Let me start by saying I was looking at all this through monitors from a mile or two away. I had no interest in directly encountering Loki ever again if I could avoid it. The room was serious, just a standard room with a bunch of terminals and two guards to keep me safe. No need for anything too fancy.

Outside the U.N. all forty eight of the U.S. Fireflies were in a stand off with the Asgardian delegation. Thor bearing his ax and the Space Stone in a gauntlet and Loki in Asgardian handcuffs. For the first time since the invasion, I could see one of the Infinity Stones. Where was the mind stone? We couldn't see the gamma signature that the Tesseract and Staff had given off anywhere else. Was Loki concealing it? If so, we were going to have a difficult conflict at best.

But it could be in an inert state somewhere.

I toggled to the overflow rooms of the building. The ambassadors who usually represented the nations of Earth were here, of course, but so were chief diplomats and even heads of state. Nakia and T'Chaka were here. Everyone who mattered was coming here. And outside was a moderately sized protest that would've been a glorified recruitment drive if it hadn't managed to pick the biggest day in human history.

So why were Thor and his brother here?

In a word, asylum. They were offering alliance with a powerful, experienced interstellar force, their own extraordinarily dangerous skills and weaponry, the knowledge of one of the most powerful civilizations in galactic history, and, I had been informed by the SWORD Agents of Norway, not exposing me and mine. In exchange, they wanted some unoccupied land in Norway.

It would've been a compelling deal if it weren't for the fact that the United States hated Loki and Norway obviously didn't want to part with its territory. I hated Loki too, but I could overlook it. My impression of the general public is somewhat less likely to forgive this sort of mistake. As I was standing over the monitor, staring at it, I heard a fizzling sound and spun to look at a burning ring opening in the room.

On the one hand, about time. On the other hand, what the hell?

Strange stepped through the ring in the air from what looked like the inside of a classy building. Probably the Sanctum, which was nice honestly.

"Do you know who I am?" Stephen asked. He had the red cape, but he wasn't wearing his Eye that would contain the Time Stone. His hands looked fine too, which was I guess not surprising in a world where we had Extremis.

"Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme?" I offered as the agents around me drew their guns. I made pausing gesture to them.

"Good," Strange said, walking up to the monitor.

"I have a lot of questions," I said as he looked over the scene.

Strange nodded his head brusquely and conjured up a red energy element in his hand.

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"Wow," I said, lurching backward. "I don't like it when people work magic on me."

Strange ignored me and proceeded forward, conjuring a shield spell as my subordinates shot at him filling my ears with ringing. I flicked on my vibranium armor and it crawled over my skin like a bunch of worms, not a pleasant sensation but better armored than dead. It didn't matter in the end, Strange made it to me, his spell fizzled out, and he nodded his head in satisfaction.

"What the hell was that?" I was not happy at being disrespected like this.

"Diagnostic spell," Strange said, having gone straight back to the monitors. "Why are they here?"

"Asgard's been destroyed, they're refugees."

"Unfortunate," Strange said, continuing to stare at the monitor, flitting through their various cameras. "Debatably not our problem."

"You know, just because I know who you are, doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want!"

Strange turned his big, bony head to me and shook it before going back to his work. "You won't hurt the Sorcerer Supreme. I don't answer to you, so I don't have to waste time explaining myself. Yes no questions if you want while I look at this. Final offer."

Man I remember Strange being a dick but I don't remember him being this much of a dick. I motioned to my subordinates to put down their guns though. "Do you have the Eye?"

"Yes." Strange said, sitting at the terminal and checking the world leaders. "Security risk. Working on a spell."

"Do you have a spell that can locate the eye's siblings?"

"In principle, security threat to gather them." Strange said, standing up. He looked at me. "She was right. That brain is wasted on you."

I rolled my eyes. Of course the former Sorcerer Supreme did not support me. Well, she was dead, wasn't she, and I was alive. I shouldn't let her opinion get to me. "She had the advantage on me," I said, "I only get one go at this. Do you have the ability to get the Stone from Thor? Do you know if Loki is really bound by his manacles?"

"Probably not," Strange said, initializing the spin to summon a fire-portal. "Yes."

"Are you going to do something?"

"We're going to go talk to them."

"Oh, I don't think that's wise," I said, annoyed. "If I'm seen as part of this negotiation, it might be seen as suspect."

"Right, good," Strange said, spinning his hand to create a ring portal above me. For a moment I thought he was trying to trap me with it, so I lurched out of the way, but that was not his plan as it turned out. Two heavy bodies clunked down falling through the portal, Thor and Loki, landing right in front of me. I shook my head at my subordinates. I guess Strange wasn't going to let me do this behind the scenes this time.

"Odinsons!" he announced as he stepped over to my side, "Let's talk."