Captain America remained the calmest among them, though there was tension in his eyes. After a moment of hesitation,
"Has anyone contacted Soren recently? According to the intel I received… he hasn't been at his medical center."
"No." Tony shook his head. "I've been busy digging into Ultron, and if anything was left of him."
"I used J.A.R.V.I.S. to crawl through the network and every virtual tunnel and shadow Ultron may have passed through. And I found something very, very bad."
"Worse than Banner disappearing?" The Captain frowned.
Tony shot him a humorless look. "Trust me. You won't like this. I think… Ultron left a backdoor. A failsafe we missed."
He paused, jaw tightening. "I found signs of his activity inside a space station."
"…" A cold silence fell.
Ultron surviving was the last thing they needed.
"I'm not one hundred percent certain," Tony said quickly, seeing their expressions tense.
"I was preparing to dig deeper when this whole Banner situation blew up. So… my investigation stalled."
Black Widow exhaled sharply. "If Ultron has a foothold in space, we can't reach it easily. There's only one person on Earth who can move freely beyond the atmosphere."
She didn't need to say the name.
Soren Macaluso.
Tony sighed. "And that's the problem. Ultron's stunt last time infuriated him."
"Since then, Soren's been… distant. He runs Everlife, treats the sick, and drinks tea. He avoids fights unless someone drags him into one. If he doesn't want to help…"
"We won't be able to find him," the Captain finished grimly.
They had no choice but to try.
The Avengers made their way to the medical center only to find it empty. The room felt freshly vacated, still imbued with Soren's presence, but he was nowhere to be found.
Frustrated and defeated, they left.
Moments later, the air rippled. A wave of spatial distortion shimmered through Everlife, and Soren stepped out of a closing portal just barely missing them.
"It's good to be home." Soren exhaled, sealing the connection between Earth and the Abyss. He'd been gone longer than intended.
Hopefully nothing catastrophic happened while he was away.
After washing up, he turned on the TV, flipping through recent news.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Diplomatic meetings. Economic summits. Politics.
Boring.
He snorted. "When I'm on Earth, the world keeps exploding every few weeks. I leave for a while, and suddenly everyone learns peace?"
"Tomorrow… I'll check if Freyja's back." Soren sipped tea, leaning back.
"I wonder if Thor found the Infinity Stone. Probably time to take a look."
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
At dawn, Soren stepped through the portal linking his medical center to the realm of the gods.
The guards recognized him instantly. As always, they greeted him with eager smiles… far more eager than mere duty required. Rumors in the God Realm never faded quietly.
Soren stated his purpose, and before he could even ask, one guard spoke.
"Freyja, the God of War, hasn't returned yet. Her territory ran into some… turbulence. But she should be back soon."
The guard's expression shifted subtly. "Ever since you last visited her, the entire realm's been saying you and Freyja are already a couple."
"…" Soren blinked.
"And because of that," the guard added with a conspiratorial whisper, "Freyja voluntarily gave up her title of God of War… so she could be your wife."
Soren frowned slightly, Freyja hasn't returned?
It had been a long time since he last came to Asgard, and while Freyja was the God of War, the Nine Realms were full of hidden dangers. The thought tugged at him… he couldn't shake a feeling of unease.
Then I'll meet King Odin in person, he decided.
The last time he had seen Odin, the god had already seemed faintly diminished, though Soren had said nothing at the time.
But as he stepped out of the portal and into Asgard, he stopped short.
At the gate, a towering statue loomed, a figure in armor, wearing a helmet crowned with two long, curving horns.
It wasn't Odin. It was Loki. the God of Mischief.
Loki, in full regalia, looked heroic, almost regal, with one hand stretched outward as if surveying his kingdom.
Loki? Soren's first reaction was disbelief.
The same Loki who had repeatedly plotted against Thor and stirred chaos across the Nine Realms? How could Odin allow a statue of him at the gates of Asgard?
He suppressed the questions crowding his mind.
The sounds of the city grew louder… laughter, applause, the murmur of many voices. A crowd had gathered, their attention fixed on a large, ornate stage in the center of Asgard.
Through the throng, Soren saw a performance unfolding… two actors, one dressed as Loki and the other as Thor, were dramatically reenacting famous and evidently infamous moments from Asgardian history.
The dialogue was full of humor and exaggeration.
"Brother, I can't take it anymore! I simply can't!" One actor exclaimed.
"You've never listened before, you fool! Go seek help! Sif!" The other thundered back.
The crowd laughed and cheered, completely enthralled by the performance.
But Soren's attention was not on the actors. He glanced up at the throne. There, Odin sat, nodding along, thoroughly entertained by the play.
Something immediately struck him. A strange, subtle magic radiated from the figure on the throne… twisting like an illusion.
This is illusion magic… Soren thought. He had seen this before, when he had helped Loki recover after the New York incident, he had extracted this very same magic from him.
The figure on the throne was not Odin.
Soren stepped back slightly, the hairs on his neck rising. This was going to be more complicated than he thought.