Chapter 68: The All-Father Pt. 2

A/N: Odin and Tony continue their conversation and come up with a plan. Now with an Odin POV!

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Four thousand years. It has been four thousand years since Odin, son of Bor, grandson of Buri, was born into this world. Well, four thousand and some extra. But when you got to be that old, you stopped keeping track of the exact numbers. Let the historians and scholars worry about that sort of thing, really.

Still. Four thousand years since he was born. More than two thousand years since his father Bor fell in battle and he ascended the throne to become King of Asgard. Looking back on all of his years as King, Odin couldn't exactly say he was proud of everything he'd done. Not when he'd quite literally hidden away the first thousand or so years of his rule after exiling Hela to Niflheim.

So great was his shame that Odin had rewritten history itself, until very few remained who knew what had once been, instead of what now was. With the death of the Valkyrie, he'd erased the past, telling himself at the time that he was making way for the future. Even Thor and Loki had never been told about what had come before them, raised on lies of peaceful protection and the prosperity of a unified Nine Realms.

Never mind the slaughters that Odin, Hela, and their armies had committed in the name of Asgardian Conquest. Never mind the damage that he and his daughter, his executioner, had done to the Nine Realms. Odin had done everything he possibly could to hide the past away.

And yet… here it was, come to haunt him again. Tony Stark was an enigma at times, but Heimdall had had years to study the man since Odin had exiled Thor to Midgard, and the Gatekeeper and King of Asgard had both come to believe they had the Midgardian man's measure. Now though… now that understanding was tested once more. Visions… forbidden knowledge… and yet, Odin had declared Tony Stark his peer. Even the table, enchanted thousands of years ago, had recognized Stark's claim to Midgard's nonexistent throne. Amusing and vexing at the same time.

He can tell that the much younger ruler is tense at the moment, for all that Stark is attempting to appear calm and at ease. The Midgardian did not have to tell Odin this, but he had anyways, probably fully aware of just how wrathful the Asgardian King could be when his secrets were threatened with exposure.

Not for the first time, Odin is glad that he had Thor leave the room to start with. And yet, even as that thought crosses his mind, he finds himself wondering… shouldn't he have told Thor a long time ago? Loki as well. He'd thought to spare his second daughter the heartbreak of knowing her origins, but in doing so he'd only doubled that heartbreak when it finally arrived all these years later. And now… his first daughter was set to return.

Odin had always known his death would trigger Hela's release. He'd just thought he had more time. Letting his one eye drift shut, Odin expels an explosive breath and asks the most pertinent question.

"… How long?"

Stark hesitates for only a moment before shaking his head.

"I don't know an exact time frame… but years."

Ever since Thor's failed coronation, Odin has been feeling the weight of his age more and more frequently. But in that moment, his breath is truly taken away for the second time since this meeting begun. The first had been when Stark told him of his Queen's death. And even if the Midgardian had done his best to make it sound like it wouldn't happen… visions of Frigga's lifeless body nevertheless danced in his mind's eye.

Right up until Stark had spoken his eldest daughter's name. Then, the visions had become Asgard in flames and Hela cackling madly over Thor's corpse.

"But that doesn't necessarily have to happen either. Things have already changed, at least somewhat. And they can be changed further. From what I could pick up from the visions, it was your Queen's death that set you on that path. Losing her would sap at least some of your will to live, no?"

… He wasn't wrong. Eye still closed, Odin solemnly nods his head in agreement, causing Stark to continue on.

"So we start by saving her. The Dark Elves are coming as early as tomorrow and their invisibility was able to bypass your Gatekeeper's sight in my visions, but now that we know they're coming, we can prepare. Their infiltrator and saboteur might already be down in the dungeons. If he is, then we know the rest of their invasion is right around the corner. We take him out and we lay in wait, ambushing Malekith and ending this once and for all."

As Tony Stark has been speaking, Odin slowly opens his eye to stare at the man. Not for the first time, he's reminded of what he sees of himself in the Midgardian. That decisiveness. That wisdom. And that conniving, scheming, manipulating mien of his. Of course, as Odin had already told Stark, he did not begrudge the man for his actions back on his realm. Heimdall had showed the All-Father the forces that the Midgardian was arrayed against. Formidable enemies one and all… for a mortal.

But even beyond that, Stark barely considered those his true enemies. Instead, he set his eyes much higher. He set his eyes on the Mad Titan himself. Odin knows, of course, what Thanos is and what he does. He knows the destruction that the Mad Titan wreaks, and he knows his true aim. As Protector of the Nine Realms, long has Odin guarded them from Thanos' madness. Until, unfortunately, his younger daughter fell into the Mad Titan's grasp and was used as a patsy against Midgard.

Still…

"Before we begin, what did your visions show you about Thanos, Stark? What has set you so against the Mad Titan? Does he come to the Nine Realms after my death? Does he lay waste to Midgard? Is that why you consider him your foe?"

Tony Stark pauses for a second at that… before scowling. It is the most negative emotion that Odin has seen from the Midgardian man since this meeting begun, his hands clutching at the arms of his chair as he grits his teeth.

"He comes for the entire universe, your Majesty. You know his goal, but you don't know his plan to accomplish it, do you?"

Odin tilts his head to the side. A King does not so readily admit a lack of knowledge if he can help it. Stark grins a little bit, but the grin is more teeth then smile, and does not reach the Midgardian's hooded eyes.

"He's been going around conquering planets and wiping out half of all life for a long time, hasn't he? Long enough for you to know he's out there. Long enough for him to have good reason to fear you. But it's all too slow. By the time he's cut the population of the thousandth planet down to half, the first planet he did it to is already 'overpopulated' again by his standards. It's a never-ending cycle."

Light suddenly dawns in Stark's eyes.

"Is that why people call him the Mad Titan? Because the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome?"

Close enough. Odin inclines his head, silently bidding Tony Stark to get to the point. Thankfully, he gets the hint and doesn't mince words any further.

"He's going to go after the Infinity Stones. All of them, all at once. That's what I saw. That's why he's my enemy. Not because he comes for Midgard, but because he comes for all of us… and in my visions, he wins. Half of all life, extinguished with a simple snap of his fingers."

Tony snaps his fingers as he makes his point. Then he presses his hand to his chest.

"That's why I took the Aether for myself. It's why I'm keeping the Scepter safe, because it contains the Mind Stone. And it's why I entrusted the Tesseract back to you because I know it carries Space. My plan is to stop Thanos from getting his hands on even a single one of the stones. To kill him before he can grab any of them. But I know how powerful he is. I know there's a good reason you haven't excised his rot from the universe yourself. So I'm going to have to get stronger. I'm going to have to match his power with power of my own. I won't stop until he lies dead at my feet."

There's real hatred in Tony Stark's voice, Odin distantly notices. At the same time, he's rather… well, rather weary after hearing what Thanos' true plan is. To try and wield the Infinity Stones, even one at a time, was often to court death. But all of them?

"… How? How would he possibly gain the power to use all of the Fragments of the Infinite at the same time?"

Here, Stark grimaces.

"Keep an eye on Nidavellir. According to my visions… the dwarves refuse Thanos, but he doesn't bother asking politely for long. In the end… he forces them to make a gauntlet."

A gauntlet forged by the Dwarven Blacksmiths of Nidavellir? Yes… yes, that made an unfortunate amount of sense. Even under duress, they could probably make a wonder like that. To think, Odin's death would bring about such ruin, not just to Asgard, not just because of his past mistakes… but to all the Nine Realms, without him there to hold back the Mad Titan any longer.

Stark was right though. They could only take things one at a time.

"If you are correct about the Dark Elf attack being eminent, then they are most certainly already on their way. We must act swiftly."

Odin rises from the table, and Stark does the same, looking ready for anything.

"Great! Where do we begin?"

He is the King of Asgard. His duty is to his people, of course. And he fully intends to protect them to the fullest extent of his power. But… Odin cannot focus while the specter of death looms over his beloved Queen.

"We begin by evacuating our women and your daughter. Have your Queen take mine along with the Lady Sif and her babe back to Midgard, so that they might be out of the way of the coming conflict."

Stark's eyes widen at that, but his surprise doesn't last long before he's nodding.

"… That's not a bad plan. Wish I'd thought of that, to be honest."

Odin lets a tired smile slip onto his face as he chuckles.

"Yes, well… I do have a few millennia on you, King Stark. I should hope that I might have some kernels of wisdom to pass on to my juniors."

As they make for the door, the Midgardian King hums and nods for a moment before raising an eyebrow.

"Wonderful! So you already know how to convince your Queen to depart to safety without her raising all hell? I mean, I got lucky when Loki invaded Earth. I was able to send Pepper to safety on the other side of the continent under the guise of needing her to keep our baby daughter, Morgan, safe. I'm curious to see your techniques at work, O' Wise King of Asgard."

Odin pauses, turning over Stark's words in his head for a moment. He looks to his much, much younger peer, who is managing to pass off his shit-eating grin as an eager-to-learn expression instead. He considers his Queen for a moment, contemplating Frigga's disposition and personality. She can be so soft and kind at times, and she's a wonderful mother. But before she was Thor and Loki's mother, before she was his Queen… Frigga of the Vanir was a Warrior Princess.

He takes that and puts it up against his plans of sending his Queen away to Midgard with the Stark Queen, Lady Sif, and the babe. And comes to the same conclusion that Tony Stark has already come to.

"Ah."

How did the Midgardians put it? Ah yes. This was going to be a 'tough sell'.

-x-X-x-

Tony is just glad that it was Odin's idea and not his to be honest. It means all of the anger and gnashing of teeth is directed at the All-Father rather than him. It also means that the only person they really have to convince of this plan is Queen Frigga herself, who is very much against journeying to Midgard on what might be the eve of Asgard's first battle on their own soil in a thousand years.

Pepper is already fine with it, thankfully. He and she had talked before making this trip, and it was always sort of the plan to try to find a way to get Sif and the baby back to Midgard within the day before the Dark Elves could attack. Just like it was always the plan for Tony to stay behind and help Odin defeat Malekith the first time this time around.

Sif, meanwhile, could do nothing but accept her King's decree. Even if she was a warrior who longed to be on the field of battle, Odin was King of Asgard and if he told her to go to Midgard with her baby, she effectively had no choice but to obey.

To be fair, the same was technically true of Frigga as well, which was ultimately how they finally got her sent off through the Bifrost with the other women. Odin ultimately had to put his foot down, pull the 'I am King' card, and basically order Frigga to go to Midgard with Pepper, Sif, and the baby. If looks could kill… well, they would certainly be dealing with Hela a lot sooner, Tony imagined.

Speaking of Hela… letting Odin know he knew about her had gone over about as well as could be expected. Now all that was left was to get through fighting the Dark Elves, and then, assuming everything went well, Tony could bring up the idea he'd had for how to deal with the threat that Hela posed, seeing how said threat was rapidly going from long term to short term very, very quickly.

He understood from what little Thor had told him that Hela's life force was tied to Asgard itself, in the same way that her imprisonment was tied to Odin's life force. But he didn't really see how they necessarily had to wait for Odin to die before dealing with her. After all, if it worked for two out of three, why not the third as well, right?

… But that was for later. For now, Odin's guards had searched the dungeons and with Heimdall's impressive sight helping them, had uncovered the Dark Elf trying to hide himself amongst the raiders they'd captured. They hadn't managed to stop him from using something called a Kurse Stone, leading to the deaths of several Einherjar and the destruction of much of the dungeons before he was put down, but they'd still managed to take him out with the assistance of Thor himself.

With the infiltrator a head shorter and Asgard on high alert while trying to pretend like it was business as usual, Malekith and his Dark Elves would hopefully walk right into the trap they'd set.

Tony had to admit, not being totally in control of a situation was… not an experience he really enjoyed. But if he couldn't count on Odin to be able to handle Asgard with all the information he'd given him, then who could he really count on?

In the end he would know if his trust was misplaced one way or another soon enough.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Tony making good progress with Odin and Asgard. Maybe he can even reverse their decline!

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