fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

I come from a land of ice and snow

Asgard sat atop the branches of Yggdrasil since time began, and little had changed in their society in the years since. Each Asgardian was long-lived into the millennia, their lands were fertile, their people brave and strong. They had their vassals, their allies, and their enemies. Yet even those who opposed them respected the might of the Golden Dias, and the royalty who sat upon it. Currently that was Odin Borson, though he grew weary more easily now and had begun to consider passing the throne to his eldest son.

He had been blessed with many children, but only two that he considered worthy of his lineage and status. His firstborn, Thor, strong and honourable and everything an Asgardian warrior should be. His second son, Loki, was not natural born, though none knew that but his wife. He was different, a creature of magic and mayhem, of sharp intelligence. Both were worthy, but together they would take Asgard to a new prosperity, he was certain of it.

Midgard, where the mortals dwelt, was a land raided every few centuries for stock. It was seen as a breeding ground, much like a corral for cattle. Mortals were lesser, short-lived and weak, they were fit only as slaves. The last raid had taken place when Loki had been but a baby, nearly a thousand years ago, but the mortals that had been taken had been bred and cared for so that a healthy slave population still thrived. Slaves were given a weakened mixture of Idunn's crop with their food, to extend their natural lives to at least a few centuries in order to make them worth the effort to train. They had no rights, but they were taught well that this was their natural position.

All slave children were raised in a central pen and taught the same when small, those that then displayed talent at cooking, riding, hunting, housework, artisan skills, or singing were then measured off to be specially trained for higher masters. Every five years those who could afford to buy a slave, or those of high enough status to simply demand them, came to the corral and chose. Those who were chosen were special, were envied, and those who were not ended up working the fields out in the far reaches of Asgard, the most menial of work.

Anthony and Steven had been friends since they were little and being raised in the large pens together. Both had excelled, Anthony at crafting and Steven at warrior's skills, but neither were chosen when they were five, nor ten, nor even fifteen. Now, at twenty, it was their final chance to be chosen before they would be assigned to one of the meanest farmers beyond the borders of the great capital. Steven woke Anthony as the dawn rose, mingled excitement and nerves on his face.

"Anthony! Wake up, I've got news! I heard the overseer talking to one of the passing guards, and Princes Thor and Loki are coming to the corral today."

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How was it his fault?! Tony was an idiot, pure and simple, all that engineering genius must have sapped him of genius in all other regards, because there was no way that this was anything but Bruce's fault. But he didn't have to argue it, because Tony almost immediately moved onto a much more pressing concern.

"Lie back down, you have to rest."

He didn't reach out to actively push him back yet, but if Tony didn't listen then he would, his doctor instincts overtaking his guilt and need to not touch someone he had hurt so badly.

"It's pretty bad, several breaks and a compound fracture, but the leg is saved. You just have to take it easy, do some physical therapy when it's healed enough, and you should be okay."

"Okay-- Okay good," Tony said, breathing hard. It was hard to tell if it was from the pain of the thought of what he might be losing. Probably both. He wasn't about to lay back down though. Even if he was dizzy, he was already tired of being flat on his back. And he had to find Loki.

If she wasn't here or Banner hadn't mentioned seeing her and instead said that she had to be fetched, then Tony needed to get to her before they all destroyed his armor. The prototype armor that saved him was already a bucket of junk but he needed the other one!

"Help me down from here. I'm not laying around all day. Stuff to do. Is there a wheel chair?"

"No."

Bruce's eyebrows drew together in a frown and he managed to look extremely forbidding despite being in rumpled clothing and looking as if he might fall over to sleep any second.

"I told you to lie down and I swear to God, Tony, you will listen to me. You nearly died and you're not going to play fast and loose with your recovery, and I will sedate you if you test me on this."

Tony's eyes widened before he laid himself back down. "No ones yelled at me that way since I had a nanny," Tony wanted to point out, frowning. He tilted his head towards Banner, face mostly neutral as he gazed up at him from the bed. "Thanks. For worrying about me."

Bruce needed to hear that before he busted a gut.

"I probably don't say that enough. If I promise to not give you a reason to sedate me, will you sit down and take care of yourself now?" Bruce looked on the verge of collapse here. Tony didn't want to be responsible for that.

At least Tony wasn't arguing with him, though Bruce wasn't nearly stupid enough to think that this would be the end of it. His friend was a stubborn idiot, and another day or two would probably have him forgetting his agreement to take it easy and be trying to sneak out behind Bruce's back as soon as he closed his eyes.

"Yeah," he said after a moment of considering whether to deny he needed any taking care of at all. Why hide it? Tony saw what happened, he must know that he got exhausted after the Other Guy took over and he hadn't had a proper chance to deal with that yet, he'd been too busy tending to Tony.

He sank down once more and sighed, nearly asleep there and then, though he spoke up again after a moment. "I'm afraid I might have doomed us all. I attacked a delegate from Jotunheim, surely they'll withdraw their support even if they don't just see it as an act of war and wipe us out."

"You didn't," Tony said, wondering where Loki even was. If the two super soldiers went to get her, she should be back by now. "I asked her to teleport you somewhere else for a little while. She couldn't do it before you were more like a you without caffeine. The armor took her away before you could do anything. And then the Hulk and I chilled for a little bit. We were going to smash stuff together until FRIDAY went ahead and third wheeled my date."

Tony gazed up at the ceiling with a look of amusement rather than fear or pain on his face. The medication was damned good and he couldn't feel a thing.

"Other than his obvious violent streak, he's not a bad guy. A little unreasonable at times but I felt like I really got to him. We spoke a little. I don't want to step on your toes here as your only friend-- Which isn't true by the way-- but he wasn't a bad guy."

The more Tony rambled on, the better he actually felt. God help them all.

Bruce didn't really remember what happened in his time as the Hulk, it was kind of like viewing a half forgotten dream, and he didn't know whether to take the idea of Tony conversing with the Hulk as actually what had happened or as hyperbole on the part of a man trying to make him feel better. Either way, he managed a very tiny and very tired sort of smile.

"He and I have killed hundreds of people. It doesn't matter how good the conversation was, we're both bad guys."

He scrubbed his hands over his face, trying not to get too outwardly maudlin.

"You should get some more rest, your body is going to need a lot of it over the next few days and it's better not to ignore that."

"Okay, if you're going by second hand killing, I have you beat. I probably have everyone beat." He had listened to Bruce speak about the pain he'd endured in life before. He shared all sorts of terrible things with him, but Tony wasn't letting him win this particular fight. "The Hulk isn't a murderer either. People just get in the way of his smashing and--"

Mohinder, Ruiner of all things, appeared in the door with a tray. Tony wasn't pleased to see him.

"Not hungry."

"Good," Mohinder said, with an annoying degree of kindness, "because this actually isn't for you. Doctor? A small update for you as well. Evidently the princess has become a bird... But she is free and safe."

A bird. Of course she had, why would he be surprised by the idea of an alien princess flying around on a strange moon as a bird? He just hoped that Helblindi would be able to find her soon, before any anger of the giant might come to the fore. He did not want these creatures as enemies, especially not with their depleted firepower and numbers.

"...thanks, Mohinder. For the food and the information, would you keep me updated if you hear anything else? I'm going to stay here and keep an eye on Tony's condition, he can't be properly trusted to stay put and rest."

His lips twitched up in the tiniest of smiles.

"I think it's coming from a billionaire lifestyle, it's made him accustomed to getting his own way."

Taking that as his cue to go, Mohinder left the tray and allowed himself only to feel grateful for Tony being awake and alive. If he was sassing up the place, he'd be fine.

After the Indian left, however, Tony counted the seconds. No princess turned bird was making her way into the room. Where has she gone? She was probably pissed at him--

Tony snorted. He probably deserved it but he just wanted her to be safe. He couldn't just demand Bruce let him go to find her. That would never work.

What bad luck.

"If I had my own way, there'd be a whole lot of changes," he pointed out. "I never get what I want."

"It's probably a good thing that you don't get what you want, Tony," replied Bruce through a mouthful of food. He still felt guilty and wretched, but teasing helped to hide that and it wouldn't do anyone any good if he fell apart on them all. His eyes, though, sad and soulful and deep, told the truth about how hopeless he felt.

The princess had not yet come to find Tony because she had simply fled as soon as she had been released from the armour, flying as fast and far as she could. She soared in the air until her heart rate had decreased slightly and she no longer felt as confined as she had in the hours she spent inside the armour. But when she came down, she realised that she both had no idea where she was and did not have enough seidr left to teleport herself back to the others.

Which was why she had been relegated to wandering the jungle area, back in her true form, trying to find her way back to the village as she hoped to run into someone. A mortal, her brother, anyone. She had not felt quite as much like a pathetic lost child in many a long year, it was humiliating.

Though Loki was gifted in ways Helblindi would never be, Helblindi had not gone blindly into this universe without a way to find his sister should she decide to take off on a flight of fancy. He had seen the bird crossing over the center of the human city and had turned in its direction, knowing immediately that it was of their home and not of this planet. He'd been slowly following the people who ran off to find his sister and they had done their jobs perfectly. It was now his.

He could feel the princess through an amulet she herself had enchanted at their father's insistance, and though he had a head start to following her visually, he was slow and she was quick. He needed to rely on thst amulet to locate her, but luckily, she had already been coming in his direction. It was nightfall when he broke done enough trees in his path to come to her and Helblindi immediately scooped the obviously tired girl up in his embrace before he turned to head back to the village.

"Your friend has been injured. I feared the worst for you, Loki."

Loki had always been a fiercely independent girl, even when she had been little, but just this once she returned Helblindi's embrace with no trace of irritation or embarrassment and did not demand to be immediately put down. Her seidr was so depleted after hours of attempting to free herself and then her foolish flight, that she was near dropping with the exhaustion of it.

"Tony Stark is injured? I had thought he had experience with the creature."

Concern filled her voice, and some awe as well. She was no stranger to giants of great strength, but she had never seen anything like the beast that Bruce Banner could become, she did not think even her father could have bested it.

"One of their number is not mortal, the doctor Bruce Banner, he can change into a fearsome creature. He was able to resist my magic with seeming effortlessness."

There were few things that caused Helblindi to anger but his sister's demeanor was currently one of them. It was not her fault, she surely did not mean to set him off, but he was protective over the sorceress, not just because all of Jotunheim was tasked to encourage and protect those with magical ability, but because she was afraid. These people whom she had tried to hep had scared her. She didn't need to say it. He felt it.

"Tony Stark has been injured gravely. I know not of the creature you refer to. I had thought he was injured in a crafting accident." His sister had been in danger with these people and they had lied about it?

He could feel the ice rage building inside of him.

"This is unacceptable, Loki. These people have taken advantage of us. They are cursed, or perhaps willingly attempting to lead us astray. Perhaps they lure us into a trap with the blood thirsty Asgard of this Realm. We can not stay."

Helblindi was the more logical and calm of her brothers, Bylestir always more hot tempered and willing to get into a fight. But it was Helblindi's rage that she feared, for his was terrible to behold when it was stoked, and she had only seen it a few times in her life. She did not want to be the cause of that being unleashed on these hapless mortals, though she also felt that a lie told about what had happened was suspicious even in the best of circumstances.

"No, we must give them the opportunity to answer for themselves, I do not believe I was wilfully led into a trap. Tony Stark acted with haste to protect me from the danger of the situation, I do not think he knew I would become trapped in the confines of his armour."

She leaned into his chest, taking comfort in the cold that seeped out and lowered the temperature of the warm night.

"Should they prove to have been false all along, we will deal with it together."

Helblindi was not soothed. There was an anger in his heart that could not be quelled, though his silence acted as permission for Loki to do as she wished, to seek out the answers she had wanted for the questions she had. That did not mean he cared at all for this and the hurumph of glacial ice proved it.

They parted ways at the building that had been set aside specifically for their comfort. The humans roamed around, waving at the pair in curiosity. They didn't know much about the blue skinned aliens, but if the Captain trusted them, the majority of the people in the city did too. And they seemed so unassuming. How could they have all collectively kept a secret of a monster in their midst?

Helblindi would think about it all that evening while his sister gathered information.

None of this sat well with him.

Loki did not want to gather information that evening, she wanted to sleep for several days while he magic regenerated properly, but she could not. Knowing that Helblindi held his temper at bay only for her sake, she had no time to waste on frivolities such as sleep until this was done. That was a lesson all the royal children, and even other children of Jotunheim to a lesser extent, learned very young - sometimes duty outweighed need.

So she took herself to the small low building that had been set aside for medical purposes and she slipped past Mohinder on the door to the inner rooms. It did not take long to locate both Tony and Bruce, for both were in the same room.

She hesitated in the doorway, reluctant to enter when she saw that the disguised beast was there, and instead spoke up from that position. She kept her expression and voice guarded and calm, she would not give either the satisfaction of seeing her scared. "Explanations are needed. My brother wishes to abandon your cause for the deceptions given, and I do not know if I should counsel him against this."

Though Loki was likely completely focused on the answer to her questions, Tony distinctly looked relieved and may even have brightened a little when the girl spoke up. "Before any of that, thanks for trying to help me." It was entirely sincere. Maybe Tony had come to care more than he should, but like Bruce, he barely had any friends. Especially ones he didn't feel the need to constantly sass. "My bad for not warning you what was about to happen."

Except he did. Sort of. Bruce begged them to run. Tony tried to keep him calm. And then explained that Bruce needed to be teleported somewhere. Loki could infer why now at least.

"Did they have to rip my armor apart--?" He had two scowling faces at him now and he rolled his eyes. "Okay. Okay. Jeez. What did I deceive you about? Not expressly saying that Banner turns into a giant green rage monster when he gets hurt?"

"Deceptions given by your people, not by your lips personally."

Loki softened a little in response to the thanks, that married with her impression that she honestly did not think that Tony had intended to place her in danger. But so much of this still set her on edge and she knew that now Helblindi had been stoked to anger that he would not be easy to pacify.

"My brother was told that you had suffered an accident in relation to your crafting, any danger to myself was kept from him and he feels deceived and betrayed."

It would have been far more sensible to be up front about the monster and that it had not been on purpose, all Jotnar knew that danger could come unannounced at any time. It was the lies that made it more insidious.

"Nor were we told that your Banner," at this she glanced at Bruce. "Was anything other than human."

Technically, Steve had only told Helblindi that Tony had suffered an accident. He hadn’t mentioned how, Steve was not a liar unless he needed to be, but no one would know that. Communication had that way of breaking down. One misunderstanding could beget hundreds of others and last thousands of years.

A glance at a quiet, sullen Bruce got Tony’s dander up. He didn’t need anyone to defend him, technically, but he had a feeling that no one ever had.

“Banner had an accident. It’s not his fault that he has a raging alter ego. I mean, technically he did it to himself but he hadn’t meant for the outcome to happen. He’s a friend and a good guy. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. But he can’t help it. He tried to keep himself isolated when it happened so he wouldn’t hurt anyone. He triggered some sort of trap left in the ruins. I’m the one that picked the fight. I miscalculated. No one lied to anyone. We just didn’t feel the need to out a friend for something that almost never shows up. If you guys want to be mad at someone, be mad at me. Blame me. But don’t ruin the chances of all the people here to have a new, safe life. No one deserves to be left here because I didn’t think clearly and asked you to come with me to help put Banner to bed.”

Bruce couldn't deny that he was touched by the way that Tony was standing up for him, even though it wasn't necessary, but he felt compelled to speak up for himself all the same.

"I'm sure any lies told to you weren't deliberate, most people here don't know about what I can become. It doesn't happen often, and I try to keep myself as isolated as possible. However, if you want to stipulate my exception from any help being offered, that would be reasonable, I can survive without your assistance."

He'd be lonely as hell on this little moon by himself, but at least nobody would get hurt again.

Loki frowned, she didn't sense deception and she was usually good at telling when people might be lying to her, but it felt wrong somehow. How could this creature have been created by accident? How could its bearer not control it? Was this something akin to a berserker rage?

"I cannot make this decision alone, I must speak with Helblindi now that I know more."

There was a slight wrinkle of a nose on Tony as the princess strode back out of the room and he winced as his head reconnected with the pillow. “So that went well. And I’m not letting you stay here by yourself. Just want to be up front with that.”

Whatever Tony or Bruce said, it would make little difference with Helblindi so annoyed. He fumed, as much as a frost giant could fume, in his building, the frozen air barely adequate to keep him comfortable. He did not have to wait long for his sister, which was somewhat disturbing too. She cared for these mortals, he could see that, but her caring would be her undoing. She could not have gotten all of her answers in the few minutes apart that they had spent, could she have?

Loki was never like the others. They were deliberate. They were slow. But she was quicksilver, running races faster than anyone, her mind working quickly. It was a good trait…but also one that might cause issues in the future if she could not sit down to let her thoughts develop.

Loki had tried to be slow and deliberate in the past, but it chafed at her when all she wanted was to run ahead and set her mind free to race as it wished. She had long since accepted that she was simply different to her peers in that regard and stopped hoping for it to be different, she was fire and ice combined and she loved it.

Exhaustion had her sink to one of the piles of cushions that had been provided for them before she spoke, adding her own natural cold to the air in order to help them both feel comfortable.

"I do not believe deliberate deception was intended, it appears that this creature is an affliction that even most other mortals know nothing of. Both Bruce Banner and Tony Stark were present, and both apologised for what occurred."

“And you learned this in the few moments spent with them?” Helblindi was not being unkind. He was simply having a hard time controlling the state he was in. He wanted to ice this world over, to destroy those that had lied. Honor had been lost, and with it, Helblindi’s desire to help those here. “Your fondness for Tony Stark may well be blinding you,” he cautioned. “Did you speak to the other members of their Council?” He could see his sister was exhausted but they could still speak without having Loki strain her body physically any further. “The curse upon one of their number is treated as shame and condolence and deception rather than being addressed. It was their leader that misled us, Loki. Your friend may not be aware of that. Perhaps the Midgardian afflicted should not be punished for actions he can not help but he is a danger. To cover that up is criminal.”

It wasn’t just their way. It was everyone’s way.

“One secret means that there are others. If we sponsor these people and bring them into our fold, we will be ultimately responsible for them. If they dishonor us in front of Asgard… Father will be shamed. I can not allow this, not even for you. Not when in a year’s time you will come to be Prince Thor’s consort and, before our brother takes the throne, you may well be seated as All-Mother.”

Family, always, came first.

Loki could not deny that Helblindi made some excellent points. It was not the right way to hide a secret such as this, a defect in one of their number should be openly addressed so that all were aware of the risks and could assist where needed. Keeping these things secret only led to misunderstanding and even danger, she could not say that this would be without risk should they sponsor the Midgardians.

But she did not believe it so.

She trusted Tony Stark, and she did not believe that any of them truly intended deception or secrets. It was a difference of culture, perhaps, and she was more readily able to adapt than her brother. But that was an issue in itself, many of the other realms were slow to adapt, and that could cause issue for these mortals and Jotunheim as a sponsor.

"The one containing the beast offered to remove himself from our negotiations, but I do not think that wise or fair. We must put this to the whole Council together and receive a pledge that no more secrets shall be kept. Should we discover deception at a later time, it will render any sponsorship null without dishonour."

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