Veritas

Warnings: none.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter Playlist: 'Can You See Jane?' from 'Thor'.

'Heart beats fast,
Colors and promises,
How to be brave?
How can I love when I'm afraid to fall,
But watching you stand alone?
All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow.

One step closer.

I have died everyday waiting for you,
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you.
For a thousand years,
I'll love you for a thousand more.

Time stands still,
Beauty in all she is,
I will be brave,
I will not let anything take away
What's standing in front of me.
Every breath,
Every hour has come to this.

One step closer.

I have died everyday waiting for you,
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you,
For a thousand years,
I'll love you for a thousand more.

And all along I believed I would find you.
Time has brought your heart to me,
I have loved you for a thousand years,
I'll love you for a thousand more.

One step closer.

One step closer.

I have died everyday waiting for you,
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you.
For a thousand years,
I'll love you for a thousand more.

And all along I believed I would find you.
Time has brought your heart to me,
I have loved you for a thousand years,
I'll love you for a thousand more.'

- Christine Perri, A Thousand Years

The wind barely stirred the treetops of Alfheim, as clouds built in the sky and the Forest stirred.

Something was coming.

It had been fifteen years to the day, fifteen years of peace and prosperity, since the fall of Thanos and the independence of Alfheim had been declared. Apart from the deposing of its ruler, Alfheim had seen little else of change in the fifteen years since that day.

Clouds amassed and circled around a single point of the Forest, a wide clearing, devoid of trees or shrubbery, a blackened wound in the rippling green canopy. A wound comprised of twisting, intricate runic shapes, burnt into the earth. The clouds that crackled and rippled above the clearing were no weather of the world, as lightning spat and thunder roared, until a great golden flare of light shot down, hitting the ground and repainting the circular runes anew.

The clouds dispersed and the thunder died away, leaving the Forest in a waiting, watchful peaceful silence.

But not for long.

"Jesus, Thor! You didn't tell us it was that rough! I've been on rollarcoasters less bumpy than that!" a strong, sarcastic male voice broke the peace of the Forest, as a group of seven people blinked their eyes and gaped at their surroundings, all but Thor, who just chuckled.

"Looks like your kind of world, hey Clint?" Bruce muttered to the archer, who just rolled his eyes.

"Quit being such a baby, Stark," Natasha groaned, as she straightened out a kink in her spine with a loud snap.

"You know you loved every minute of it," Banner agreed from the other side of the clearing, brushing off his shirt before helping the man on his knees beside him to his feet. Erik Selvig was on the cusp between middle age and old age, his face lined, his hair now totally devoid of colour, his eyes sad and tired. Thor came to his side, his cloak missing, his arms bare in the Alfheim sunlight, Mjolnir at his best.

"Was the journey too hard, old friend?" he asked, as Selvig chuckled and shook his head, shaking his windswept hair back into abeyance.

"There's life in the old dog yet, Thor. Don't worry about me," he told the Aesir reassuringly, but his heart was still hammering.

A mere week before, Thor had returned to Earth to meet his old friends and comrades-in-arms, after the retirement of Fury. Natasha and Clint were now retired from active service, and they co-ordinated SHIELD between them, as well as instructing new recruits in advanced combat.

Steve still worked for SHIELD, when the need arose, but otherwise he drifted from country to country, unsatisfied with his life and afraid to form attachments since he had not aged in fifteen years and was not likely to in the future.

Stark and Banner worked on a consulting basis for SHIELD, but otherwise worked as they pleased. Together, they had worked out a cure for Banner and the Hulk was no more. Stark had been married to Pepper, and Banner to his long-term girlfriend Betty, for ten years.

When Thor had returned to Earth, he'd brought with him new equations and calculations in a familiar hand, and Banner, Stark and Selvig had worked out how to build and stabilise a Bifrost on Earth, opening up the Universe to the human race.

It hadn't taken much guesswork on the Avengers' part to work out who had been behind the brilliant and complex equations Thor had given them. Erik Selvig had not seen Jane in seventeen years, but he recognised her thinking and her handwriting in the small, leather-bound book she had always carried with her, for many years since childhood, to write down all her calculations and thoughts for her research.

After that, he'd demanded Thor tell them where Jane was, and take them to her. The Avengers had readily volunteered to accompany them, after Thor told them the story of Loki and Jane's banishment on Alfheim, and the fight against Thanos.

The Avengers had listened with disbelief and awe, Stark chuckling to himself, as Thor told his tale, before they'd left.

They all knew and respected Jane, after the events leading up to the Battle of Manhattan, but the tough, indomitable warrior Queen Thor had described felt like a being from a fantasy novel, not the quiet, intelligent but strong, astrophysicist they all remembered.

All of that rushed through Erik's mind, as they gathered themselves and began to walk into the labyrinthine woods of Alfheim, trying not to trip over tree trunks until they heard the sound of childish laughter ahead.

Full and musical, it trilled over the leaves, making the group pause long before the laughter's owners came into view.

They were two girls and a boy, tall and slender. They paused, and Erik's breath caught in his throat.

They were all dressed in forest greens and browns, the tallest of the three possessing long auburn hair, austere, sharp angled features and pointed ears, with pale skin and long, elegant limbs, her eyes dark green. A bow was at her back, made of gleaming silver wood. This had to be Aeslin, the little she-Elf Loki and Jane had adopted after Thanos was defeated. She smiled, graceful and warm, as she regarded the strangers.

Her two siblings were so obviously Jane's children, however. The girl, Aoife Erik remembered, was nearly as tall as the other two, with long ringlets of raven black, pale marble skin tinged with icy blue, her eyes deep, dark midnight blue pools that sparkled with intelligence and mischief.

Her brother, Erik, was easily the tallest of the three, strong and slender, lithe as a deer. His hair was copper and his eyes were deep brown, the colour of Jane's eyes before she encountered the darkness. His hands were graceful and elegant, as he stepped forward with a confident, knowing smile that the Avengers remembered all too well. The memories weren't entirely pleasant ones.

But all three of Loki and Jane's children looked at them with the strength, intelligence and mischief of their parents, a tinge of madness and darkness which lent them an air of feyness and mystery. The children of Mischief indeed.

"Welcome to Alfheim. Our mother and father bade us come ahead to guide you through the Forest," the boy, Erik, said. He looked at the elder Erik, and his smile grew as he met the eyes of his namesake. "I am Erik, these are my sisters. Aoife and Aeslin."

"My pleasure ladies, Erik," Steve nodded gallantly, as Tony rolled his eyes behind his back, and Natasha, Clint and Bruce winked at each other. Steve shrugged. "What?"

"And I'm supposed to be the flirt," Tony muttered, as Steve glared at him and the two sisters laughed.

"There's clearly no 'supposed to be' about it," Aoife murmured. "You're exactly as bad as Mamma told us."

"Glad to hear it," Tony winked, as the sisters smirked wickedly, before Aeslin sobered and nodded slightly to them.

"Well, now the formalities are out of the way," she rolled her eyes. "Really, Erik you can be such a stick in the mud."

"Never mind them," Aoife shook her magnificent head mock-sadly, at the glares of her siblings. "They argue like cat and dog. Hello, Uncle Thor."

Thor smiled, stepping forward to embrace the two girls, before clasping hands with Erik. "It is good to see you all again. How is your training coming along? Aoife still beating you at swordplay?"

"Like a drum," Aoife quipped, before Erik could answer, and he glared at her.

"Now who's arguing like cat and dog?" Aeslin rolled her eyes, before smiling at the two Avengers closest to her, Steve and Natasha. "Come on, Mamma and Papa are waiting for you all."

"Definitely Loki and Jane's kids. Weird," Stark muttered under his breath, as they turned to follow them, while Thor smirked to himself.

The three siblings led them unerringly through the maze of trees, until they reached the hidden stairways up into the city in the trees, and wards snapping shut behind them. The darkness of the Forest had been tamed seventeen years before, but it still occasionally roiled and rose, threatening the city and the people who dwelt there.

Erik and the Avengers could barely contain a shared gasp when they finally cleared the lower canopy, and the city of the Light Elves unfolded before them. Elves smiled and nodded courteously to them, as Erik, Aoife and Aeslin led them through the crowd, often stopping to exchange a few friendly words with various Elves. Eventually, they came to a great house of white and silver wood, its vaulted roof rearing into the canopy above. To the side were a smaller, but no less beautiful, house and another stairway leading up into the treetops.

The three siblings led them past the two houses, and then up, into the trees, climbing and climbing, until even Steve's legs were burning with the strain, but the three siblings and Thor showed no tiredness.

They eventually emerged onto a wide, long platform of wood, shining silver in the sunlight above them, the sky clear and limitless all around them. On the platform was built a small hut, and two tables stood behind a long, spacious bench piled high with cushions and blankets, and what looked like a telescope stood beside it, except this one was larger and possessed several different attachments that the human scientists had never seen before.

And emerging from the hut, clothed in a long forest green surcoat, with brown leggings and boots, her copper hair restrained into a messy bun atop her head, was Jane. Her mismatched eyes shone, and she smiled so wide and happily, as the sunlight glinted off a ring on her left ring finger, and she opened her arms.

"Erik!" she called, almost shyly as she stepped forward, and then Erik only had eyes for his long-lost protégée and surrogate daughter, as he smiled through his tears and dragged her into his arms. The Avengers smiled, but only Tony took any notice at first of the tall, dark figure in green and leather that stepped out of the hut behind Jane, his eyes warm and unclouded by madness or darkness as he watched his wife's reunion with her mentor and the Avengers.

Their eyes met, and Loki inclined his head to Tony with a knowing smirk. Tony's grin widened, and he winked.

"You did good, Reindeer Games," he muttered, only for their ears. "You did good."

Loki's smirk grew. "Glad to hear it. Welcome to Alfheim."

The End

A/N: Since Erik never got to meet his namesake in 'At The Beginning' have a reunion on me! Thanks for the reviews and support, this story has just been crazy to write as well as a lot of fun. See you all soon!