32

Chapter 32Summary:

Meeting the Norns... Will they help or not?

Chapter Text

"And what should we be telling the public about those of you that are going?" Fury tilted his head and narrowed his eyes in consideration. "Iron Man was quite visible, as was Sargent Barnes."

"Tell them that when Loki was freed from Thanos' control, he gave us information that we're using to prevent an item becoming a weapon, that if Thanos got his hands on it, could destroy half the life on Earth." Steve replied.

"The truth, then?"

"Pretty much." Tony nodded. "Just not all of it."

~~~

Nornheim – approximately May 29th 2012

"Anyone else wondering if this is going to work?" Tony asked, seemingly to the air in the Salus' mess-cabin.

"It will work." Nebula stated, her voice calm.

"It will." Gamora's voice agreed, causing both Tony and Nebula to jerk and turn to face the entrance to the cargo bay. "Sister." Gamora nodded calmly to Nebula.

And Nebula nodded back, just as calmly. "Sister." Then Nebula's mouth twitched and a smile grew, before she hurled herself across the cabin and into a startled Gamora's arms. "I have missed you."

"And I, you." Gamora's hands clutched at Nebula for a few seconds before she eased her now-human 'sister' back onto her own feet. "We have the Orb with the Power Stone still inside it. What is our next move?"

"That bag over there?" Tony pointed to a bag hanging from a hook on the bulkhead beside the hatch. "That one is for your Stone. Each Stone has it's own bag and a person to monitor it. Either you or Quill get your stone. It'll stay in whatever cabin you're bunking in, Greenie."

"As you say." Gamora handed the bag to Peter Quill, who pulled a small silver ball from somewhere and dropped it into the bag and tied it to his belt.

~~~

Nornheim – approximately May 31st 2012

"How much longer are we gonna have to wait?" Quill muttered to Gamora, as they sat at a mess-table.

"As long as we must." She replied, ignoring the sulking man-child.

It appeared that it wasn't to be all that much longer, as no sooner had she finished speaking, Thor came barrelling into the cabin.

"We are summoned!" He called in his booming voice. "The Norns summon us, we must away."

"Not until Tony and James return with supplies." Gamora said sharply.

"We're here." Bucky's voice came from the cargo hold. "Could use a hand to stow the supplies. That'd get us underway, a bit faster."

"I shall assist you, my shield-brother!" Thor was gone as fast as he'd arrived.

~~~

Unnamed planetoid – approximately June 5th 2012

Quill waited until the landing struts were fully extended before letting the Salus settle to the planetoid's surface. Once down, he nodded to Nebula and she carefully eased off the thrusters and let gravity hold the Salus in place. They unstrapped from their seat harnesses and left the bridge to joined the others in the mess-cabin.

"We really going to do this?" Quill asked.

"Got a better idea, Star-boy?" Tony snarked.

"Lord." Quill objected. "Star Lord."

"Right, whatever." Tony ignored the squawk. "Darcy and Bucky have point. They've been here before."

"Yes. Let us hear what the Norns would tell us." Agreed Thor.

"Buckster? You wanna lead the way?" Tony directed the question to his bodyguard.

"Right…" Bucky huffed a sigh. "Come on, then." He reached out with his metal hand and slid it into Darcy's delicate flesh fingers. "This way."

Out of the ship and across the small plateau, then onto what looked like a set of stairs that led down and around the butte's ragged sides. They circled the entire butte twice before reaching a small ledge and the end of the steps.

"Here we go. Again." Bucky whispered to Darcy.

"We got this, love." Darcy gave him a slightly weak smile.

Within feet the ragged edges of the cave became smooth and almost polished, tangles of thread hanging intermittently, from ceiling to floor along the long, slightly curving corridor.

"Uh, guys?" Tony was the first to speak. "Is it just me, or is this hallway longer than the butte is wide?"

"Yep." Darcy nodded. "We think that the cave is really only a… doorway, a portal, if you like… that opens up to wherever the Norns actually are."

"It's still quite a walk, yet." Bucky agreed.

"But I don't like walking…" Tony whined.

"Tough." Darcy snorted. "You wanted to come? Suck it up, princess."

For the next few minutes, as Bucky gently guided them, Darcy and Tony continued to bicker like siblings.

"We're here." He brought them to a halt in front a massive door. Polished black stone, with what looked like stars glinting within its surface.

"How do we get in?" Nat asked.

No-one really needed to answer, as the huge door slid open, soundlessly, exposing only blackness.

"I'm assuming, like that." Loki said.

Nat tilted her head and looked sideways at the raven-haired Asgardian, but said nothing in reply.

Darcy and Bucky looked at each other, took a deep breath and together entered the blackness.

The blackness faded within three steps, revealing the edge of a tree root, filling one side of a small-ish room. Yggdrasil. In front of the root, three shadowy forms worked at looms.

"Sisters." Said one. "We have guests."

"I saw their coming." A second said.

"I watched their arrival." The third said.

The later pair nodded to each other and returned to their looms, while the first stood, showing herself to be a woman of indeterminate age, her head and shoulders enveloped in shadow, as though it were worn like a hood.

"Be welcome, Avengers." She said. "I am Verdandi.

"I was named Urðr." Said the second form, still at her loom.

"I will always be Skuld." Said the third, equally as busy at hers.

"We are sisters and together we tell…" said Verdandi.

 "…of what has been…" Urðr cut in.

"…of what will come to be…" added Skuld.

"And what currently is." Finished Verdandi.

"We are the Norns." The three spoke together, their voice echoing as though spoken in a great hall instead of the small and cosy room they were in.

"You have been here, before, but I did not see your arrival." Urðr looked at Darcy and Bucky.

"Nor have I." Skuld agreed.

"But you have been here, we can all See that. You are cursed." Verdandi tilted her head, which confused the Norns' visitors, as they couldn't see Verdandi's head, only a shadowy place where it should have been. "Most interesting. But that is not why you have come."

"No, it is not." Darcy agreed.

"We come to beg advice." Loki was the next to speak. "Thanos-"

"Yes, we know of his plans." The dislike in Skuld's voice was clear.

"You wish to hide the Stones of Infinity." Urðr said.

"We do." Darcy said. "Frigga of Asgard said that we would be wise to ask your advice before we started to mess about with them."

"And well that you have." Verdandi.

"They must be split up." Urðr warned.

"Placed where none may reach them." Skuld agreed.

"Sounds good." Tony was as irreverent as ever. "Any ideas on where?"

Nat shook her head and smothered a groan at Tony's behaviour.

"You will use the Time Stone to place each Stone in its resting place." Urðr said.

"The Soul stone will reside in the care of the Librarian, it will be within a mirror space that he and he alone will be able to access." "Skuld said. "The souls of those of his order that depart their lives, will be held within the Stone."

"A Library of Souls that have lived, finally at peace." Urðr agreed.

"The Power Stone will be placed within the heart of Nidavellir, to power it for lifetimes to come." Skuld told them.

"You must use the Time Stone to send the Power Stone back in Time, so far back that it has never been anywhere else but there." Urðr added.

"Time, Space, Mind and Reality Stones will feed the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil." Skuld said. "But you must send them forward in Time to just after the Time of Withering, after the Great Winter.They will gift the Tree of Life new strength to face its next Spring."

"As long as we get some better info on a timescale, sure." Tony agreed.

"And the Sight Stone shall remain with us." Verdandi said.

"As it has always been." Urðr said.

"As it will always be." Skuld nodded.

"Wait, what?" Tony blinked. "The what Stone?"

"The Stone of Sight." Verdandi answered. "It is what feeds the Water of Sight, that which we use to See."

"Hold up." Tony held up a hand and turned to those that came with him. "Did I hear that right? She said the Sight Stone? Yeah? That makes seven, right? Seven Stones. I thought there were only six?"

"As did I." Loki agreed.

"Same here." Quill said before turning to Gamora and Nebula. "Did you know about a seventh Stone? Does Thanos know about a seventh Stone?"

"No…" Gamora looked at Nebula and raised an eyebrow.

"Not as far as I am aware." Tony's daughter shook her head. "He never mentioned a seventh Stone, it was always six."

"The Sight Stone has always been in our care." Urðr said. "It has never been named before."

"And will never be named by any but those that stand here, today." Skuld agreed.

"If Thanos never knew of it, he could never acquire all of the Stones." Nebula said.

"But he used six of them." Tony objected. "I used six of them."

"With only six Stones, he could only access a portion of their power." Verdandi said.

"A portion?" Tony said flatly. "A portion of their power destroyed half the life in the Universe?"

"Yes," Verdandi nodded, "imagine what would be, if he had all seven…"

"Oh, gods and goddesses…" Darcy whispered in horror.

"Exactly." Verdandi nodded again.

"Verdandi? What is that?" Urðr spoke sharply and pointed at something that the visitors couldn't see.

Verdandi moved to stand beside Urðr and Looked where she pointed. "I… I do not know…"

"Skuld, do you See?" Urðr asked.

"Yes, I See but…?" Skuld joined her sisters and stood Staring intently at whatever it was they were Looking at. The three studied the whatever and muttered almost silently to each other in a language that none of the visitors understood, not even Thor and Loki's Allspeak could make sense of what they heard.

"You have those that were… altered... by the Mind Stone." Urðr turned to face the visitors. "One of them… Taking the Mind Stone hurt her, more than just the taking of the Stone. How?"

The visitors looked from one to another, none of them quite knowing what to say. Finally, Nat sighed and spoke.

"The Mind Stone was used to create an artificial being. The Vision, we called him. Wanda loved him and Thanos tore the Stone from his head and destroyed him in the process."

"Ah…" Skuld exclaimed quietly. "I could not clearly See, this Vision was not truly alive to be Seen."

"We can change that, sister." Urðr offered.

"We can." Verdandi agreed.

"I would appreciate that, sisters." Skuld nodded. "To not See what should been Seen is… disconcerting."

"Then we will correct this." Urðr stated before turning to the visitors. "We will require a single use of the Mind, Power and Soul Stones."

"Uh, no." Tony shook his head. "I'm not giving up JARVIS again."

"And I have no intention of being subsumed into another being." A sharp comment came from JARVIS via a speaker hooked onto Tony's jacket.

"If we were to use the Reality Stone, we would have no need of this JARVIS, that he speaks of." Verdandi said to her sisters. "We could access the version of The Vision in the moment of his destruction, instead."

"Yes, sister, that would be more beneficial for the future of this timeline than if we were to use JARVIS as the seed." Urðr was looking at something that only she could See.

"Who knows the most of The Vision's creation?" Verdandi suddenly spoke in English.

"That would be me." Tony held up a hand.

"We would speak with you, privately, come forward, please." The three spoke as one and Tony looked from them to Thor and raised a brow.

"You will be safe, Friend Stark, the Norns would tell you if they wished you harm." Thor nodded formally.

"We have no desire to harm nor injure you, you are our guests." Verdandi added. "We simply wish to speak privately."

"It is agreed, then?" Verdandi said, loudly enough for the other visitors to hear. It was the first time in nearly an hour that they had heard any sound from the sisters or Tony.

"Yeah…" Tony sounded a little confused. "You'll walk us through hiding each Stone, in exchange for a single use of the Stones." He paused, frowned and went on. "Although, how you're going to use Stones to do that, I just can't work out…"

"We will use the imprint of his core, his soul, if you will, to create a 'seed' that will allow the World Tree to 'grow' his body anew." Skuld answered.

"Yeah, sure, but that…" Tony sighed. "You worked out the details with JARVIS and he seems to understand and… Yeah, he's okay with it, so I guess I am, too."

"Tony?" Bucky called quietly. "Is this something we should be involved in?"

"Um…? No? I don't think…?" Tony turned to the sisters. "Is it?"

"Be at ease, Soldier of Winter, we seek only to address an imbalance before it becomes irreversible." Verdandi said.

"By doing what?" Bucky asked.

"We will require the Stones to be brought to the Well of Sight." Verdandi answered. "There we will use their power to reach across Time and Space and into the Reality from which you came. From there we will draw forth the disembodied soul of the one called the Vision, we shall draw his soul here and using the Power and Reality Stones, we will forge a 'seed'."

"And what will you do with this 'seed'?" Darcy asked.

"We will use it as the base for Yggdrasil to grow a body to house his soul." Skuld answered.

"A body?" Darcy blinked.

~~~