(Inception/Star Trek/Avengers) As It's Meant To Be for brighteyed_jill (2/3)

[perdiccas]

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If he was quite honest with himself, Dr. Leonard McCoy had seen the evening ending in disaster the second Jim had moved away from him and Spock to flirt with that woman.

White-knuckled, he’d watched his friend from a distance, unable to interrupt and unwilling to look away.

Something had been off about Jim the past few weeks, since they’d gotten the orders to patrol the Neutral Zone that separated the Federation from the Romulan Empire. Jim had been short-tempered, snappish, and withdrawn from him and Spock. The teasing of the Vulcan had gone down to a minimum, and even then, it looked as if Jim was only doing it to keep up appearances, not because his heart was in it.

And then, Odin Allfather had sprung to his feet with a lot more agility than Bones had suspected he had in him, and had aimed his goddamned spear right at Jim’s chest, and although a spear was a barbaric and archaic weapon, Bones knew all too well how much damage it could do and that it was almost impossible for him to save Jim’s life if he really got impaled on that thing here.

“Spock,” he hissed, wordlessly begging the First Officer to do something, to save the Captain, but before either of them could do as much as get to their feet, one of the Asgardians at the table closest to where Jim was sitting now had jumped between the spear and Kirk, as if he wanted to stop it with his bare hands.

“Halt!” The Asgardian bellowed, and even Bones knew that this was an act of rebellion that would likely get punished by Odin Allfather. He was the sole ruler of this planet, and reports indicated that he didn’t show mercy to people who dared to go up against him.

Two humanoids had jumped to their feet as well, and although they looked decidedly un-Asgardian, they both carried the same kind of archaic weapons. One of them held a round shield, the other one was armed with a bow.

Bones’ fingers itched for a laser scalpel or a phaser, but of course he carried neither.

The tension in the hall grew thicker and thicker as Odin directed his one-eyed stare at the Asgardian who had dared to step between him and Jim.

“Thor,” he said, his voice dark, “How dare you!”

Bones willed Jim to move, to turn and leave, or at least put a little distance between himself and the woman. He was betting the woman was Odin Allfather’s daughter or niece or something and that Jim had managed to piss the king off with his flirting. It wasn’t the first time that had happened. During their days at the academy, Jim had pulled the same stunt with the daughter of an Admiral and had barely managed to escape unscathed.

“Father, I beg you,” Thor said, his clear voice carrying across the hall easily enough. “This man has done nothing wrong, and he bears no ill will toward the fair Lady Freya.”

“Excuse me, sir, I don’t think...” Jim started, but neither Thor nor Odin paid attention to him.

“This man has taken my hospitality and is disrespecting me within my own house,” Odin pointed out, his voice thundering across the hall. “Why should I spare his life?”

Bones’ breath caught in his throat, and Spock gave him a long look that told him to prepare to run for his life while Spock would get Jim.

“For me, father.” Thor was still pleading with his father, and Spock started to move on silent, quick feet, to get close to Jim.

Human strength could never hold up to that of an Asgardian, but a Vulcan, Bones knew, might have a chance. In addition to being strong enough to carry Jim if necessary, Spock was a damn computer, able to analyse an opponent’s moves and counter them without even breaking a sweat.

“Tell me, Thor, what is your interest in this creature?” Derision dripped from Odin’s voice, and Bones watched as both Jim and Thor straightened and squared their shoulders. He felt queasy, sick to his stomach about the prospect of losing Jim during a diplomatic mission of all things, and it added to the feeling of helplessness that threatened to paralyze him.

During an emergency, when there were injured people to take care of, Bones was the epitome of control. He knew exactly what to do, and he never hesitated to do what had to be done. But this was so far out of his comfort zone he didn’t even know which way to turn.

“All I ask of you is a chance to prove to you, Father, that this man meant no harm and carries no ill will toward Asgard and its people,” Thor said, a pleading note to his voice. “Let me prove this to you.”

“And you know the intention of this mortal?” Odin boomed out loud enough to make several people in the hall flinch.

Not Thor. He stood tall and proud, his head unbowed, as he said, “I do, Father, for this man is my son.”

After that, chaos broke out, and Bones managed to break his paralysis for long enough to fight his way to Jim’s side.

If Odin was surprised by Thor’s announcement, Jim seemed shocked to the point of irrational anger. It was something that didn’t seem possible, but Bones knew his friend well enough to know how he would react to the news. Spock, who appeared on Jim’s other side, appearing cool and unaffected, knew as well, and while he didn’t reach out for Jim, he stood close enough to offer support and protection when needed.

~~

“You, sir, are not my father.”

Jim’s voice was firm and unwavering, and Thor’s heart broke a little in his chest at the stubborn expression in his son’s face. Jim had that from his mother, and in this moment, he reminded Thor of the woman he’d fallen in love with - the woman he would fall in love with many years in the future, when Odin would banish him from Asgard for a second time because he couldn’t stand Thor’s moping anymore.

He ached to reach out for the man his son had become, a son he’d not seen grown up, never had held in his arms as a babe. A son he’d last encountered in the belly of his mother, kicking cheerfully at Thor’s hands which had been carefully wrapped around Winona’s middle. At the same time, he knew that such a gesture would go unappreciated, would even be considered an attack.

He did not wish to alienate his son more than he already had. The rift between them seemed unbreachable, and Thor found himself overwhelmed by a wave of grief and regret.

He’d never wanted to leave his family behind, but he had done what he needed to, to make sure they were safe from Nero.

“Jim...” Dr. McCoy said in a low, warning tone, but Jim didn’t pay attention to his friend. His eyes bore into Thor’s, his posture remained stiff and unwelcoming.

“My father,” he said, his voice growing louder, “was a hero who died protecting his crew, not a coward.”

Thor flinched at the insult, but he remained silent and passive, no matter how much he wanted to protest and explain himself to his son.

His son, whose words pierced Thor’s heart like his brother’s daggers had pierced his flesh during their last fight.

“I neither want, nor need, your help in this matter,” Jim spat now, and Thor could see him seething under the thin veneer of calm, could see how much he was struggling to keep himself under control. “Good day.”

And with that, he turned on his heel and left the chamber they had fled to after Odin had graciously allowed Thor to remove Jim from the great hall and his presence.

“That went well,” Tony said quietly. He was sitting at the long wooden table, together with the rest of the Avengers and Jim’s companions, and slowly sipped from a cup of wine.

“As well as it could be expected,” McCoy grumbled, his shoulders slumped slightly.

Tony shrugged. “Better than expected,” he insisted. “Nobody died or got impaled. In my book, that’s good.” He stood and made a show of stretching slowly. Thor saw that he’d rigged some pieces of his Iron Man suit to his attire, wearing the gloves. He could see thick cables lead from his wrists to his chest, hidden by the fine material of his shirt but still not invisible.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked him, and Tony grimaced and nodded toward the same exit Jim had taken.

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t go back into the lion’s cave,” he explained with a reassuring grin in McCoy’s direction. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to him.”

McCoy seemed for a moment as if he wanted to protest, but a look from Spock made him settle down. He did so with a deep frown on his face, but he accepted the cup of herbal tea Bruce handed him and even managed to thank him.

Thor sighed heavily.

The task set before him was getting more and more difficult with every turn and twist it took.

~~

“Hey.” Tony leaned against the wall and carefully arranged his hands. He’d made the decision to fashion himself removable gauntlets for the suit, and considering what had happened in the great hall, he was glad he had done so, even if it prevented him from pushing his hands into the pockets of his pants now.

James Kirk didn’t turn around. “If you’re here to convince me to let him help me, you can save your breath,” he said bitterly.

Tony shrugged. “Actually, I’m not here to convince you to do anything. I let your buddies do that - they know you better, they know where to pry. Although, I guess if we talk a little, I could get a pretty good idea.”

Jim snorted. “What are you doing here, then? Telling me what a good guy Thor is?”

“Would you believe me?” Tony asked him and settled a little more comfortably against the wall. “Because I’m guessing no.”

“Probably not,” Jim admitted before sighing. “Are you going to tell me why you’re here?”

“Look, I’m the last person to tell you how to get along with your dad, although Thor really is a cool guy once you got used to him and his...Asgardian-ness.” He shrugged. “I’m just here to keep you away from your grandpa until the others have decided how to convince you to agree to let us help you.”

“Why would you want to help me? You don’t even know me.”

“True,” Tony admitted. “But Thor asked us for help, and the big guy rarely does so. I mean, not when it’s really important. Small things, like explaining the microwave, yes, but the big things, the important stuff? No.”

“He doesn’t know me either.”

“Maybe not.” Tony fell silent. He didn’t know what he could tell Jim Kirk to make him accept the help they were offering, because every single argument he could think of reminded him of his own father.

He had told Kirk the Avengers would help him because Thor was their friend, but it only reminded him that Obadiah had been Howard’s friend, as well, and suddenly, that particular argument lost all of its appeal and power and left a taste of ash and despair in his mouth.

“I certainly understand being angry at your father,” he said instead. “I didn’t have the best relationship with mine, either. The happiest day of his life was when he shipped me off to boarding school.”

“At least he was there,” Jim pointed out.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Not really. Plus, Thor had a damn good reason, being technically dead and stuff.”

“But he’s not dead.”

“Yeah, that’s confusing.” Tony shrugged. “He’s not a bad guy. Now, your uncle Loki on the other hand...you better keep away from him.” He shuddered.

“Thanks,” Jim said dryly. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He sighed. “I did fine without him, you know?” he said then. “I don’t need him now.”

“Maybe not,” Tony agreed. “But why risk getting turned into a shashlik if cooperating with us can possibly prevent it? You don’t need to invite him to every Thanksgiving and Christmas after that, you know. If you tell the big guy you need space, he’ll give it to you. He’s like a puppy, he’d do anything for you, I guess.”

With that, he fell silent again, giving Jim time to think, but he made sure they weren’t disturbed by anyone.

“I guess it would’ve been nice, having him around while growing up,” Jim said after a long moment.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed quietly, thinking about his own father. “It would.” He tilted his head to the side. “He loves you. You have that, at least.”

A shuffle of feet made both of them look up, just in time to see McCoy roll his eyes and mutter “Unbelievable.”

“Fascinating, indeed,” Spock added as he took a step into the room, pushing past McCoy. “Captain, I assume you are not averse to some support in this situation.”

Jim sighed and fell down onto a wooden bench.

“Damn you, you stubborn...” McCoy stopped himself and took a deep breath. “Listen to me, kid,” he said as he marched over to the table and sat down next to his friend. “I’m not leaving you on this planet, you hear me? If that means you have to get over yourself, you will, even if I have to drag you, kicking and screaming.”

“The good doctor has a point,” Spock added quietly, and Tony bit his lip to hold his grin back and left.

This, he felt, was between the three of them.

~~

Sandwiched between Spock and McCoy and soaking in their body heat, Jim felt protected and mellow in a way he hadn’t for long weeks. He suddenly and acutely became aware of the tension that had accumulated across his shoulders and back, and for a brief moment, all he wanted to do was to lean against Bones’ shoulder and close his eyes.

“Jim,” Bones continued, his voice gruff and pleading. “If not for yourself, for me. For us. Please. Let the guy help you.”

“I would very much agree to the good Doctor’s plan,” Spock added, and Jim felt a warm, familiar hand briefly touch the small of his back.

It was the touch that made him slump and give in, despite the fact that he knew it had been calculated in order to make him compliant with their wishes. They knew about this weakness, and they rarely took advantage of it, and when they did, he was defenseless against it.

“Okay, okay,” he grumbled. “Tell them they can do whatever they want. But I’m not talking to him about his ridiculous claims.”

He didn’t see it, but he was very sure Bones was rolling his eyes.

~~

“Okay.” Bruce leaned his hip against the heavy wooden table and crossed his arms over his chest. “That doesn’t make sense. How can your son be here when he’s not born yet?”

“Don’t try to understand,” Tony called out from the door. “You’ll only get your brain knotted up.”

Bruce frowned, but he didn’t look away from Thor, who looked back at him helplessly. “I do not know how to explain it,” he admitted. “The power my father possesses is not easily understood.”

“I’d say,” Tony pointed out as he pushed off the doorjamb and moved into the room. “If you ask me, he’s somehow capable of bending space, time, and the laws of physics, improbable as it seems to be for us mere mortals.”

“The really interesting question is, can we cause any damage to the space-time-continuum if we agree to help out here?” Bruce mused, tapping his fingers thoughtfully against his chin.

“The grandfather paradox?” Tony asked and frowned. “We should be safe, I think, especially if we are meant to help him.”

“I don’t know how comfortable I am with the idea of a deterministic future,” Bruce muttered. “No free will.”

“Just the illusion.” Tony grimaced. “Not my favourite line of thinking either.”

Thor gave both of them a confused look. “What are you talking about, friends?” he asked. “Your lives are free. Your will is free. My father has a lot of power, but not that much.” He looked away, a shadow quickly crossing over his face. “Do you not think he would have prevented Loki from growing so angry at his family?”

“Not if it’s deterministic and not even Odin can influence it.”

“What’s the use in worrying about it?” Steve asked from his spot at the table. “If it is deterministic, then there is nothing we can do.” He straightened. “I think the really interesting question is, how are we going to help Thor’s kid? If he comes around.”

“I know that he has been influenced to act in this way,” Thor insisted darkly.

“How do you prove that?” Clint tossed in. “I mean, you can’t go into his head and pull out the truth.” His fingers clenched against the edge of the table.

The Avengers fell silent as they thought the problem through.

“Actually,” Bruce said after a long moment, his voice carefully soft, “there might be a way to go into his head and pull out the truth.” He fidgeted slightly and took off his glasses to rub them against the hem of his shirt.

“No.” Clint’s voice was hard and gave no room for arguments. “We don’t do that.”

“I’m not suggesting we use the scepter.” Bruce shook his head. “There’s another way.” He slipped his glasses back on and turned to look directly at Clint. “It’s called extraction.”

Natasha leaned slightly into Clint. “That could work, theoretically,” she mused. “It’s just illegal, and there is no way we could get a PASIV out here.”

“Not to mention that you probably won’t get access to one in the first place,” Clint muttered defiantly. His shoulders were still tense under his jacket, but he didn’t look as if he wanted to bolt at any second.

“Wait, a what?” Steve asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Extraction.” Natasha tilted her head to the side. “Shared dreaming. To go into a person’s dreams, their subconsciousness, and find information hidden there.”

Steve blinked. “I shouldn’t be surprised that’s possible,” he said slowly.

“It is illegal,” Clint repeated. “And there is no way to get access to a PASIV, or a skilled extractor - not that you couldn’t do the job, Tash. It would still be better to let a professional do this. I’ve seen you work.”

Natasha smiled faintly at that, but she nodded. “I agree with Clint,” she said. “Finding someone is next to impossible, unless you know where to look. And I’m sure we can find and follow a few leads, but there is no guarantee something will turn up quick enough to help Kirk.”

“What if you have a few very concrete leads?” Bruce asked. His voice was still quiet and controlled, but Natasha still narrowed her eyes at him.

“We still would need to go back to Earth to check them out,” Clint said. “And no matter how concrete these leads are, those guys are professionals. It’s hard to pin them down. You don’t want to know how long Coulson tried to get to Cobb before...” He trailed off. “It’s hard to find them, and harder to get them to agree to work with SHIELD.”

“What is a PASIV?” Steve asked, and Natasha and Clint exchanged a brief glance. Before either of them could start to explain, Bruce started to talk.

“The PASIV device is used to administer the drug Somnacin to the dreamers,” he explained. “To enable shared and lucid dreaming.”

Steve turned toward Tony. “Can you build it?”

Tony gave a short and unamused laugh. “Sure, if I know what I’m doing.” He shook his head. “Not like this.”

“Fine.” Steve turned toward Natasha and Clint. “How quickly can you track down one of these?”

She shrugged. “Hard to say,” she admitted. “With SHIELD’s help? Maybe as quick as in four, five weeks.”

“That is too long,” Thor protested. “We need this device now.”

Natasha shrugged. There was nothing she could say or do to speed the process up, no matter how much she wanted to.

Bruce coughed politely. “I may be able to help out with that,” he said. “I know someone who probably knows someone.”

Clint frowned. “How?”

“Um...” Bruce glanced down, at the tips of his shoes. “I had a few times when I took some side jobs, mixing compounds for dreaming, when I needed money, quick.” He ran a hand through his curls. “If I can go back to Earth, Thor, I can make a few calls and probably get us a PASIV, or at least a lead.”

Steve nodded. “Do that,” he decided. “Natasha, Clint, you go with him. Try to be back as quickly as possible. Thor, can you talk to Heimdall, make sure they get there and back in one piece?”

“Certainly.” Thor jumped to his feet. “I shall speak to him immediately.”

~~

“The Captain gladly accepts your help in this matter.” It was Spock who returned to the main chamber to deliver the message to the assembled Avengers. He didn’t show a single emotion, unlike Thor, whose emotions were written plainly across his face. The contrast was, Tony thought from his spot in the corner, fascinating. Both men were utterly alien, but at least Spock looked the part, with his eyebrows and his pointed ears and his stoic behavior.

“Glad to hear that,” Steve replied when Thor could only nod silently. “We’re glad he decided this way.”

Spock tilted his head toward Steve in acknowledgement. “However, he requests that Mr. Odinson does not press the issue of their relationship.”

Steve stood and wrapped his hand around Thor’s elbow. “Mr. Odinson takes his...kinship with your Captain very seriously,” he pointed out. Tony noticed how Steve’s pattern of speech became more formal as he talked to the alien, and it made him grin in amusement. “But we will do our best to avoid making Captain Kirk uncomfortable in our presence.”

“Aye,” Thor agreed slowly. “If that is what he wishes, it shall be so.”

Spock again gave a brief tilt of his head. “Your cooperation in the matter is appreciated,” he said. “The Captain inquires as to what your further plans are.”

“Maybe the Captain should come in so we can plan properly?” Tony spoke up. “It’s his ass that’s on the line, after all.”

Spock raised a silent eyebrow, and Tony copied him, trying and failing to feel judged by him.

“Tony’s right,” Steve hastily said. “We all should sit down together and find a way out of this mess.”

Spock nodded. “Very well,” he decided. “We will...sit down together and find a solution to this situation.”

~~

Travelling via Bifrost, Bruce thought, was approximately how he imagined being picked up by a hurricane must feel.

It rattled him to his bones, Hulk close to the surface and ready to come out at the slightest provocation. His shirt clung damply to his skin, and he shivered slightly in the cool night air as he took a moment to orient himself.

He was standing in the middle of what he recognized as the landing circle of the Bifrost, the intricate patterns scorched into dry desert ground.

“New Mexico,” Clint murmured behind Bruce, disgust audible in his voice. “What is it with these guys and New Mexico, every single time?”

Bruce didn’t pay much attention to his muttering. He was still trying to soothe Hulk, knowing all too well that there wasn’t any time to waste on him losing control.

It seemed ironic, he thought randomly, that they didn’t have time when the very concept of time seemed so malleable to the Asgardians. Bruce still had trouble wrapping his mind around everything he’d observed and experienced while in Odin’s Hall, but right now was not the time to try and figure it out.

He looked up with new determination and realized that Clint had come much closer to him while Natasha hadn’t moved much but had angled her body away from him. It was their way of closing rank around him when they realized he was struggling with Hulk, and he felt a wave of affection run through him. It did wonders to subdue Hulk.

“You good?” Clint asked him quietly, and Bruce managed a small, tired smile.

“I’m fine,” he replied. “Good enough to do this.” He rubbed his hands together and took a deep, cleansing breath.

The truth was that he wasn’t good. He was constantly struggling, not just with Hulk but with himself as well. It left him feel bitter and angry and made living with Hulk even more complicated.

There were things in his past, things he’d done, that he wasn’t proud of and that he would change or fix in a heartbeat if he just had the chance; things he’d learned to live with because there wasn’t any way to fix them anymore.

His brief stint in the world of chemists and mental espionage was one thing he wasn’t proud of. He had been on the run, and he had needed money. The only two options he’d seen at that time had been either to turn to prostitution or to crime, and since Hulk pretty much eliminated the first option, crime had been the only solution he’d seen.

Stumbling onto dreamsharing had been an accident, and in hindsight, it was almost impossible for him to recount how exactly it had happened.

Since Bruce usually didn’t remember much of what happened when he hulked out, he had had to get used to big holes in his memories, and he was usually good at not letting it faze him anymore. What he remembered was waking up in the backroom of a little, cluttered office somewhere in Asia, the backroom of a dreamsharing den. The owner of the establishment, an old, bowed man with silvery hair, had slowly and patiently nursed him back to health and had introduced him to dreamsharing and the various somnacin-compounds he was cooking up.

Bruce had started to get involved only gradually, out of curiosity and a sense of obligation, but by the time General Ross had caught up with him and Bruce had had to leave, he’d met several of the extractors and had managed to develop a new compound as well.

It was one of those extractors he needed to contact now, and he had no idea how to do that.

“Bruce?” Natasha asked, her low voice cutting through his thoughts and quickly bringing him back from his memories.

“Yeah, I’m good.” He took another deep breath. “I have a few names I think we need to check out.”

Natasha grinned, her teeth a bright gleam in the darkness, and held up her cell phone. “SHIELD’s databases are at our disposal.”

~~

From there on, Bruce was swept up in a whirlwind of activity as SHIELD’s resources tracked down the extractor whose name he remembered, and Bruce got a phone number from him that led him to Japan, then to Kenya, and finally to London, England.

Either Clint or Natasha was always by his side, a steady, quiet presence that helped him keep control of Hulk as he chased down a man he hadn’t seen in a lot of years, maybe even a decade.

“I don’t even know if I would recognize him when I see him,” he muttered, and Clint gave a brief chuckle and brushed his elbow against Bruce’s.

“Relax, you’re gonna be fine,” he replied, and Bruce found himself, against all odds, actually relaxing slightly.

“Let’s do this,” Clint decided, and Bruce pushed the doors to the little cafe open with slightly more force than necessary.

He’d met the man he was about to meet only once, briefly, when he’d come into the chemist’s shop together with the extractor, but to his relief, when he looked around the room, his eyes were drawn to the table in the corner.

The man sitting there was dressed in a suit, his dark hair was carefully slicked back, and he seemed focused on the newspaper he was holding. A cup of coffee was cooling next to his elbow.

Bruce stepped up and coughed politely. Sharp eyes flickered up, but Bruce knew immediately that he’d been seen the second he stepped into the cafe.

“Arthur,” he greeted politely, and Arthur put down the newspaper and nodded toward the chair opposite him.

“Bruce,” he replied. “Imagine my surprise when Cobb called me and asked me to meet you. I thought you’d died in that fire.”

Bruce grimaced. “I managed to get away at the last second. Had to lay low for a long while,” he murmured. Remembering the flames licking at him always made him feel queasy. He was sure that it had been an accident - General Ross had been very clear on the fact that he wanted Bruce alive, to study him - but the lab had been full of volatile chemicals needed to compose the somnacin-compounds necessary for dreamsharing.

As far as he knew, Bruce was the only survivor of that night, but he hadn’t exactly stuck around to find out if anyone else had made it. He’d fled, as quickly and as far as he had been able to.

“Cobb said you need help,” Arthur said. He sounded calm, but Bruce still could hear an edge to his voice. Arthur was uncomfortable with Cobb getting involved, and from what Bruce had learned in the past few days, he could relate. “How did you manage to track him down?”

“I had help.” Bruce inhaled sharply. How much could he tell this man? How much was too much and made Arthur decide not to help him?

“SHIELD.” Arthur nodded and looked at him calmly, watching him like a hawk.

Bruce smiled slightly. “Yes,” he agreed easily. “SHIELD.”

Arthur nodded again. “I’m willing to hear you out,” he said, “because Dom asked me to. If I don’t like what you’re saying, or what you’re not saying, I get up and leave, and you won’t find me again.”

“I’m sure of that,” Bruce muttered. “Okay.”

Arthur nodded. “Then tell me what’s going on.”

~~

“Arthur.” Eames’ voice was tinny over the cell phone connection, but he still sounded surprised to hear from Arthur. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”

“I just had a very interesting job offer,” Arthur said and glanced out of the window of his hotel room. He hadn’t seen anyone follow him, but there was this itch under his skin that told him he was being watched.

“Oh?” Eames asked. “What?”

“Extraction, in a way. We’re supposed to find out if someone’s been messing with this guy’s mind.” Arthur waited a few heartbeats. “You in?”

“You got more information about it?” Eames cautiously asked. “This isn’t like you.”

“Dom asked.” Arthur tapped his fingertips against the smooth case of the PASIV. “And this guy I talked to, he was backed by SHIELD.”

“The government?” Eames allowed surprise to color his voice. “Arthur...”

“I know,” Arthur interrupted him. “But this is a one-time chance, Eames. Something different. A new challenge.” He waited for a few moments. “Do I need to find another forger?”

~~

Hawkeye moved on silent feet across the roof and slid down the fire escape without making a single sound. He waited, crouched low, for a moment, but nobody had seen him.

Casually flipping up his collar, he joined the people mingling in the street. He looked, for all intents and purposes, like one of them, a man weary after a long day of work and on his way home to a small flat.

The phone in his pocket vibrated quietly, and he accepted the call with a quick swipe of his thumb across the screen after checking the caller ID.

“How’s Brazil?” he said by way of greeting.

“Hot,” Natasha immediately replied, but without elaborating. “How’s London?”

“He made a call,” he reported, “but he’s definitely in. What about your side?”

“Oh, Mr. Eames definitely received a call,” Natasha purred into his ear. “He had some doubts, but I managed to persuade him that joining Arthur on this trip would be the best course of action.”

Clint’s lips twitched into a brief, mirthless smile. “Good,” he simply said. “I see you in New Mexico.”

It had been Natasha’s idea to split up as soon as they realized that the two criminals known as Arthur and Eames had done the same. Clint had gone to London with Bruce and Natasha had tracked Eames, a talented thief and forger, down to Brazil.

“I don’t think they are going to call the girl,” Natasha said now. “It looks as if they are determined to keep her out of this, for whatever reason.”

“She’s in Los Angeles, with Cobb,” Clint told her. “Just got the info from Hill. If we need her, we can pick her up.”

“Let’s see what our dreamthieves do,” she replied. “See you later.” And with that, she cut the connection.

Clint entered the hotel through the front door and nodded politely at the staff. He took the stairs to their floor and knocked twice before entering the room he and Bruce were sharing.

Bruce was sitting crosslegged on one of the beds, his phone next to his knee. “He said he’s in and that he’s assembling a team,” he reported without opening his eyes. “Knowing Arthur, he’ll be ready to meet us in New Mexico in a few days.”

Clint nodded and shrugged out of his jacket. “Good,” he simply said. “I just hope that’s enough time for Thor’s kid.”

~~

Leonard McCoy considered James T. Kirk his friend, and he considered himself Jim’s friend since the day they had met on a shuttle. He hadn’t been looking for a friend then, only for an escape from the hell his divorce had become.

Jim hadn’t cared. He’d been there for Leonard, a steadfast presence by his side, and he hadn’t turned his back on him when Leonard had moped, when he’d struggled or when he’d sunk into a depression about not being allowed to see his little girl on her birthday or for Christmas.

Jim had always been there for him. He’d drunk with him, he’d dragged him out to the cadet’s parties, and he’d studied with him, or at least parallel to him. Jim understood when Leonard didn’t want to go to the bar because of a test the next morning. It didn’t always mean he stayed home as well, because Jim was one of those people that never needed to spend much time studying. He was disgustingly smart, but he never tried to get between his friends and their own studies.

He was a good friend, a supportive friend, and Leonard hoped that the same could be said about him.

Over time, they had become so much more than simply friends, and it drove him crazy; to be kept at arm’s length by Jim. He didn’t know why Jim was so hung up on this girl, Freya, that he risked the Enterprise’s mission and Odin’s wrath just to flirt with her, and Jim didn’t tell him.

Unlike Jim, Leonard didn’t make friends easily. he got on well with the staff of his sickbay, but he still preferred to spend his free time on the bridge, where Jim was - Jim and Spock and him, they had gotten close over the months in space, far away from home, and through the adventures and missions they had shared and survived together.

And now, Jim was in trouble, and it was as if he didn’t even realize it. It wasn’t like him; not at all. Jim could be as charming and as charismatic as any smart Starfleet diplomat, and it was baffling to see him risk the mission just because of a woman he’d barely met.

Of course Jim also had the reputation of a playboy, and Leonard was the first one to admit that this reputation was rooted firmly in the truth. He’d seen Jim bring home his fair share of bedpartners. Male, female, human, alien, Jim didn’t discriminate as long as a good time was had by everybody involved.

And yet, he’d never gone this far.

Leonard had no clue whatsoever what had possessed him.

And then, Thor, son of Odin Allfather, had gone ahead and had claimed that Jim was his son.

That he was Jim’s father.

That he was George Kirk, the hero of the Kelvin, the man who had died to save his crew and his family.

Jim never talked much about his family. Leonard knew, of course, the stories about George Kirk, and he’d met Commodore Winona Kirk once, briefly, when she’d been at the academy for a committee meeting and had picked her son up for lunch, to catch up.

Jim had obviously never met his father, and his relationship to his mother wasn’t close. There was no doubt for Leonard that Jim loved his mother, but he loved her in a fierce, abstract way of a child who had never spent a lot of time with their parent.

As far as Leonard knew, Jim had been raised by his grandparents and later by his stepfather Frank, who had struggled with the bright, stubborn kid Jim had been.

Leonard didn’t know what to make of Thor’s claims, and judging by his behavior, neither did Jim himself. He acted as if Thor was cornering him and attacking him; his behavior very similar to that he had shown on his first meeting with Spock.

As if the Vulcan had been attracted by Leonard’s thoughts, he appeared in the room and silently sat down at the table with him.

“He asleep?” Leonard asked gruffly, and Spock tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow while his hand crept over the table, closer to to Leonard’s.

Leonard sighed. “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

“Considering the circumstances, it is of little surprise the Captain doesn’t find rest. Perhaps a mild sedative could get administered, Doctor.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Leonard frowned and moved his own hand, until his fingers barely brushed against Spock’s.

The relationship they shared was still weird, a surprise and unexpected, and he couldn’t help the small thrill that ran along his spine when his fingers touched Spock’s in a gesture that seemed innocent and was everything but. They had agreed to be discreet, not to indulge when on duty, but Leonard was stressed and he craved some of Spock’s calmness to soothe his troubled mind.

The Vulcan apparently picked up on the turmoil that raged in him, because he didn’t remove his hand, but tightened his grip carefully. “Leonard,” he murmured. “To borrow one of the Captain’s favourite phrases, it will be okay.”

Leonard snorted. “You sure about that?” he asked, but he didn’t wait for an answer and straightened. “You’re right, Jim’s a grown man, he knows what he’s doing. Right?”

“Right,” Spock agreed, but he kept looking at Leonard’s face as if he could read it like an open book. Maybe he could, and maybe Leonard wasn’t as good at hiding the betrayal and jealousy he felt as he thought he was.

The sound of footsteps hurrying closer made him pull back his hand reluctantly, and by the time Tony Stark burst into the room, Spock and he were not even looking at each other.

“You might want to come,” Stark panted. “Odin just walked in on Freya and your Captain making out.”

~~

“Whoa.” Eames stumbled slightly and blinked rapidly. “That was different.”

Barton gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Welcome to Asgard, I guess,” he said while reaching out a steadying hand to Dr. Banner. “And thank you for travelling by Bifrost.”

Eames grinned, amused despite himself, and took a moment to look around.

The lovely Miss Romanoff had already briefed him and Arthur about the fact that they would be travelling to another realm for this job, but she hadn’t mentioned that it would be such a dizzying experience and that Asgard, the planet on which they had arrived, was so utterly alien.

Eames still had his doubts about taking this job, and he would have preferred it very much to sit it out, no matter how determined Arthur had been to take it. He and Arthur weren’t joined at the hip, not unless they decided to stick with each other for a while, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to spend large parts of the year apart.

It made their reunions so much more exciting, almost explosive.

Still, Eames was aware that Arthur had considered going back to the straight and narrow after Cobb had returned to his children, that he’d grown weary of the illegal side of dreamsharing. Arthur hadn’t bothered to hide his feelings from him. He rarely did, nowadays, or maybe Eames had just gotten better at reading him.

And if this was a trap, there was no way he would let Arthur walk into it without backup.

It was the main reason why they had elected not to involve Ariadne or any of their other acquaintances. There was no need to get them involved. Arthur could build, maybe not as well as an architect, but it would suffice, and Eames could take over the job of an extractor.

The glint of gold pulled his attention to the armed man who silently stood off to the side, a long and wicked looking sword held in his hands. His skin was dark and his face was expressionless. Next to him stood Thor, the God of thunder, a deep frown marring his face.

Eames recognized Thor from the reports about the alien attack on Manhattan, but he was the first to admit that from up close, Thor looked even more impressive than he had on the screen of his TV. His hammer, dangling from his belt, looked even heavier than he had imagined, and the cape covering his back had an even darker, lusher shade of red.

He’d snorted in amusement when the agent that had managed to find Arthur had armed himself with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, but considering where they were right now, the laughter died right in his throat.

“My friends,” Thor intoned. “Your return is timely, and more than welcome.”

“I take it things aren’t going so well here,” Natasha said with a quick glance at her partner.

“Unfortunately not,” Thor admitted gravely. “Our fortune has taken a turn to the worse. There has been…an incident.”

“What kind of incident?” Barton wanted to know at the same time as Dr. Banner asked, “Thor, what happened?”

“Freya.” Thor shook his head and turned, silently inviting them to follow him. “She sought out my son and stirred the displeasure of my father. Odin incarcerated our friends in the deepest cells on Asgard.”

“Okay.” Natasha tilted her head slightly to the side. “So what do we do now?”

~~

The appropriate course of action, it seemed, was to seek an audience with Odin Allfather and hope that he’d allow them to see the prisoners, to prove the innocence of Thor’s son and to find out whether his mind had been tampered with. In the meantime, Eames and Arthur were ushered into Thor’s private rooms, and food and drinks were served.

“This is definitely not what I imagined when I thought about visiting alien planets,” Eames said once they were alone, a small smirk playing around his lips.

Arthur simply sighed and selected a piece of fruit from the plate on the table.

~~

“Pure strength alone will not get us out of this cell,” Spock stated after careful examination of the thick iron bars surrounding them.

“At least not the strength we have,” Steve agreed. “I see no locking mechanism…at least none I can identify.”

“Affirmative.” Spock’s fingers ran carefully along the bottom of the bars. “Considering the technological advancement of the Asgardians, a forcefield seems the most likely.” He tilted his head to the side and inspected the cell before he reached out and tried to find out if there was a forcefield he could feel.

From his spot on the straw-covered cot in the corner, McCoy made a faint noise of alarm. “What if this hypothetical forcefield is not as hypothetical as you think it is and uses lethal strength, you moron?” he growled.

To Tony, who was crouched in the opposite corner and who was also inspecting the bars, it sounded as if McCoy had wanted to say something different, but since it wasn’t relevant to their escaping attempts, he dropped the thought and ignored it.

“Doctor,” Spock replied patiently, “There is no indicator that Odin Allfather wants to harm us.”

“Only Jimmyboy here,” Tony pointed out. “At least that’s how I interpreted the spear he was swinging around.” He sighed and straightened slightly. It was too dark in the little cell to see a lot…

His fingers tapped without conscious decision against his chest. He’d pulled on a thick sweater before coming to Asgard, trying to hide the reactor from view as much as possible. It wasn’t well-known, not even on Earth, how tightly the reactor was wired into his ribcage, how deep it reached into his chest and how vulnerable he was due to it.

Right now, he needed the light to see, and he didn’t hesitate before stripping off his sweater, pulling up his t-shirt and letting the cold blue light of the reactor fall onto the spot where the metal bars disappeared in the ground.

“What are you doing?” Steve cautiously asked from behind him. Tony turned around and released the edge of the shirt he’d clamped between his teeth.

“We somehow got into this cage,” he explained. “So there has to be a mechanism to open it. I agree with Link here - some kind of invisible force field we can’t detect seems likely, but even then, the bars have to be moved somehow.”

“What is that in your chest?” McCoy asked without showing any interest to what Tony had just said, and Tony grinned.

“That, my friend,” he said, his fingers automatically reaching up to tap against the glass again, “is a miniaturized arc reactor. My greatest invention, if I say so myself.”

“What’s it doing in your chest?” Jim wanted to know.

“Uh...mostly keeping me alive,” Tony replied without missing a beat before turning back to the bars of the cage. “Right now, it serves as an awesome nightlight.”

He still heard the muttered “barbaric” McCoy couldn’t hold back, despite Kirk’s obvious attempts of shushing him.

He chose to ignore it. Future or not, his arc reactor was not barbaric, and McCoy didn’t know what he was talking about.

~~

“My father has agreed on letting me talk to you,” Thor announced as he stepped up to the cage. “He is not willing to let you out just yet.” He bowed his head slightly. “We are, indeed, working on this problem.”

“Thor,” Steve said, his voice low and firm. “We didn’t do anything, why are we in this cell?”

“My father decreed so,” Thor replied. “I do not know his reasons, friend Steve. I apologize for the discomfort and I assure you that I never meant any harm to you.”

“We’re not harmed, Thor,” Tony pointed out, his voice pitched surprisingly gentle. “Right, guys? We’re just peachy in here.” He shrugged slightly. “We’d be glad if you could bake a file into a loaf of bread and smuggle it in here, but don’t worry about us, Big Guy.”

“Indeed,” Spock agreed after a quick glance at the members of his team. “We are unharmed.”

Thor’s gaze shifted until it fell onto Kirk. “What about you?” he asked. “Has my father harmed you?”

Jim suddenly found himself the center of attention, a place he usually cherished. Right now, it almost made him squirm.

“He has not,” he said and stepped closer to the bars.

Eyes similar to those he saw every morning in the mirror regarded him calmly. Jim still instinctively rebelled against the thought that this guy was his father, that Thor was George Kirk and that he had abandoned him and his mother, but he couldn’t deny that there was some sort of instant connection between them.

Maybe it wasn’t the bond between a father and a son, but they recognized each other as fighters.

“These guys have nothing to do with the situation,” he said, as calmly as he could while keeping eye contact with Thor. “They shouldn’t be in here. Can’t you ask your father to release them? They did nothing wrong.”

It was his fault, his alone, that they were locked up, and he still couldn’t explain what it was about Freya that had pulled him in so much. Sure, she was a beautiful woman, but Jim had met many of those before and had never felt like this.

“I am aware,” Thor replied, interrupting Jim’s thoughts. “My father, however, is in contemplation of sending all of you to Niflheim, to be rid of an unfortunate situation. I am pleading with him, and Hawkeye, Widow and Dr. Banner have brought help from Earth.”

“What kind of help?” McCoy asked suspiciously. He’d stepped close to Jim’s elbow, as if he wanted to make a point. Knowing Bones, Jim thought fondly, he did, and knowing Bones, he would stay there until they dragged him away.

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that point.

“The kind of help that hopefully will get us out of here,” Tony cut in.

Steve nodded and added, “Together. All of us. We won’t leave anyone behind.”

“Very well,” Thor agreed. “I shall attempt to talk to my father again.”

~~

As much as Thor tried to keep his chin up, a curious expression he’d overheard on many occasions while wandering on Earth, he couldn’t combat the dark cloud of doubt and fear that threatened to overwhelm him as he waited patiently for his father to deign him a moment of his time.

The situation seemed dark, and while Thor still had a few options he liked to keep open, Odin’s own admission that he contemplated sending the offending humans to Niflheim worried him.

His father was not an unjust man. He was a good ruler of Asgard, and Thor strived to make him proud and follow his examples. Odin was a beloved ruler, as well.

And yet, he had a blind spot regarding Freya, the leader of the Valkyries. In Odin’s eye, she could do little wrong, and the blame for their current situation was squarely placed upon James Kirk’s shoulders.

Thor had not been given an opportunity to interact with his son. He hadn’t even held him as a tiny babe. Instead, he had given his mortal life to protect his wife and his infant son and had to content himself with watching him from afar, relying on his own mother to find out how James was faring.

No father wanted to keep a distance like Thor had been forced to do, and he hoped fervently that one day, he would get the chance of seeing his offspring grow up, teach them how to be brave in battle, and how to curb their pride and become good people.

He hadn’t been given this chance with James. Everything James had become, he had done so by himself and without the helping and guiding hand of a father.

And now, with the tiny babe he’d given his life for already in his adulthood, Thor had been given the chance to step in and reveal himself as a parent, only because some dark forces were trying to harm his son.

Thor had never had the chance to be a father to the boy, but now he could do his fatherly duty and for once protect James from a bitter fate.

That James didn’t want his help hurt bitterly, but Thor had taken the blow and had gotten back to his feet, strong and steady like the warrior he was.

Whether James wanted his help and protection or not, he would get it, no matter how much it would hurt Thor himself. He’d already lost his brother, he wouldn’t lose his son too, not if there was anything to be done about it.

If that meant he had to grovel before his father, he would gladly take the blow to his pride.

~~

Eames waited until Banner had set up a makeshift laboratory to create a somnacin-compound out of thin air and desperation before he grabbed Arthur firmly by the arm and dragged him into the far corner.

“Have you considered how to determine whether there was a manipulation?” he hissed, his lips close to Arthur’s ear to avoid being overheard.

Arthur’s lips twitched slightly. “Not quite,” he murmured back. “Working on it.”

“Should have done that before you agreed to take on the job, hm?” Eames fingers tightened on Arthur’s elbow, but Arthur didn’t even flinch.

“We’ll figure it out,” he pointed out calmly. “Relax and trust me, Mr. Eames.”

Eames released Arthur’s arm with a disgusted sound. “We are on an alien planet, Arthur,” he pointed out, his voice quiet and intense. “If this doesn’t work out, we can’t simply take the next flight out of here and hoping these people won’t follow.”

“I know.” Arthur took a careful breath. “If there is a way, we will find it,” he said. “After all, we pulled off the impossible before. We pulled off Inception.”

“I keep telling you, Inception was never impossible,” Eames growled before giving up and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “If we don’t get out of this, it’s on you.”

Arthur smiled faintly. “I think I can live with that.”

“Not for long, probably,” Eames grunted and turned to stalk away. He’d learned a few things by observing Yusuf in his lab, and he wanted to make sure Dr. Banner didn’t make any obvious mistakes in his calculations.

~~

By the time Thor returned to the cage, Spock, Jim and Steve had combined their tactical knowledge and had come up with a truly impressive number of escape plans, mostly to alleviate the boredom.

“Use the energy of your arc reactor to overload the forcefield we’re still certain exists?” Steve said when Thor entered the antechamber.

“Great plan, Cap,” Tony replied sarcastically. “That’s just the thing I need. Cardiac arrest.”

“Bones is a doctor. He could keep you alive,” Jim tossed in. “Until we’re out of here.”

“I’m a doctor, not a magician. Besides, force field or not, we’d still be stuck behind these bars,” McCoy added darkly.

Thor chuckled to get their attention just as the armed guards entered, their weapons rattling as they led Clint and Natasha in.

“My father has agreed on letting the Man of Iron and your officer of science out of the cage to figure out how to clear your name.” He gave Jim a brief nod. “However, he insists on keeping the rest of you here, as a guarantee that no attempt of flight will be made.” He lowered his head briefly. “I have sworn him on my honor that no such thing will happen.”

“And it won’t,” Steve immediately promised. “Not unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Jim nodded his agreement.

“Hawkeye and Widow have volunteered to take your places,” Thor told Tony, but he didn’t give him time to reply.

Silently and on invisible hinges, one side of the cage swung open, allowing Spock and Tony to step out and Natasha and Clint to take their place.

“We will get you out,” Tony promised quietly. “All of you.”

Steve gave him a nod. It was all they needed to tell Tony Steve trusted him and that he should be careful.

Deliberately, slowly, Tony turned away from the cage and followed Thor and Spock out.

~~

On to Part 3