Chapter 52: Goodbyes

A/N: Tony goes to see Thor and Sif off. From Thor's POV. Poor Thor. but also poor Loki lmao.

-x-X-x-

"Tony! You came!"

Thor had to admit, he'd been in a rather black mood while finishing up preparations for his and Sif's return to Asgard these last few hours. Convincing the Midgardians to hand over the Tesseract had at least gone smoothly, as Loki's escape meant that she could try to get her hands on it again at any time so long as it remained in their realm.

However, it was the simple fact that Loki HAD escaped their clutches that had Thor most aggrieved. Not that he blamed his Shield-Bro, of course. He'd seen for himself the countermeasures that Tony had utilized to try and lock Loki down and Thor couldn't have thought up much better truth be told, save for magic nullification of some sort… which unfortunately, Tony Stark did not have access to.

In the end, he and Sif would be returning to Asgard without Thor's sister. Loki would remain in the wind for the time being, and all Thor could hope was that she wouldn't make too much of a mess of things or hurt too many Midgardians while he waited for the Bifrost Repairs to be finished. In the meantime, he would have to hope that Tony could track her down and keep her from causing too much mischief.

As the man steps out of his strange Midgardian Carriage, Thor is all smiles… until he sees the beautiful stranger that Tony has brought with him. Stepping out of the other side of the carriage is a gorgeous woman clad in a shimmering gold dress that reminds Thor of his mother. The dress, not the woman. The woman, for all her beauty, is far shorter than Thor's mother. Her dirty blonde hair is not of an Asgardian style either, curling off to the sides and framing her angular face.

Her bright green eyes are somewhat breathtaking though as they find Thor's face and she goes still for a moment before a broad smile spreads across her features. Moving rather slowly around the car, the woman arrives at Tony's side, where he offers her an arm that she gracefully takes. This causes Thor to blink, for was his Shield-Bro not already married? But then, just because he gave her his arm did not mean they were courting or even married. A woman of high birth should always be escorted by a man of equal or greater station, yes?

"Thor! Wouldn't miss it for the world, buddy. Besides, my company is the one rebuilding New York City, not me personally. Lady Sif. Good to see you again."

"Lord Stark."

Setting aside the strange energy that passes between his Shield-Bro and Sif, Thor peers curiously at the woman on his arm, before forcing a bit of joviality into his voice.

"And who is this lovely lady that you've brought with you, Tony?"

Looking between him and the woman, who suddenly seems to be frozen in place, Tony raises an eyebrow before chuckling.

"Apologies Thor, it seems she's coming down with a case of the nerves. This is…"

He trails off meaningfully, which finally seems to snap the blonde woman out of her strange reaction.

"S-Sylvie! My name… is Sylvie."

Finding her footing, she graces Thor with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. Tony and I are… old friends. I might have twisted his arm a little to get him to bring me to see you. I'm a big fan, you see."

Thor's eyes light up at that and he smiles wide. Planting his hands on his hips, he nods magnanimously.

"Haha, of course! Who is not a fan of the God of Thunder, yes? It is a pleasure to meet such a fine woman as you, Sylvie!"

He'd hoped to put her at ease… but instead, she suddenly pulls away from Tony's side, looking pained.

"… I'll wait in the car."

Thor can't help but stare after her mournfully. Such a beautiful creature… and he'd chased her away. Truly, his failures compound upon themselves. Tony stares after the blonde woman for a moment as she slinks back to the car, before shrugging his shoulders and looking to Thor and Sif.

"Sorry about that, she probably thought this would all play out so much better in her head. Anyways… you two heading off then?"

Rallying quickly, as he always did, Thor bobs his head in agreement.

"Indeed we are! We were just finishing up… all that's left now is to say our goodbyes!"

Then, growing solemn, Thor sighs as he looks to Tony.

"… I am sorry for the loss of Lady Natasha, Tony. I did not get the chance to know her well, but Sif has told me that she was close with you and Pepper."

Tony hums before inclining his head.

"Thank you for your condolences, Thor. I like to think wherever she is right now, she's watching over us all the same."

Thor nods before grimacing.

"Indeed. As well, I must apologize for failing to contain my sister. That I am forced to leave her here and return to Asgard without her… it sets me ill at ease."

He expects Tony to be upset about that. Instead, his Shield-Bro looks a little thoughtful.

"… You know Thor, something's been bothering me about Loki. You and Sif have known her for a long time, yeah? All your lives?"

The two Asgardians share a look, followed by hesitant nods. Tony hums… and then with a wave of his hand, brings up glittering panes of glass that reveal recorded events in them.

"Tell me, what are the color of Loki's eyes?"

Thor furrows his brow as he glances over the panes of glass to look to Tony. He knew these were not technically magic but said to be 'holograms' that the incredible Midgardian had invented.

"Green. My sister's eyes have always been green, Tony."

Sif grunts in agreement beside him. Which is when Tony shows them something… something that makes a pit begin forming in Thor's stomach.

"Yeah, I wondered about that. See, in all of her time on Earth, Loki's eyes weren't green. They were blue."

The holograms show as much. Loki in the facility she'd first been summoned to. Loki in Germany. Loki in the Helicarrier. Loki in Stark's home. The perspective zooms in on Loki's eyes each time and reveals them to be blue. Then… then it shows Loki dazed and beaten and bound in Tony's restraints. When it zooms in this time, Loki's eyes are green. A few moments later they flash as the recording is disrupted and Loki manages to escape from her restraints.

"The eyes of all of Loki's victims were blue as well. Until they were smacked around the head hard enough to dislodge her control. Or rather… to dislodge the Scepter's control. After that, their eyes returned to their normal eye color. Sort of like Loki's did after I slammed her into the wall hard enough to incapacitate her."

Did this… did this mean what Thor thought it meant? Did this mean Loki was not necessarily responsible for her actions on Midgard?

"Tony…"

"Just something to think about, Thor. If I run into Loki again… we'll see if we can't get to the bottom of this all, yeah?"

For a moment, Thor is nearly overcome with emotion. Finally, he steps forward, through the holograms, and grabs his Shield-Bro by his shoulders. Giving the other man a watery smile, he embraces the Midgardian, while in turn Tony pats him on the back.

"Thank you, Shield-Brother. Thank you for this hope."

"… Sure buddy. Say hi to the All-Father for me when you get home, yeah?"

Chuckling at the subtle nod to Tony's status as the hidden king of Midgard, Thor pulls away and smiles a manly smile.

"Indeed I will, Tony Stark. Indeed I will. And you… make sure to keep a close eye on Loki's Scepter, won't you? That weapon is most dangerous and Loki never had it before she appeared on your world. I fear what it might be capable of if it falls into the wrong hands."

That brings a smile to Tony's face.

"You're right about that, Thor. I've managed to keep it in my custody for now, even with SHIELD breathing down my neck for it. The World Security Council is taking my side for the time being… but we'll see what happens. Trust me on this though, Thor. I won't let anyone abuse it like Loki did."

In the end, that was all Thor could really ask wasn't it? As he steps back to prepare for departure, Sif just gives Tony a look and a nod of her own.

"I shall return when time permits, Lord Stark. Let Pepper know that her training is not on hold until I get back though. I expect her to keep up and be more than a match for me when I return."

Tony laughs at that.

"Oh, not to worry Lady Sif. I'm confident Pepper will take that as a challenge."

Thor just beams at his friends getting along so well. A few moments later and he and Sif are holding either end of the containment device for the Tesseract. Waving to Tony one last time, They pull the handles on either end simultaneously, transporting them back to Asgard.

-x-X-x-

Loki is already glaring when Tony finally slips into the car. She knows he won't be able to help it though, no matter how much she glowers at him. Raising an eyebrow at her, Tony grins.

"Couldn't handle the heat, 'Sylvie'?"

Flushing at the name she'd unthinkingly given herself but was almost certainly now stuck with, Loki huffs.

"I was not expecting… lust."

"Well he didn't know who you were… and you've chosen a very beautiful disguise."

Flushing even harder, Loki just grunts.

"Whatever. He's gone now. Let us depart as well from this place."

Tony just hums, but she can tell he's incredibly amused by her in this moment. This increases Loki's glower as they drive away.

She'd thought that her talk of Odin wanting to marry her and Thor off was just the Scepter influencing her! She'd thought that she was just making things up to get under Thor's skin. But after how Thor had reacted when he didn't know who she was, she was the one whose skin was crawling. She needed a thousand baths to feel clean again. And one thing was certain… she was never, ever stepping foot back on Asgard. Never again.

-x-X-x-

"So you're going then?"

Peggy tenses up at the sound of Steve's voice in the doorway. Her angry packing pauses for a moment as she purses her lips before letting out a sigh and turning to face him.

"… Yes. I have an identity out in the real world now. Penny Carter, Tony Stark's Personal Assistant."

Steve's face scrunches up in confusion… and frankly, she can't exactly blame him. It still barely makes sense to her. Still, she tries her best to explain it anyways.

"As far as most of the world is concerned, I'm completely legitimate. Tony made me an entire identity, and even went so far as to backdate everything all the way to my supposed birth certificate. There are people who will say they went to school with me, teachers who will say they remember teaching me."

Shaking his head, Steve frowns.

"But what about SHIELD and HYDRA? They know better, right?"

Peggy nods. This was where it got ridiculous.

"Tony has them all thinking I'm some kind of robot. An android to be specific, which is a futuristic type of robot that can effectively pass as a human with the right disguise. He told HYDRA that I'm a prototype for something he's developed called 'Life-Model Decoys'. Basically, they know I'm Peggy Carter… but they think I'm a perfect artificial copy of her, rather than the true story, which is that I'm a Peggy Carter from a different dimension."

In the end, Steve just shakes his head and laughs.

"That's… insane. But I suppose if anyone knows what they're doing, it's Tony right?"

Peggy tenses up and Steve winces, knowing immediately that he put his foot in it. Unfortunately, he doesn't stop there. If anything, he decides to stick his foot in it further.

"Look… you understand why we had to stay inside, right? Even if it was an alien invasion, Bucky and I would have just complicated things. JARVIS would have gotten us if the situation were desperate… but it wasn't. So we stayed away."

Right. Complicated things. The aggravating part is that Peggy's rational mind knows they're right. The analyst in her says that Steve and Bucky, even if they'd been in suits, wouldn't have changed much in the end. The time for them to join the fight was when Tony came and made his offer after Germany… when Peggy had accepted that offer and gotten her ass out there to protect the Earth.

But Sergeant Barnes was too afraid of being recaptured by HYDRA and Steve Rogers wasn't willing to leave his side. The codependency was honestly a little bit unsettling. Her Steve had never been this attached to Barnes. Sure, they'd been childhood friends and what not, but it wasn't like Bucky was the most important person in her Steve's life… no, that had been her.

And maybe it was because her and her Steve had been together, but her Steve felt like so much more of a fighter than this Steve. Despite not receiving the serum, despite having to make use of Howard's HYDRA Stomper Suit to actually do battle, he was still more of a man than this Steve Rogers was. This so-called 'Captain America' who was basically using his friend as a security blanket while he sucked his thumb and stayed inside as aliens literally invaded the planet overhead.

… No, that wasn't fair and Peggy knew it. Sure, this Steve's weird obsession with Bucky seemed a tad unhealthy, but at the same time… the Battle for New York hadn't been as bad as it could have been. Even being on ground zero, fighting alongside Sif as they'd watched Thor take to the sky with the Iron Legion… Peggy knew it might have been a whole lot worse if it wasn't for Tony and all of his precautions. He'd even been the one to figure out where that bitch Loki was going ahead of time, giving ample warning to the authorities in the federal, state, and local governments to begin evacuating.

All in all, Tony Stark had done incredibly… and Peggy couldn't say one way or another if thrusting Barnes and Rogers out into all of that would have made things better or worse in both the short and long term. No, the reality was… she was angrier at herself than she was at the two male Super Soldiers. She was upset because it should have been her who made the sacrifice play and shut off the portal, not Natasha Romanoff. And she was angry because she'd been so busy celebrating the defeat of the aliens that she hadn't moved to secure Loki before the alien bitch had escaped.

And sure, maybe those were both things that were outside of Peggy's control. Didn't make her any less angry.

With a gruff sigh, Peggy zips up her pack and swings it over her shoulder before forcing a smile onto her face as she walks towards the doorway and therefore Steve.

"I know Steve. You did the right thing. But now that everyone knows about me, I can't stay here with you guys anymore. They'll wonder where I'm going off to when I disappear to this floor to sleep or eat or rest. And if they try to track me here, they might find you two. And we can't have that, not before Tony has finished taking down HYDRA."

Wide-eyed and earnest, Steve slowly nods, even as he walks with her to the elevator.

"Yeah… yeah, that makes sense. But uh… if you ever want to call or visit, you can."

"Thanks Steve. I'll keep that in mind."

A moment later and she's in the elevator watching Steve stare after her almost forlornly as the doors close. But he'd made his choice and she'd made hers. Besides, they didn't owe anything to one another, not really. He wasn't her Steve. She wasn't his Peggy. Even still…

"… fuck I need to get laid."

As soon as the whispered words leave her lips, Peggy rolls her eyes and groans, running a hand through her hair. Then, she pulls her Starkphone out of her pocket and navigates to messages. There, the message from Tony's wife, Pepper Stark, awaits her still unanswered. Apparently, Pepper had been training with Sif for literal years now, ever since the Asgardian Woman had gotten stuck on Earth back in 2010. From the sound of things, now that Sif was finally going back to Asgard, Pepper needed a new sparring partner.

Reading between the lines, having seen how hard Sif could fight during the Battle for New York, Peggy suspected that what Pepper was leaving unsaid was that she had whatever Tony had developed for himself… and was just as strong as him and Sif were. And that… Peggy wouldn't lie, that was very enticing. Even if she couldn't get her itch scratched the way she wanted it scratched due to a dearth of acceptable men in her life, she could still burn off some energy sparring with Pepper.

Smiling slightly, Peggy goes ahead and shoots off an affirmative response to Pepper, going to put her Starkphone away only to receive a ping as Pepper messages back with details barely three seconds later.

Peggy's smile grows as something in her chest loosens up just a little bit. It still hurts, failing Agent Romanoff and letting Loki escape. But… perhaps things would get better, eventually.

-x-X-x-

A/N: So yeah, Loki is now disguised as 'Sylvie' from the TV show. This is the only way in which 'Sylvie' will be making an appearance, as a literal appearance change. The character herself as well as anything to do with the TV show will not show up in this story.

Meanwhile, Peggy and Steve have one last talk before Peggy moves out. Some might disagree with my characterization of Steve Rogers in this fic. I just want to reiterate that he's had zero interactions with anyone since waking up in the future outside of Bucky, JARVIS, Tony, and Peggy.

And three out of four of those people have a vested interest in keeping Steve Rogers out of the public eye (meaning lots of subtle manipulation, both intentional and unintentional, taking place offscreen). Peggy, meanwhile, had her own Steve and doesn't necessarily want to hit it off with this new Steve, so she kept her distance. Hope that makes sense to people!

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