#cymbol

     Edith ignored them both completely, focusing her irate attention on Odin. “When were you going to tell me??”

    Loki looked back at his father incredulously. “You didn’t tell her?”

    He had been somewhat avoiding her since his… very awkward discovery, but this was important; he would have told her himself if he had known Odin had kept it from her. Though he couldn’t imagine why his father would have done so; if anything, he’d have expected him to at least include her in the discussions.

    “I didn’t see the need,” Odin replied calmly, causing Loki’s brows to rise even further in disbelief and even Thor to look shocked, “The matter will be tended to as I have begun telling you both.”

    “You didn’t see the need in telling me my home is about to be invaded??”

    “Is it still your home? You’ve barely even mentioned it in the two months you have been here.”

    Loki saw the murderous look flash across Edith’s expression and quickly moved towards her just as she launched herself at the Allfather, grabbing her by the waist and hauling her back. Odin looked on impassively, having known that would likely be her reaction to his words.

    “You wish to fight alongside your mortal comrades, yes? These invaders may very well be far beyond your capabilities.”

    “I don’t care! They’re going to be the first ones in the line of fire, and that’s exactly where I belong, too.”

    Odin stared her down for a long while and she met his gaze unflinchingly. “So be it,” The king finally said, “Ready yourself; you will depart in half an hour.”

    Thor looked somewhat surprised, having assumed his father hadn’t summoned Edith along with them because she would not be joining them, but Loki narrowed his eyes at the king suspiciously. He met his gaze with an indecipherable expression and Loki filed it away for later. He pushed Edith before him towards the door, following after her with his brother then led her all the way to her room, only then excusing himself and heading towards his hall to ready for the journey.

    She was pacing in the dome when the princes reached the Observatory, dressed in the outfit she’d worn when they first met her, and looked over at them as they walked in. A quick word with Heimdall and the three were on their way to Midgard.

****

    The meeting was… not going well.

    When Fury had called them in and informed them that they’d had a break-in of sorts in one of SHIELD’s labs that resulted in an artefact they were studying being stolen and the lab destroyed; Steve figured it was pretty bad, to put it mildly, both for the lives lost and the potential danger that could follow. When Fury had Natasha… retrieve Dr. Bruce Banner, who’d already declined getting involved in anything they had going on, ostensibly to help track down the artefact and thus the thief; Steve was more than a little suspicious, deciding maybe he ought to go on a little fact-finding mission. And he hadn’t been the only one, though Tony’s approach had been different.

    Steve was, as far as he was concerned, understandably angry at the fact that SHIELD had been developing weapons with the Tesseract - one of the things he’d risked dying over to keep away from the rest of the world, which was bad enough on its own - and had been careless enough in poking at it that it would attract the attention it had. Now it was once again in enemy hands, and the declaration of war issued by such would have been bad enough without the knowledge that the army in question was not even of Earth.

    Tempers were high, despite some attempts at keeping things peaceful; so it was with some relief that Agent Hill interrupted to announce that something had apparently landed on the airstrip of the Helicarrier, which was… odd, considering they were currently in mid-air. A camera revealed the new arrivals to be Edith, Loki and Thor, which Fury had questions about that were promptly ignored as the heroes left the room to go greet them.

    Loki had, unsurprisingly, had the foresight to use a spell to keep them standing when Heimdall had informed them they would be arriving to Midgard onto a moving aircraft, and they quickly made their way to the door leading in. There were agents on the other side but they lowered their weapons upon seeing Edith, though the slightly wary looks they gave her as they did so told Loki it was less because she was an ally and more because they knew about all the explosives likely on her person. A quick question from the redhead later and they were on their way to the meeting room, making it halfway there before running into the others. Edith broke into a run and launched herself at Tony, nearly knocking him off his feet but for Steve behind him keeping him upright.

    “I missed you too, kid,” The billionaire said slightly breathlessly, tugging on her arms that were tightly wrapped around his neck.

    “I’m assuming your timing isn’t a coincidence,” Natasha inquired as Edith let go of Tony.

    “It is not,” Loki confirmed.

    “Know what we’re dealing with?”

    “Likely more than you, but not as much as I would like.”

    “It’ll have to do,” Steve said, “I doubt these guys are going to wait until we have all the intel. We’re already a man short unless Clint can shake off a head wound in time, and the longer they have the Tesseract-”

    “They what??” Thor interrupted, looking as alarmed as Loki felt. Odin hadn’t mentioned that.