Loki stumbled, Thor grabbed him by the arm and helped him fully up. "Romulus!" Thor said cheerfully when he spotted me in his spin, grabbing me in a bear hug. I hugged back, a bit befuddled by the sudden attention. As I took him in upon release, Thor looked different – His hair was cut short, his beard was grown, but he still had both his eyes. Yet he still looked more grim, even after the bear hug – Maybe it was the two gauntlets. Maybe it was the weighty way he moved.

"Thor," I said, gratefully. My guards hadn't shot anybody since they'd tried against strange, but they looked like they were considering taking the opportunity to kill Loki. "Stand down, you two, it wouldn't work and it would embarrass us. And don't, under any circumstances, send the distress signal. We need good relations with the Asgardian."

"Hold on, why did he call you Romulus?" Strange said, his eyes darting toward me.

"Wizard!" Thor said, holding my shoulder, "This man saved Asgard. And you," he paused and looked a bit sadder, "Well, you gave us some very timely directions. Asgard is in your debt."

"It's a reference to a silly speech I gave once," I said, a little embarrassed. Strange raised his eyebrows at that, then shook his head like he was filing for later.

"You said you weren't going to come back," Strange said, looking at Thor. "And you came back with what, five thousand more Asgardians? A few weeks later?"

"I hope to make it twenty, if I can gather them back from across the realms," Thor said, his chest full of pride. "Yes, I know, I know, we said that we weren't coming back, but then my sister broke out of prison, my father died, and things got out of hand rather quickly – But this is good for Earth."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Strange said, his voice suddenly quite gentle. It took me by surprise and then he wiped the look of compassion off his face and got straight back to business. "Thor, I wish you hadn't brought back Loki, manacles or not, it would make this simpler."

"My brother also saved Asgard, I cannot abandon him. Plus, you know, I'm a little out of my depth on this politics thing."

"Yes, I would appreciate more respect for that," Loki said, "And I'm here to help save half the universe, but I'm stuck in these accursed things."

"Thanos," Strange said. "You know people here barely believe in him."

Loki glanced at me, raising an eyebrow and I sighed, "No. To whichever question that eyebrow represents." To be in conspiracy with Loki, a beautifully unhappy event. To be in conspiracy with Loki, in the presence of the Sorcerer Supreme, on the short list of people I couldn't kill with the press of a button, was enough to renew in me a fear of God, however momentary.

"That's very impractical," Loki said, his voice disappointed.

"We don't run things efficiently here," I said leaning against the desk and looking at my guards. This would be easier if I could at least talk frankly and not to a Hydra audience. "Gentlemen," I said, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room for confidential negotiations."

"Sir," one of the guards, Lucas, said, his voice actively shaking. "Standard operating procedure is not to follow any orders given by someone who has made contact with unknown magics."

Well, it was a good rule, I had made it, I can't complain, but it was annoying in this context where I could see a straight pattern in my own internal processes. I looked back at Strange. "Do you have a sleep spell?"

Loki raised a finger within the manacles but Strange shook his head. My guards started moving for their communicators, but Strange lashed out a wire of fire from his finger tips and sliced the comms to pieces. A moment later, he opened a portal, "Thor, push them through."

Thor picked the two men up by their shoulders, "Terribly sorry, lovely planet, so nice to meet you," and then Thor tossed them gently through the portal and closed it.

"Thank you," I said, de-tensing just a little bit. "Where'd you put them?"

"Inside a nice cottage, the people who own it never visit," Stephen said.

It was just the four of us now, Thor, the apparent King of Asgard and bearer of the Space Stone, Loki, wanted terrorist and former collaborator with omnicider Thanos of Titan and now Odinson once more, Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and World Renown Surgeon, and Michael Trent, Chief Head of Hydra and the Modern Prometheus.

"Not the hottest steel from the forge," Loki said, pacing with his hands in the manacles.

"If they were smart, they'd be Fireflies," I said, "Or field agents. Strange, we need the Asgardians."

"Do we?" Strange asked, sitting in my chair, his hands folded together.

"Asgard has the technological and materials knowledge to let Earth defend itself," I said, "Twenty thousand new citizens, with centuries or millenia of experience, able to advise us on current interstellar politics, help us form our society. And Thanos is coming."

"You've never had much evidence that he wants to give it a second go," Strange said, "And he doesn't have any stones that could get him here."

"Romulus is a seer," Thor said, baffled, "And you doubt his word? Do even the wizards of Earth engage in such folly?"

"You know my name is Michael Trent, right?" I said.

"You're a seer?" Strange asked, looking at me.

"I have told him," Loki said.

"Sort of. Shut up," I said. I didn't need Loki's help on this and he wasn't going to ingratiate himself to me with some freaking conversational backup. "I had one vision, once, basically," I said to Strange. "It's… complicated."

"And it showed you Thanos?" Strange asked.

"It showed me a lot of things," I said, rubbing my forehead at the oncoming stress headache from Loki's presence. "But yes, it showed me Thanos."

"And it showed him the death of Asgard," Thor said, his voice heavy, "We have seen, we have proof now, that his words are true."

"Thanks Thor," I said, trying to put real warmth in my voice in spite of my frustration at Loki's presence..

"I'm the one who did all the work," Loki said.

"That's why I'm not dropping an RV on you right now," I barked. Fuck Loki, so hard.

"Gentlemen," Strange said, holding up his hand. "We're here to navigate the dangers of an immensely powerful, nigh-immortal civilization moving to Earth, not to have a shouting match about Loki's many crimes."

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"Yes," Thor said, looking at his brother, who was seething but silent. "Although I will note that my brother committed his crimes under duress. Well, not the destruction in New Mexico, but the ones which were committed against Michael Trent and SHIELD."

"SHIELD is gone now," I said, "There's just me."

Loki and Thor exchanged a look that told me they'd understood my reference. It was interesting that Thor wasn't willfully outing me – I guess, from his perspective, my theory of human history was correct and I was a friend of Asgard. So, you know, who cared if I was trying to overthrow the legitimate governments of Earth. Weird but understandable.

Thor looked back to me, "Is that good?"

"Am I supposed to care," Strange said. "Asgard. Why shouldn't I ensure it doesn't spread safe mystical knowledge?"

"If that is the terms for our remaining, we can happily withhold it," Thor said.

"What? No! Strange, what are you talking about? Asgard's knowledge of the mystic arts is an essential part of the advantage of bringing them here, we're at a crucial disadvantage against Thanos if we don't take full advantage of everything we can get."

"For a man who defeated climate change by taking a kilowatt hour of power to a tenth of a cent, you really have no concept of the idea of escalating risk, do you?"

"I understand the principle, but Asgard didn't explode," I pointed out.

"Asgard had a small collection of magical families and a population smaller than Wyoming," Strange said. "A world full of sorcerers would mean the possibility for extinction level magical events on a daily or weekly basis. The Kamar Taj ourselves produced one such threat in January and defeating it was…" his eyes flashed with pain, "costly."

I grimaced. That didn't sound good. "It's going to be harder to sell to the governments of the world on a pure tech basis," I said, rubbing my forehead. I hated being in a room with Loki, keeping a clear head. Hated that guy so much. "Where is the mind stone?"

"We had Eitri form a crown for you, in honor of your bright destiny," Thor said.

"But it's somewhere you won't be able to find it unless we give it to you," Loki said.

Wait. They wanted to give me the Mind Stone? It was… it was a tempting proposition. The feeling of the mind stone's insights coursing through me once again, this time subservient to me and my will.

"I don't think I can allow that," Strange said.

"You're not the person who makes that call, Strange."

"I'm the person who can stop it, so I am the person who makes that decision," Strange said, staring at me from my own damn chair. "You're going to accept a gift of the very object that brought on the destruction of the White House and mind controlled you? And you think I'm going to let you do that?"

Well, he certainly had a point on one front, but on the other hand, Vision had been great and Thor was the one offering the gift, so it seemed unlikely to me that I was going to get mind-whammied again. And the Mind Stone… I could do so much with its help.

"Thor thinks its safe," I said. I had made a stable, unified mind gamma mutate with the ability to channel to the energy of the Space Stone. We could turn the Fireflies into Professor Hulks, then we really would be absolutely unstoppable on the historical level. "We'd obviously want to run diagnostics."

"The Kamar Taj have held the Time Stone since the first century and we still don't understand it," Strange said, irritated. "Stop thinking in terms of what it will let you do and start thinking in terms of what you did under its influence last time."

"Wizard," Loki said, walking up next to Strange so close that they could probably hear each other breating. "He knows what it can do. Eitri says it inspires those who touch it, fills their minds ever fuller. Influence over others. Deeper perception into motives. The serpent crown we've weaved for him, it will give him the power to save this world, even without magic."

Strange matched eyes with Loki for a minute and honestly I half-hoped they'd just have it out and let me walk away with at least one incredibly powerful sorcerer dealt with. "I am the one who makes the call, I am the one whose duty it is to protect this world from people like you."

It was interesting to be on the other end of unilateral, 'I'm the one who defends the planet' decisions, certainly, but it wasn't fun. "You know, I'm right here!"

"I have a photographic memory, I can remember."

"Fine, leave the mind stone off the table," I said, having no intention at all of leaving the mind stone off the table long term. But still, it would be good to think it out, break it down, risk vs. reward. "No magic lessons, fine, a waste, but whatever you're the expert. Asgard still has more expertise in technology and advanced warfare than Earth. We can… work with that."

"If you can convince the world's governments to allow them to settle a substantial share of space on Earth," Strange said as Loki backed away from him and back within arm's reach of his brother.

Thor laughed, "Romulus intends to unite the whole world, I have no doubt his influence will be sufficient."

"Thanks Thor," I said, rubbing my head again. That wasn't information I really wanted Strange to have, but also my commitment to internationalism was not a secret. I had run a senate campaign on it, after all, and I worked for the global security apparatus. "I have a lot of influence, but there's limits. What were you planning on offering Norway for the land you want them to cede?"

"A few tons of gold?" Thor offered.

"That's…. I mean that's a nice thought Thor, but the value of gold has gone down a lot in the past few years." Damn my hyper-exploitation of space!

"We could offer to supplement and replace their primitive military," Thor said. "Another protectorate is nothing even to Asgard's decimated army."

So they definitely had lost some troops, that was good. "Alright, that might work. But that leaves the biggest question open," I said, glancing at Loki.

"What?" Loki said and then said, "Ah yes, of course. Well, brother, you see, even when I do not insist on making it all about me it still is."