Choices

Chapter 131
It was late at night but they were all still up. Steve Rogers had shown up earlier that day to finally join them all at Stark tower. The entire group of avengers had been communing all afternoon as to what should be done about HYDRA.
Cephera had enjoyed watching them hash it out. Her sister, of course wasn't happy just watching. She jumped right in when she'd understand what was happening.
The only one missing was Thor. Cephera didn't know what to make of it. She tried to be patient, but it was hard. She hoped his late returned meant good things.
As if the fates heard her worries and her hopes, the automatic door to the labs opened and the thud of Thor's heavy boots alerted everyone to his presence.
Cephera stood so quick, Ikol, who was alseep in her arms after a feeding, jolted awake and began to fuss in irritation.
Her brain froze for only a second to take in the sight of her husband walking alive and well next to Thor, but her eyes didn't stay on him long. She looked to the other Loki pulling up the rear in chains.
"Hold Ikol," she ordered her sister passing over her son and marching across the room her blood pumping hot adrenaline. She pushed past both her husband and Thor and immediately socked old Loki across the jaw sending him to the floor.
"I've been waiting for that for a long time." She glared at him as he sat looking up amused at her. She was never violent, but for him and the things he's done, she'd made an exception.
"Hello dear wife," he chuckled wiping his cracked lip of the small blood trail.
"I am not your wife," she felt like she might explode. She was more set in her anger the longer she looked at him, than she was for the joy of her living husband.
"Now, now. No need to confuse our son," Old Loki tutted.
Cephera jumped down at him pushing him to the floor, the temptation to strangle him making it hard to keep in control. She'd never felt this rage before. It was so built up inside her that she couldn't even try remaining calm and composed.
"Popcorn," she heard her sister offer. She heard Tony make a noise of excitement and then grabbing some.
"I couldn't picture her as Loki's wife before, but this explains a few things." Tony told Seraphina.
"She has our fathers temper, though I've never actually seen this before." Cephera tried to drown out the amusement of her sister and Stark, but it at least brought her back to reality. The hand she had pinning the old man down by his neck loosened.
"Sister, let go." Thor laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Cephera," her husband began to say and Cephera turned to him and glared.
"I haven't even begun with you," she warned.
"Someone's in the dog house," Tony said in the background.
"I know you're angry," Loki kept going cautiously approaching her as she stood up and let old Loki go completely. The old man hadn't even tried to fight her.
"How dare you!" She growled. "It was bad enough beliving you to be dead once, but to even think... THINK about putting me through that again...," she trailed off, her anger was ebbing and giving way to her other emotions.
"I'm sorry...," Loki started to say but she cut him off.
"Sorry doesn't cut it! Do you know what it's been like! Sent here to live with people I didn't know after creating a child with a man who wasn't my husband." She shot a glare back at old Loki.
"When you realized it had been me, surely that gave you some peace of mind. After all, I may not be from this world, but I am still Loki," Suvia's husband said sitting up.
"When I found out it gave me no peace of mind. It sickened me to realize that you were capable of such actions."
"Sickened you? Then you must think your husband of this world capable as well." He twisted her words and Cephera's rage returned she made to attack him again but Thor grabbed her.
"Someone take him elsewhere so that we may have a conversation that doesn't end in his death." Thor ordered it and both Steve Rogers and Clint Barton took the prisoner away.
"So he's Loki, but not from this reality and your baby was fathered by him?" Tony ventured to put it together.
Cephera pulled free of Thor's grip now that old Loki was gone. Cephera ignored Tony, afraid he might push her buttons too far at this moment.
She burst into tears and sobs and Loki, her Loki, grabbed her into a tight embrace. All her malice disappeared and it left behind a messed up woman.
She heard Ikol begin to cry, he almost never cried. Cephera being upset seemed to upset him. Loki let Cephera go, his warmth leaving her behind. Through cloudy tear filled vision she watched Loki take Ikol from Seraphina.
The child continued his crying until Loki brought him back and Cephera reached out and hushed her son, touching his hair and his chubby face.
"All will be okay." Loki told her. Ikol had stopped crying. Cephera wrapped her arms around her husbands waist and put her face back into his chest. Ikol wrapped his tiny hand into her hair but didn't pull. He just played with it like he did to fall asleep.
"So, someone want to explain what's going on?" Natasha Romanov asked.
"Of course," Thor replied.
XxX
"And you're just trusting him?" Seraphina asked looking at Thor is half surprise.
"He is powerless, it could not hurt to try." Thor replied.
"The man whose played us all like instruments for decades, the man who killed your father in cold blood and manipulated your brother. The guy who destroyed his world out of revenge daddy issues and then came here because he thinks it would be fun to make his other versions do the same..., you think he doesn't have a plan to betray us?" Seraphina gave Thor a incredulous look.
"I agree with her," Tony jumped in. "He's an enigma, a chameleon. There is no way he's shown his true colors." Tony added.
"I know little about Thanos. I had hoped giving him what he desired would spare Asgard from his wrath, but there was also a part of me that knew I was dangling on little hope." Loki admitted. Cephera squeezed him.
Ikol was alseep in his lap and it was the most calming of scenes minus the conversation.
"You do realize none of this excuses you from what you did here on Earth," Natasha narrowed her eyes.
"I care little about your feelings concerning the matter." Loki glowered back.
"Loki," Cephera hushed. She was done with fighting.
"You want our help, but you still have no respect for us. That's encouraging." Barton was tweaking the mechanics in his newest arrow, eyeing Loki like he might shoot him.
"I ask it of you. My brother started this mess no matter the whispers that encouraged it. The fact of the matter is that one way or another Thanos would have come for the Tesseract with, or without my brothers help. Midgard will be swept up in this battle if Thanos gets what he wants." Thor interjected.
"So what's the plan?" Steve asked. They'd secured old Loki in a cell downstairs. Without his magic, he shouldn't be able to escape it. Besides, JAVIS was watching him.
"All we have is the element of surprise. We wait until he reaches Asgard. He is under the impression Loki is still posing as the Alfather. We'll make our move once he's in the throne room."
"Can't we just go find him? We put civilians at risk letting him enter the city," Clint said.
"We do not know where Thanos is. The universe is large and besides, he'll see us coming." Seraphina and Cephera had heard of Thanos before, just rumours mostly. Their galaxy existed outside of the one Thanos and Midgard were in so he never posed any threat to them before.
"So we get to go on a trip to Asgard." Tony mused.
"I wish the circumstances were a happier one." Thor replied.
"What about HYDRA." Natasha reminded them.
"HYDRA is but a small concern over the things Thanos could and will do if he gets the Gaunlet." Loki snapped.
"Then why not just destroy the Gaunlet?" Bruce asked. He'd been very quiet. Clearly he wasn't excited about turning green in the realm eternal.
"It is not so simple. These items are made of eleven steels and imbued with magic. They cannot be so easily disposed of. Besides the Gaunlet is powerless without the stones and even one stone could make it powerful enough to wreck havoc. We don't know how many Thanos is in possession of." Thor told them. "Even on their own, the stones are dangerous."
"I'll head to Mechanova first thing in the morning and put my people on alert." Seraphina said. "We'll be ready to aide in the battle."
"I haven't told Asgard yet. If everyone is on alert this plan may backfire long before it begins. Mechanova is outside our boundaries, tell them so that when the time comes we can sound an alert in Asgard once Thanos is there, but not before."
"It's risky." Natasha commented crossing her arms.
"It's all we have." Thor replied.
XxX
As much as she had wanted to, Cephera would not allow Loki to touch her intimately. She was still angry at him for putting her through so much to protect his secret plans. She understood wanting to protect her, but she didn't need protecting like that.
They put Ikol to rest in his crib and when they went to bed she allowed him to hold her. She knew he hadn't fallen asleep by the measure of his breaths.
It had been so long since she'd felt his warm arms around her, and yet she was grateful that it hadn't turned out longer. "Cephera," he said knowing that she was also awake. "You do realize that genetically, Ikol is my son," he said it cautiously, knowing it was a touchy subject for her.
"I know, but Tyr is not you." She replied. "There is a difference. What makes you who you are is not what's in your blood, it's how you act, the way you feel. He is not you," she said sternly.
"Tell me how you found out? What happened? How did you meet Suvia?" Loki squeezed her closer to him. "And what happened to your mark?" Loki touched her arm where Hela's burn had once been.
"Tony's old house was attacked a while back and I went down with part of the house into the ocean. I drowned, I died." She felt Loki stiffen. "But Hela, her mark pulled me into her world of the dead. She said she'd been waiting for it and that it was her way of paying me back for saving her life. She'd known all these years about Tyr."
Cephera was still surprised to hear that Old Loki had been Tyr this whole time.
"Apparently, she hadn't known he wanted to destroy this world and when she found out she began to help Suvia to get to this world to help save it. After summoning Suvia she closed the gateways between worlds and sent us back to the world of the living. Suvia explained everything to me, but the only thing she didn't know was who or where her husband was." Cephera sighed. "Your mother knew. When I gave birth to Ikol he was born Jotun and she knew something was amiss. She'd brought Suvia back to Asgard with her to help find old Loki."
"So you knew when we last saw one another." Cephera nodded.
"I wanted to tell you, but we had no idea if Tyr was watching. I bumped into him on my way leaving that day and he asked to hold Ikol. I think he knew I knew. His look turned menacing when I mentioned genetics of birth with my people. I hadn't known it was him at the time. I just thought he was being his weird self." Cephera pushed her face into Loki's bare chest and kissed his skin.
"I'm relieved that this may finally be over. Everything that's been happening to us since we met was him and to think we could be on the edge of freedom from his wrath gives me joy. Provided this plan to defeat Thanos works."
"I look forward to the day we can live in peace, but until then let's just enjoy the time we have now." Cephera titled her head back and allowed her husband to kiss her. It took everything she had to deny her body the real release she wanted, but for now she would not give in.

Notes