if it was a bad idea to mix the two men together.

The very thought, while not horrifying, was still fairly unpleasant for everyone involved.

Now that did surprise Loki, and she couldn't help but come close to examine him again with more interest now that she knew who he was. It was easier to see the resemblance now that it had been mentioned.

"You are much increased in age from my Anthony, though I suppose that you do not have access to Idunn's crop to delay the march of mortality."

She would not push the matter, she did not require her slave to function, but it would make things easier were he here to assist.

"Has your intelligence dimmed with age in this reality, also? For my Anthony would not need assistance to build such a machine."

"Rude." Tony narrowed his eyes as the woman leaned closer. If only she wasn't so attractive! And wasn't Loki! "If your slave is so smart, you should just hang out by the pool and wait for him to figure out how to get you home," he said, not up to playing Stark versus Stark. He was pretty sure he'd find a way to drown himself if he suddenly just showed up here.

How could he be happy being snything but free? The thought bothered him fully and he lifted a hand between them to sort of shoo Loki away.

"Your counterpart and I have a poor history. He threw me out of a window. I blasted him full of holes--". He turned back to Thor. "Can we just work on finding Banner?" He was starting to get really worried here.

Bucky had been bristling ever since this woman mentioned that Steve was a slave, and now she was including Tony in it too. It was enough. None of them were slaves, and the idea of any of the people that he cared about being trapped in positions like that, possessions rather than people, it dug right at his deepest fears and insecurities like nothing else ever could.

So he stepped out to intercept her, brow furrowed and voice low.

"Step away from my friends. You don't own them and you never will."

Loki quite easily pulled from that grasp, no mortal even enhanced could hold her, and she sneered down at his serious expression.

"I do not need to, I am Queen in my realm and that is sufficient for I intend to return there. Calm yourself, before you force me to do something that you shall regret."

"Stop." That was, believe it or not, Tony. "She isn't trying to own anyone. And we aren't going to start a war with another dimension either. Can we please focus here?" Banner was going to have a shock to learn that Tony had actually been the one to be the voice of reason here! Tony hoped that JARVIS was recording all of this for a later play back.

As Anthony would have done, despite being just a minuscule mortal, he put himself between both Loki and Barnes, hands lightly pressing back on Bucky's chest to get him back towards the wonder twins.

Evidently that had gone well, the talk. "I want you to tell me everything," he whispered as he moved Bucky back a step by presence, not strength. He could never do the latter. "Later."

Clapping his hands together, Tony looked between Thor and Loki now.

"I need everyone out of my shop. Everyone. Grant, might need your tiny hands. Everyone else? Out."

He just needed to look at Loki's rack for a moment. He exhaled slowly. Wow. His other self was lucky.

Bucky allowed himself to be chivvied back by Tony, though he would be keeping a very close watch on Loki the entire time she was there. He had never met the other Loki, he had been on ice during that invasion, but he had seen the news reports and stuck clippings into his book before he had been snatched to another time and place.

Loki herself waved elegant fingers dismissively and slipped out to go to the area that she had arrived in. The foundations and burned ground all that remained of what had been there before, a building and this man, this Banner, that she did not recognise the name of.

She ignored all others, including Thor, and a green nimbus surrounded her before long. No matter what she had been told, she wished her Anthony here to assist and to tell her what had transpired after she had vanished from the feast. She hoped that Thor and Helblindi had not started any wars to attempt to recover her.

It took a lot of energy, but the trace of the pathway remained and she was connected to her personal slave, a small magic that also assisted in prolonging his lifespan so that he would be able to serve her for most of her life. Hopefully, should all go to plan, he would find himself yanked from wherever he was to her feet.

Though it was not the first time that his Queen had decided to call for him out of nowhere, she was usually a little less frugal with the warning. He'd been having a cup of wine with Thor's and Helblindi's slaves, laughing and enjoying himself at the feast, when he felt a tingle and saw his feet disappearing into green smoke. "Steve, hold my be--" was all he got out before falling face first into the grass at Loki's feet.

His beer spilled everywhere and he frowned as it soaked into the ground. Man, he thought. Seriously. That was some really good beer. The dwarves never gave up the good stuff except for special occasions and on Asgard, those were far and few between. He found himself picking out grass from his teeth as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees.

"You needed something?" he asked, cheeky but respectful, sitting back on his heels to look up at her. There were few as lucky as he was, chosen, selected, to serve the ruler of his world. He didn't forget that, especially since she didn't believe in stiffling anything about him.

Large eyes blinked up at her, up at the sky, and then back to Loki.

"Are we on Midgard? You weren't kidding when you said you wanted some air."

It was good to see him, a piece of home in this strange place. She was not particularly given to sentiment, or at least not openly expressing it, but she already found this entire reality to be distasteful and the news that her counterpart was a wanted traitor was sour indeed.

"Not my Midgard, Anthony."

She offered him a hand to help him up, sure he would be able to feel that the temperature here was at least a few degrees higher than it ever got on Midgard now. Jotunheim may not have frozen Midgard, but it no longer had many tropical zones and few places got consistent summers.

"A different reality, and we cannot return. I required your presence, what remained of the pathway allowed me to bring you here, but that is all. This Midgard has no ruler, they do not understand their rightful place."

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