Convergence

"Look at this beauty!" said Tony Stark, lifting a t-shirt with the symbol of the House of El displayed on the chest. "What do you think?"

Clark honestly wasn't thinking much, not when the table in front of him was full of merchandise bearing the red "S" from his House on them. T-shirts, mugs, posters, caps, costumes, comic books, figurines. It was a never ending amount of every conceivable kind of merchandise, all with his symbol.

Tony had called him earlier wanting to talk about something important, so Clark flew there in a hurry, but he was truly at loss about what was happening.

"I'm, um, a little confused," he admitted.

He imagined that wasn't an unknown situation to Tony, his mind worked so fast that even he probably got confused by it sometimes.

"I've trademarked you!" he announced with a winning smile. "Every single thing people sell with your image grants you a percentage of their value. All the Avengers are trademarked. The money is deposited in an account I made."

Clark was still looking at him blankly.

"But why?" he asked.

Tony seemed exasperated.

"You are a big hit right now! People are making and selling all kinds of stuff using your image and you are not receiving a penny for it. Pepper told me she saw a figurine of Superman with a mustache! They were calling it 'Superhombre'. It's selling like crazy!"

"How much money exactly–"

"A lot!" He appeared a little miffed about something. "More than Iron Man, but I'm sure it's just a phase," he added.

Clark looked at the merchandise again.

"Tony, I can't take that money," he said. "It doesn't really feel right, I didn't start this to earn money. And another thing, how exactly do you expect Clark Kent suddenly becoming rich to work with my secret identity thing?"

"Don't give me that!" he exclaimed, walking up to him. "Look, Clark, I'm not going to convince you of the benefits of having a lot of money. I can see you honestly don't give a damn about that and it's alright, I get it. I mean, I don't get it, but I can roll with it. But right now, all that money is going to the pockets of people who have absolutely no right over it. There is nothing wrong about making money, it's not like they are hurting anyone by doing that, but the money could be going to the people who really need it right now. Like the ones who lost everything during the Black Zero Event."

Surprisingly, Clark agreed with every word Tony said. He really didn't care about money, at all. It wasn't like he truly needed it, after all. Clark was happy where he was living at, not because the place wasn't great, but because he could be close to Jessica and he wasn't one for luxury. Not being able to get sick and having the ability to go everywhere in the world without having to buy a car or plane tickets played a part in that as well, no doubt.

So deep down, he didn't care about people using the symbol of the House of El to sell stuff, but Tony was absolutely right that the money could be used for something else.

"So you want to donate the profits?" he asked.

"We're all doing it," Tony said. "Truth is, nobody in the Avengers really needs that money, so we usually give it to charity. Right now, we are helping with the reconstruction of all that mess caused by the Black Zero Event. The government is doing what they can, but let's be honest, they need all the help available."

He looked at Clark. "And, of course, it can help you too. You don't have the most stable job in the world, do you? So you can always take some money when you need to make ends meet."

Clark looked again to the table, thinking how in the world something like that happened in his life. There were children playing with Superman toys, reading Superman comics, wearing Superman clothes. It wasn't exactly what he meant to do when he started helping people, but as long as it made people happy he didn't think it was a bad thing.

"Okay, let's do it," he said.

Tony cheered.

"I knew you would agree! Pepper can give you all the information about it later, she is the one handling this."

He rolled his eyes, as if Tony needed to tell him that.

"You know, you made me consider something," Tony said suddenly, and for once he sounded actually serious. He looked at Clark. "I've been working on upgrades for my suit, making them more powerful, preparing them to withstand the next big threat. I mean, it has to be done, don't get me wrong, but it isn't enough."

Tony looked through the big window.

"What use are my suits if after the fight the very place we were protecting is completely destroyed?" Tony asked. "You were there to help all those people and you saved god knows how many lives, but I didn't."

"You helped, Tony–"

"Yeah, sure, but not as much as I could," he interrupted. "The Iron Legion was not made to search for buried people, put out fires, and help with first aid. They are for defense and the most they could do was lift some heavy things." He turned to look at Clark. "But I can do better."

He started to walk toward the big screen and turned it on.

"I've started a new project: Iron Hope."

The screen began to show the images of Tony's new project, new suits and automated vehicles working in his lab, not for defense, as he said, but for helping in all sorts of other things. There were "firefighter suits," built to access burning buildings and put the fire out, using some kind of foam that expanded and swallowed the fire, "medic suits" that could stabilize an injured person and move that person safely to the hospital, and big "excavator suits" to search for people under collapsed buildings and to move very heavy objects, some kind of flying builder machine that could build an entire house in a matter of minutes and safely bring down a collapsing one and flying vehicles that could take the injured and dying people to a hospital fast.

Clark was without words to describe how amazing that was.

"This is incredible!" he said and Tony, astonishingly, looked down scratching his head instead of agreeing immediately. Was he embarrassed?

"It's a work in progress," he said finally. "There are still a lot of improvements needed. When it's ready, I'm going to make a trial period here, in New York, and if it works expand to the rest of the country. And maybe someday go global, who knows?"

He looked at Tony with a big smile.

"That's a very nice thing you're doing, Tony, I really mean it. You should be proud."

Now Tony was without a doubt embarrassed.

"Well, of course it is, I'm awesome."

Before Clark could answer, the elevator in the room opened with a beep and Thor came in.

"Kal!" Thor yelled in boisterous voice. "I'm so glad you are here! I wanted to speak with you before I left."

"You're leaving back to Asgard already?" Clark asked surprised, shaking his hand.

"Only for a little while. My father sent me here to find out what was happening with the Kryptonian invasion and I fear I have already overstayed." Thor sighed. "I have duties on Asgard, after all."

"So what did you want to talk about?"

Thor smiled.

"Yes, I was almost forgetting!" He straightened himself up and said, "I would like to invite you to watch the Convergence from Asgard!"

Clark didn't know exactly what the Convergence was, but he had just been invited to go to Asgard; he was having trouble acting as if that was normal. Luckily, Tony entered the conversation.

"What is this Convergence and why was I not invited to the party?"

The Prince of Asgard seemed glad to be asked.

"The Convergence is a cosmic event that happens every 5000 years. It is when the Nine Realms align themselves. Do you have some paper?"

Tony scoffed.

"Paper, what is this, the Stone Age?" he mumbled, activating a hologram.

Thor walked up to the screen with a big smile, using his fingers to draw what seemed to be a crude representation of the universe.

"Here are the Nine Realms, scattered thorough the cosmos. Now, at first glance, there is no connection between them. They are distant from each other, each one in a part of the universe. But in reality every single one of them is part of the Yggdrasil."

He began to draw a tree linking the Nine Realms with its branches.

"What is the Yggdrasil?" Tony asked, looking at Thor's drawing as if he could barely identify what it was; Clark too was having problem, to be honest, but at least he knew what it was already.

"It's the Tree of Life!" Thor explained.

Clark saw Tony's face twitch.

"It's a representation of a cosmic nimbus that connects all Nine Realms," Clark clarified, before Tony could comment on the drawing. "It's the reason the Nine Realms, Earth included, have any connection to one another, because as Thor said, they are very distant, so logically, there shouldn't be any. This nimbus keeps the Realms linked since the beginning of the universe, sometimes causing rifts in space that connect one Realm to another, making traveling between worlds possible without the need for space travel, to those who know how."

All this was studied by his father, when he began to develop the Phantom Drive, according to the information gathered by Kelex. Of course, the Phantom Zone was another dimension and the Nine Realms, even far away from each other, belonged to the same universe, but the concept of bending space, creating rifts, was acquired from there.

"It's because of the Yggdrasil that the cultures from the Nine Realms often have influence from one another," Clark continued. "They've been interacting since the beginning, either on purpose or by accident, when objects or even people would cross the rifts without knowing what they were."

"How exactly does that work?" Tony asked, his eyes lightened up with the curiosity and interest.

Clark didn't know how to answer that question yet, so he looked at Thor; the Asgardian, also, just shrugged.

"Thanks a lot!" Tony said, ironically. "So what about the Convergence?"

Thor moved the nine circles he had drawn into a line.

"The Convergence is when this happens: the alignment of the Nine Realms," he said. "I have never seen it, of course, but during this time the boundaries between the Realms weaken and for a brief period cease to exist completely, connecting all the Realms." He looked at them. "It is a very rare event and we celebrate it in Asgard, not only because of the Convergence itself, but because the Convergence marks the date my grandfather, Bor Burison, defeated the Dark Elves."

Clark had heard about the Dark Elves, but he didn't know about the Convergence. No wonder his father had studied this phenomenon, if it could naturally link far away worlds like that.

"And what about my second question?" asked Tony. "Why am I not invited to the party?"

This time Thor wasn't so eager to answer.

"It is very rare for humans to visit Asgard, but I am sure that in normal circumstances all the Avengers would be granted that honor," Thor began, slowly. "But my father is not exactly happy with recent events–"

"It's about Jane, isn't it?" Tony asked shrewdly.

Thor just sighed and nodded.

"The Allfather does not agree with my choice. He says I do not belong with a mortal."

"Wow, that's very racist! Why?"

"He has a very long list of complaints. He believes that she is a distraction and only – how did Darcy called it? – a crush!"

Both Clark and Tony had to control themselves not to laugh.

"I love her, but I can't blame my father for thinking this, unfortunately," Thor continued. "In my youth I would occasionally sneak to Midgard with my brother and my friends to–"

"Sleep with so many mortal women that people worshiped you as the god of fertility?" Tony said between laughs.

The big Asgardian seemed very embarrassed.

"Yes, something like that, though I'm not sure why they would think such a thing, since I never had any children." He scratched his head, still a little ashamed. "But my father's most pressing concern is our different lifespans. Mortals are fleeting, he says. And, of course, he also wants me to become King and–"

"Wait a minute, did you just say you're going to be King? How come we are only learning this now?!" said Tony.

Thor sighed again.

"Because I have no desire to be King. At least, not now." He stopped for a second in silence and then laughed a little. "There was a time when I would have given anything to be King. It was what I wanted most in my life. But now…" He shrugged.

"It's not only because of Jane, is it?" asked Clark.

"She is a big reason, yes, but like you said, not the only one," Thor answered. "The truth is I do not think myself ready for this yet." He smiled sadly. "It is funny, but if my brother had not done what he did, I would gladly let him have the crown. I think he would be a better King than me."

"No offense, Point Break, but your brother was a little crazy to be King," Tony said and Clark glared at him. "What?! I said no offense!"

"It is alright," Thor said. "You do not have to remind me of my brother's shortcomings, I know them too well. But he did have many qualities that would have been invaluable to a King. I… I am not sure I have them."

"You have heart," Clark said. "You can learn the other stuff, surround yourself with people who know the things you don't, but you can't acquire morals if you never had them to begin with."

"And it's not like your parents would just leave you alone, right?" Tony added. "I mean, I would be screwed if I had to run my company alone. Without Pepper, well, I'm pretty sure it would not run this smoothly."

"I had not considered that," Thor said pensively, and then he smiled and looked at them. "My gratitude, friends! So, Kal, what do you say? There is going to be banquets and tournaments, plenty to eat and drink! And I am sure my father would be very interested in meeting you."

Yes, that was what Clark was worried about. He didn't know Odin other than what he knew from the legends, but he did not seem like a laid back guy at all. Would he blame him for what the Kryptonians did? Would he expect Clark to be a representative of his entire race, even though he knew so little?

In the end, however, he knew that despite his worries he would accept the invitation. Not only because he was truly curious about the Realm Eternal, but also refusing such an invitation was just plain rude.

"I would be honored, Thor," he said and the Asgardian gave him a big smiled and a powerful slap on the back that would probably have killed a human.

"Then it is settled!" he announced. "I should be back by the end of the week, then we will depart."

Saying this, Thor shook hands with him and Tony, said his goodbyes and went outside to yell for Heimdall, disappearing in a kaleidoscope of colors.

Tony put a hand on his forehead.

"The Bifrost is covering my tower with those weird runes!"

Clark laughed.

Jane looked around the deserted yard when Darcy finally stopped the car. Well, she had certainly found something.

When Selvig asked her and Darcy to move to London – well, asked Jane at least – saying he was onto something big, Jane was a little bit excited, but that feeling passed quickly. Whatever Selvig was studding, big or not, remained a mystery when they arrived due to his mysterious disappearance. This left them working by themselves, trying to make sense of his weird calculations.

It took days until she could understand what Selvig's notes meant, but when she finally comprehended, her excitement came back. It certainly seemed that Selvig's findings were big and the feeling of regret about moving faded quickly.

Of course, helping Selvig was only half the reason Jane had accepted moving to London, the other half was Thor. When he left after saving the world during The Incident, without so much as a hello, she waited for him. And waited, and waited and then waited some more. Eventually, her sadness and apathy became rage and she had to do something. Moving and trying to date new people were the first steps towards healing a broken heart and forgetting about Thor, or so she thought.

Things didn't go as planned. There was another invasion in New York, a horrible one that made The Incident look like a small thing, another alien had shown up to save the day, a guy named Superman or Kal-El, that Jane was pretty much certain it was the same guy that saved her life in Ellesmere Island, and then Thor was back.

The first thing she did when she saw the colors of the Bifrost was to slap him as hard as she could, and it didn't hurt him one bit, almost broke her hand, but it conveyed the message that she was not happy with his disappearance. Luckily for him, Thor actually had a good excuse for vanishing all this time.

What kind of boyfriend could honestly say that he "didn't call back" because he was saving the Nine Realms from a huge war?

Jane was pretty much obligated to forgive him after that, but not without a very nice apology first. A very long, very arduous, steamy apology.

"Stop thinking about Thor when I'm at your side!" complained Darcy.

"Who says I'm–"

"You are drooling!" she interrupted. "I mean, I would drool too, don't get me wrong, but you're scaring the intern!"

"It's Ian," the intern corrected, but neither of them was listening anymore.

Shaking her head to focus, Jane got out of the car, looking around. Thor coming back had also shed some light on Selvig's research. Apparently, Selvig had been studying something called the Convergence, a phenomenon very well known in Asgard that happened approximately every 5000 years when the Nine Realms were aligned. The boundaries of the Realms got thinner and light, gravity and even matter managed to pass through.

Thor seemed to think it was a magnificent and wondrous event; Selvig thought it had everything to be catastrophic.

Jane didn't exactly know which of the two was right, but she was leaning on Selvig's opinion if what she was seeing had anything to do with the Convergence. The yard they were in was exhibiting signs of the Alignment, something was messing with the gravity of the place according to her instruments.

And according to her eyes too, since the very big, very heavy shipping containers scattered around were toppled and piled together and even a truck was overturned.

Thor saw nothing wrong with the Convergence, claiming it was a natural event. Well, tornados and tsunamis were also natural. Maybe to a godlike alien like him those things weren't a problem, but for humans? If the gravitational field went haywire everywhere there would be chaos. So she needed to study the event and try to find a way to contain it.

Following Darcy's intern, they entered an abandoned factory, except that the sounds of footsteps made it clear it was not that abandoned.

"I am not getting stabbed in the name of science," Darcy said, raising her arms. "It's okay, we are Americans!"

Jane sighed.

"Is that supposed to make them like us?" she asked.

Darcy's shouting seemed to work, however, because a bunch of children showed up timorously.

"Oh, they're kids," Jane said, relieved since she did not want to depend on Darcy's taser again.

"Are you the police?" asked a little girl.

"No, we're scientists," Jane answered, trying to calm her. "Well, I am."

"Thanks," Darcy mumbled sarcastically.

"We just found it," a boy said.

Jane smiled; it seemed they were in the right place.

"Can you show us?"

The kids looked at each other for a second and then nodded. The three of them followed the kids to a room where a big truck was parked. One of the boys approached it and, with a single hand, he lifted it.

For one second, Jane wondered if the boy was super-strong like Thor was, but then he stepped back and the truck remained in the air, floating and spinning slowly. The gravity, she finally understood, the effects of the Convergence.

Finding their surprised expressions funny, the group of kids guided them upstairs, to show another thing. Jane followed eagerly. They stopped high up and looked down to the empty space in the middle of the stairs. One of the kids grabbed a bottle of something and dropped it, instead of falling all the way down or floating like the truck, the bottle simply disappeared. It was like it crossed some invisible barrier.

"Where did it go?" she asked and the little girl pointed up.

And just like she said, the bottle appeared from the sky, like it came out of nowhere, falling all the way down until it disappeared again, reappearing a few seconds later up in the sky again.

"That's, that's incredible!" she exclaimed, laughing.

It was like Thor and Selvig explained, the bottle was crossing the boundaries of the Realms. To those kids, it was a simple disappearing trick, but the reality was much, much more impressive. That bottle had just travelled who knows how many light-years across the universe in a couple of seconds.

Amazed with what she had just seen, Darcy threw the first object she could find; it fell down, disappeared and everybody looked up. It did not come back.

"Sometimes they come back," said the girl, "sometimes they don't."

Impressive and intriguing, of course, but all Jane could think was were those the car keys.

Before Darcy could say anything, her equipment began to beep like crazy. She hadn't seen readings like these since New Mexico when Thor appeared!

"Don't touch anything!" she yelled to them, running upstairs, following the source of what was making her equipment respond.

She could hear Darcy, the intern and the kids laughing while they walked down the deserted hallways, following the increasing beeping. Whatever her equipment was picking up, it had to be big. Maybe it was a tear in space.

Jane was so concentrated in her thoughts that she didn't notice the wind blowing in the closed rooms or the weird fact that the leaves were being pulled towards something, not until whatever was pulling all that managed to grab a hold of her.

She couldn't stop as the force pulled her, making her slide on the ground like she was ice skating, and then the factory around her disappeared and she was at the edge of a very tall, very scary cliff in a dark cave.

"Darcy!" she yelled, her voice echoing.

Looking around, Jane studied the place, trying to control her own fear. Why did she always get in those situations?! Well, she knew exactly why, but that didn't matter right now. The place she was in wasn't exactly a cave, it was more like a city or a big castle in ruins, but she had no idea where. And since she had just crossed a space rift, that meant she could be anywhere in the Nine Realms.

Great!

Turning back from the cliff, Jane walked until she saw two big blocks of stone behind her, one on top of the other. Massive, way taller than her, the blocks seemed to not actually be touching themselves, leaving a small opening in the middle, an opening where something red was glowing.

Warily, Jane approached very carefully, remembering vividly the time when the robot pierced her in the alien ship back in Canada. There was something floating there, some kind of red liquid that appeared to be moving by itself.

And then the red thing lunged at her.

Yelling, Jane tried to get away, but whatever that red thing was, it was faster than her. It touched her and seemed to enter her body, disappearing inside her. The upper block fell back down when the red liquid left completely, closing the little opening.

But Jane saw none of that, falling to unconsciousness.

Clark opened his old fridge, looking for the sandwich he had left there to eat later; of course, it wasn't there anymore.

"Jessica!" he yelled, turning to look at her.

Sitting on his couch, typing something on her notebook, Jessica looked at him.

"That thing was there for three days, Clark. I did you a favor," she said.

Sighing, he closed the fridge and went to the couch, sat down. Clark had just finished writing and sending his last story to Mr. Ellison, a quick piece about the amount of people still homeless after the Black Zero Event. Hopefully, it would draw attention to the fact and inspire people to do something. All hard work, especially after flying around being Superman, and now he was very hungry.

He looked at Jessica.

"I was really looking forward to eating that sandwich," he said. "Do you have any idea how busy was my day?"

Jessica rolled her eyes and leaned to the side, reaching for the bottle of cheap whisky on the table, emptying it inside a coffee mug and then giving it to him.

"Do you have any idea how much I want to drink this instead of hearing you whining? And yet, here I am, giving it to you, hoping that you'll stop talking and let me work!"

Clark didn't take the mug.

"I'm not really much of a drinker," he said. "It doesn't work on me and the taste, well, the taste is not that good."

Rolling her eyes again, she drank the entire content of the mug.

"More for me, then."

"I don't know why you drink so much either. It's not like it affects you."

"Hey, I used to drink a lot more! But for your sake I'm trying to tone it down a little."

"My sake?"

"Well, it certainly ain't for mine, I can tell you that much. Not after the night I had."

Placing the mug back on the table, Jessica began to type again. Clark was curious.

"I thought you were working last night," he said.

"Yep, check that photo over there."

She pointed to a bunch of photos scattered around and Clark got up to look at them. Immediately he wished he hadn't.

"Oh my god, is this guy naked?!" Clark exclaimed.

Jessica laughed like crazy.

"That depends on your definition," she said. "Does having a body covered in so much hair that it makes it looks like he is actually wearing something counts as clothes?"

Clark placed the photo down with disgust, making her laugh even more.

"I didn't need to see that. Ever!"

"Hey, I spent my entire night seeing that guy screwing his mistress inside his car. The least you could do is show a little support."

"But why? Why would you do that?!"

"What do you mean why? Because he is cheating on his wife, of course!"

He had to look again to the picture, regretting at the same time.

"I'm just guessing here, but I don't think this guy have a wife and a mistress because of his outstanding personality, right?"

Jessica grinned.

"Of course it is, he has several million personalities in his accounts, as I understand," she answered. "But not for long, I imagine."

"Why is that?"

"Well, apparently they have an infidelity clause in their prenup. He insisted, god knows why, and now his wife has him by the balls." Jessica grinned wickedly. "Gotta tell you, it's nice to be received with happiness and a glass of champagne for a change. Usually people just cry and call me names."

"Why would they call you names?" Clark asked.

She shrugged.

"Human nature, I suppose. They know something is wrong, they hire me to figure out what is wrong, I bring them proof and suddenly I'm the liar asshole that wants to destroy their relationship."

"You should find another job," Clark suggested.

Jessica snickered.

"Like?"

Clark thought for a second.

"Ultimate Fighting?"

She laughed.

"Yeah, I can see myself being paid to hit people."

Before Clark could agree, however, his cellphone began to ring. He fished it out of his pocket and answered.

"Hello."

"Clark, it's Natasha."

"Hey, Natasha, how are you? Everything alright in Washington?" he asked, smiling, slapping Jessica's feet when she started making kissy faces, which made her yelp.

"I'm fine, everything is okay here, but SHIELD has just intercepted a call to the police in London from Darcy Lewis. Apparently, Jane is missing."

He sat up.

"Missing? Like, kidnapped?"

"We don't know. Miss Lewis told the police they entered an old factory to study some readings of their equipment and, when she realized, Jane was gone."

"Readings? Readings of… Oh, shit," Clark cursed, realizing just what Jane was studying. The same thing, he suspected, that Thor had invited him to watch from Asgard.

"What? You know what happened?" Natasha asked.

"No, not for certain, but I'm guessing she was studying the Convergence. And if I'm right, well, she could be anywhere in the Nine Realms."

Natasha didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"What exactly is this Convergence?" she asked, her voice suddenly dangerous.

Thor hadn't told them about this either. Clark sighed.

"In very few words, it's the alignment of the Nine Realms," Clark answered. "It will happen soon. Thor actually invited me to watch it from Asgard. Between us, I think Odin wants to meet me." Before Natasha could ask anything else, Clark added: "I'll fly there and check things, don't worry. I can get there fast."

"That is what I was about to ask you," she said. "The cops won't know what to do and you can get there faster than any of us."

"Alright, I'm on it. Bye."

Clark got up, already rushing to change his clothes.

"Hey, hey, what do you mean you are going to Asgard?!" asked Jessica. "When?"

"I'm not sure yet," he said, entering his room and changing into his skinsuit fast. "Thor was supposed to come back and get me in a few days, I think."

"Jesus fucking Christ, you are going to outer space and you didn't even tell me?!"

He stopped and looked at her.

"I would have told you, I just forgot," he said. "Why are you freaking out?"

"I'm not freaking out, I just like to know when my friend is leaving the fucking planet!" she exclaimed. "When are you coming back?"

Clark looked at her for a full minute. Was she… worried? He smiled at her.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she asked, frowning. "Stop smiling like that!"

"No reason," Clark said, still smiling. "No reason at all. I just find it very touching that you are so concerned about me."

"Motherfuc–"

"Bye, Jes!"

Thor walked across the Bifrost, every step making the rainbow bridge glow under his boots. The wind made his cape and his hair sway as he approached the unmoving guardian clad in a golden armor.

"How fare the stars?" Thor asked, knowing very well Heimdall already sensed his presence.

"Still shining," answered Heimdall, his powerful voice echoing. "From here I can see Nine Realms and ten trillions souls."

He grabbed the long sword that activated the Bifrost and pushed it down; the dome of the rainbow bridge began to turn.

"The Convergence approaches," Heimdall continued, walking to Thor. "The universe hasn't seen this marvel since before my watch began. Few can sense it and even fewer can see it. But while its effects can be dangerous, it is truly beautiful."

Thor could see Heimdall's glowing eyes reflecting the sky full of stars in front of them, so powerful that he could see everything happening in the Nine Realms from there. The all-seeing and all-hearing Watcher of Worlds, guardian of the Bifrost and of Asgard.

And his friend. Smiling, Thor looked towards the stars.

"I see nothing," he said.

It was Heimdall's turn to smile.

"Or, perhaps, that is not the beauty you seek."

Thor laughed.

"How is she doing?" he asked. It hadn't been long since he left, but he already missed Jane.

"She is quite clever," Heimdall answered. "She studies the Convergence as well. Even–"

Heimdall stopped talking abruptly, widening his eyes. Thor approached him.

"What?" he asked, worried.

He was silent, only looking to the stars for almost a minute. Then he looked at Thor.

"I can't see her."

Jane didn't know what was happening anymore. Worse than that, she didn't care. Her mind was filled with a presence that was not hers and all she could do was float in a universe made of red liquid, surrounding everything. There was no sound other than the sound of the presence, no feeling other than the red presence.

And all she could do was drown in it and lose any sense of self.

When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurry. Blinking fast to get her eyes adjusted to the light, Jane got up. She felt tired, more than she ever remembered being. Groaning, she looked around, finding herself inside the abandoned factory alone.

Was all that a dream?

With one last look, Jane started to move outside, hearing the beginnings of a storm. Walking fast, she got to the exit and saw the place full of cops.

"Jane!" yelled Darcy, running to her. "Where the hell were you?!"

She couldn't believe in this.

"Tell me you didn't call the police," she said, knowing very well that she probably had.

"What was I supposed to do?" Darcy asked, agitated.

"Not call the police?" Jane suggested.

"I was freaking out!"

"You call the cops, they call the feds, next thing we know we have SHIELD crawling all over 'Area 51-ing' the place!"

"Jane!"

"We had a stable gravitation anomaly!" Jane continued, not even hearing Darcy talking. "We had unimpeded access! Our only competition was 10 years old!"

"JANE! You were gone for 5 hours!" Darcy yelled. "What was I supposed to do other than call the cops? Call Superman?!"

And at the very moment she said this, there was a supersonic sound in the sky, their jaws dropped simultaneously.

"Did you–"

"No!"

Apparently he did appear when people said his name.

Clark saw Jane and Darcy way before he got close enough to be noticed; he sighed in relief. Jane was apparently okay, still on Earth and not lost across the cosmos. Speeding through the sky and ignoring the perimeter the cops had made, he landed close to them.

"Oh my god!" yelled Darcy, before he could open his mouth. "It is you! Do you remember us?!"

Was it still too late to wear his glasses?

"Thank you so much for saving Jane!" Darcy continued, still not letting him speak. "And then saving the world! But what are you doing here? Is it true you appear when people say your name?!"

"I–"

"Because that's totally cool! I will have to use that concept on 'The Path to Atonement'." she interrupted. "I told Jane that–"

"Darcy, shut up!" Jane said; that seemed to work. She looked at him a little embarrassed because of her outburst. "Hi, thank you for saving my life."

Clark actually expected to be interrupted again.

"Don't worry about it," he answered. "And yes, Miss Lewis, I remember both of you. But if you could, you know, not say that out loud…"

Wait a second, did she just say Path to Atonement?

"Of course, secret identity!" Darcy whispered, before he could ask anything. "My bad. It's not like we know your real name, but I get it."

Sighed, Clark looked back at Jane.

"I got a call from SHIELD," he began and Jane groaned, "saying that you disappeared. They asked me to check on you. I was actually worried you got lost while studying the Convergence."

Both of them widened their eyes.

"You know about it?!" asked Jane.

Clark nodded.

"It's a long story, but yes. Anyway, are you alright?"

Jane seemed to think about it for a minute, which pretty much told Clark all he needed to know; something strange happened to her. Before he could do a quick x-ray scan on Jane, however, one cop decided to approach, looking warily at him.

"Um, excuse me," he said, his stare still on Clark. Everyone's eyes were on him. "This is p-private property… I'm going to have to ask you to–"

Whatever the cop was going to say was interrupted when a bright light came from the sky, illuminating everything around: the Bifrost.

"Jane?!" Thor yelled. "Are you alright? Heimdall couldn't see you!"

"Thor?" she asked, running to him and hugging the Asgardian. "You're back!"

"Hey Thor," Clark greeted, together with Darcy.

The Asgardian Prince widened his eyes.

"Kal, what are you…Did you come here to help Jane?" he asked.

Clark just nodded and before he could react the huge Asgardian hugged him as well.

"You have my gratitude once again!" he said and Clark gave a few embarrassed taps on his back.

"No need, buddy."

Thor turned back to Jane again, but before he could speak, Darcy interrupted.

"Jane, I'm pretty sure Mr. Cop here was about to arrest us." She looked at him. "Weren't you, sir?"

"Um, yes, you are trespassing–"

"Sir, wait, I can explain," said Jane, touching the man's shoulder.

Before she could speak a single word, however, there was a strong blast of red energy causing everyone around Jane to be sent flying. Pushed back by whatever that was, Clark managed to hold Darcy and, dashing forward, he held the flying cop before he was about to crash into his car.

"Jane!" Thor screamed, running to Jane who was lying on the ground.

Clark got up and took a step in her direction and then Kelex beeped.

"Sir, I'm sensing the energy signature of an Infinity Stone," she said.

His eyes widened as did Thor's and both of them turned to look at Jane. Groaning, Jane got up, holding on Thor's arm.

"What just happened?" she asked.

Thor didn't get a chance to answer, however, because the cops decided it was a good idea to approach Superman and Thor with a couple of tasers pointed at them. Darcy actually laughed.

"Place your hands on your heads!"

Clark sighed and stepped forward with his arms raised, a clear sign he wasn't a threat.

"You know who I am and you know who Thor is," he said, looking around the cops. "You know we aren't a threat to you. We are here to help."

The man was shaking a bit, but Clark's words made him calm himself a little, so he lowered the Taser.

"Okay, okay. As you say, Superman," he said and Clark nodded, smiling.

"Thank you."

Turning his back at him, Clark came toward Thor and Jane. Thor looked at him with a solemn expression.

"I need to take her to Asgard," he said. "She needs healing. If you are coming, now is the time."

Clark looked around for a second, but his choice was already made; there was an Infinity Stone inside Jane. She and Thor needed his help.

"Let's go."

Thor looked to the sky and nodded. A second later, the Bifrost descended from the heavens, surrounding them with its bright lights. Clark felt himself being pulled up at an incredible speed, almost becoming one with the rainbow bridge, as the universe passed fast all around him.

And then, as fast as it had started, it was over.

Clark landed a few steps behind Thor and Jane, just in time to see an Asgardian wearing a golden armor pulling a sword from a pedestal and closing the Bifrost. He gazed at them with his glowing orange eyes.

"Welcome to Asgard."