Choices

Chapter 112
There was something incredibly freeing about taking her life into her own hands. Cephera hadn't felt this calm since her childhood days being silly with Loki, her sister, and everyone else.
It was easy to forget how those days felt after so long, and after so much happening. It seemed as though, that if that other Loki hadn't been around to play with them, they might have only had Krystoff to deal with.
It didn't help imagining a life where that old Loki didn't exist, but it was an interesting daydream.
Though, without him she wouldn't be pregnant now, so her thoughts were muddled with indecision between wishing things were different and keeping them the same. If she could change the past, would she? Could she?
It didn't really matter. Time travel was harder than any spell to achieve, and even harder to survive. The events that unfolded in their lives were unchangeable and it was just as well. It was unfair to be able to turn back time to mold a so-called 'perfect' life.
"You think deeply often," Suvia remarked stepping inside Cephera's room.
Cephera was perched on the window seat, still in her bedclothes. Her legs propped up as far as she could get them, considering her protruding belly.
The sunlight kissed her face through the glass and below she could see people walking about the streets unknowing that she was watching.
"Just thinking of the past," Cephera admitted. "So much has happened. I feel as though sometimes it's been more bad than good. It's draining."
"I know how that feels," Suvia took a seat across from Cephera and looked out the window. "I thought often of my life as well."
"Is that the destiny of every woman who becomes involved in Loki's life? Surely we are not the only universes where Loki takes a different bride." Cephera titled her head at her own question.
"I've thought of that before too. After I found out my husband came here and I viewed your world and came to know you, I wondered how many different wives span his life throughout other dimensions. Wouldn't it be interesting for us all to sit in the same room and share stories," Suvia chuckled.
"They all can't be having this hard a time, right?"
"I hope not. It's not just the girls who deserve to find happiness, but Loki as well. I'm sure somewhere he's managed to find it. A world where he didn't go through the pain of the truth, or a world he didn't make the bad choices he's made in ours. I'd actually love to view those worlds, but I have to conserve my energy. Maybe one day, you and I can work together and have a peek." For a second, Suvia looked excited for the prospect, almost childlike with curiosity.
"As long as it wouldn't hurt, I'd be interested to see what we find." Cephera agreed. It was like a science experiment.
"I'm going to help Pepper prepare breakfast," Suvia stood and with a smile she departed.
Cephera watched her go and then glanced down to the waystone in her hand. She hadn't the time to see her children the day before, but after breakfast it was the first thing on her list of to-do's.
XxX
She got a little queasy using the stone. The teleport hadn't had that effect on her in a long time. It wasn't like the Byfrost, it was like having all your insides mixed around.
When she appeared in Fenrir's cave she heard the echo of his voice. "Mother!" It was a shout of pure excitement. The rocks on the floor trembled slightly as he sped through the caves to stop just a few feet from her.
"Fenrir, I've missed you," she said stepping forward and throwing her arms around his muzzle. His wet nose touched off her face as he tried to cuddle in.
His large size made it impossible to properly hold him anymore.
"I'm sorry I've been gone for so long...," she began to explain.
"Hela told us," Fenrir announced.
"Hela?" Cephera was surprised. Hela seemed to be very generous lately. Fenrir nodded with enthusiasm.
"You're so big!" Fenrir exclaimed touching her belly with the tip of his nose.
"Won't be long now." Cephera smiled. She was so glad there were no hard feelings. "Listen, meet me at Jör's. I want us all to be together for today."
Fenrir nodded and Cephera disappeared through her waypoint and appeared in Jör's underwater cavern.
"It's been a while, Mother," Jör said as calm as always. His eyes peered at her peacefully from his resting place in the watery entrance.
"Jör, it's so good to see you." Cephera replied, scurrying across the cold damp rock to touch him along his smooth scaled face.
"I'm here," Fenrir announced, even though he didn't really need to. He planked his ass close by. "Look how big she is!" He told his brother excitedly.
"I can see." Jör chuckled at him.
"Boys, has anyone approached either of you in my absence? Besides Hela," If the other Loki had tried to manipulate Hela, whose to say he hadn't tried the same thing with her brothers.
"No," Jör moved his head from side to side in long elegant swishes.
"Me either," Fenrir's eyes rounded with curiosity. "Why?" Cephera had contemplated not telling them about their father from a different world, but she felt that it was better they knew, and it was clear Hela hadn't already told them.
She explained to them in as much detail as possible, leaving nothing out.
"Our father would never become like that." Fenrir insisted after everything was said. "Right?" His ears flattened as he looked to Cephera for reassurance.
"Not if I can help it." Cephera promised.
"How can we help?" Jör offered.
"If he comes to you both I need you to play along. Jör, you've always been confident, much like your sister, question him in a manner that makes him believe you just want to do your best. Fenrir, you've always been cautious and I want you to remain that way. Pretend to be concerned about whatever it is he asks you to do, but nevertheless agree to help. Whatever he might tell you I need to know."
Cephera sincerely hoped old Loki wouldn't try to bring the boys into his schemes, but if he did she was ready.
"Yes, Mother," the two responded.
Fenrir hopped to his feet. "It sneezed!" He cried.
Cephera was stunned because she knew immediately he meant the baby. She'd felt it. She watched his ears twitch and was reminded that he was mostly wolf.
"Don't act so surprised." Jör sighed, which caused him to jet a puff of smokey air.
"It sounded male," Fenrir's tail swung back and forth narrowly missing Jör's face.
Cephera laughed. "Could be," she said. "When he or she is born, I'll bring them to meet you."
"I'd like that," Jör responded.
"Me too!" Fenrir looked liked he wanted to twirl with excitement, but thought better of it.
"Tell me what you've both been doing since I've been gone," Cephera took a seat on the smooth rock she usually used and enjoyed the remainder of her day with her son's.
(Tony)
"Wish I could understand half of this," Tony said to Banner. He'd scanned another page of the spell book into JARVIS' mainframe just for 'safekeeping'.
"This cover looks bound in some kind of stained leather." Banner remarked, ignoring Tony's curiosity.
"The paper is thick and some pages have a more used look. I wonder if she wants it exactly the same. Hmmm, should probably ask." Tony scratched his head.
"What did she say if was for?"
"Something to do with her plan that she won't tell anyone about. She's become some sort of undercover operative." Tony shrugged. Deep down he was concerned, but of course it wouldn't be very Stark like to show it.
"Should you be scanning those in?" Tony felt Bruce's eyes on him as he scanned yet another page.
"What harm can it do? No one on Earth can read it." Tony grinned.
"I can think of a lot of bad things that's happened from people assuming stuff like that." Banner frowned, but Tony continued scanning. He wasn't worried.
"Besides, JARVIS is 100% unhackable. He's more secure than the Pentagon and SHIELD combined."
"Didn't you tell us about Agent Coulsin overriding your system...,"
"A minor issue that's been dealt with." Tony shoo'd off his friends concern.
When everyone had been working at SHIELD to develop cuffs for Loki, the muzzle had been Tony's personal touch, and a container to hold the Tesseract, everyone had shared their fond memories of the dearly departed. That had been Tony's story, among a couple of others.
"You should be more cautious about things as sensitive as this." Banner scolded.
"And you need to lighten up. Learn to have a little fun. Let loose... Wait, on second thought don't let loose. I've spent enough money on this tower."
"Seems awfully risky to allow this family to freely roam Asgard and Earth." Banner said, switching topics.
"Political issues..., you know I alway hated how small blips in the system allowed the criminally insane to roam free," Tony said. "I'd make a horrible politician, I just throw'em all in jail and be done with it. It's kind of funny isn't it...," Tony threw Bruce a look of amusement.
"What?"
"That aliens have the same problems as everyone else. To think for decades we thought little green guys were coming from the cosmos to disect us and enact creepy, possibly sexual, experiments on us."
"Whose to say they weren't?"
Tony enjoyed Banners turn of events. "Touché," he grinned.
Overall alien races were just not what Tony always envisioned them to be. As a kid he remembered being intrigued by the thought of outer space, but as he got older those interests just washed away. After New York he'd seen a whole new side of the Galaxy, quite literally, and he didn't want to see it again.
Tony watched Banner take a small scraping of the inside leather cover. "I'll see what this is so we can start getting what we need for this."
Tony didn't argue, right now this was the most exciting thing he had to do all week.

Notes