Tony Stark understood exactly where Daniel was coming from. If they followed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plan to the letter, this operation wouldn't stop with Asgard. The moment the door cracked open, the power-hungry factions of Earth wouldn't rest until they had their fingers in all Nine Realms.
Asgard wouldn't be the end. It would be the beginning.
So Daniel made his move early, just enough to kick things off, but not enough to be trapped in the aftermath.
But Stark knew Nick Fury well. That man wouldn't be deterred by half-measures or technicalities. Either Daniel stayed completely out of it, or he would be pulled all the way in, like it or not.
"I'll pass your message along to Fury," Tony said, already mentally checking out of the conversation. "But he'll want to meet you in person. Something like this? It's got to be face to face."
Typical Stark: always finding a way to stay one step removed, even when he was neck-deep in classified S.H.I.E.L.D. projects. Weapon expert or not, he played the game well.
"Human ambition is endless, Tony. You and I both know it," Daniel murmured, his eyes fixed on the cloudless sky above. "Back in New Mexico, things with Thor went smoothly. But if we even try to sneak into Asgard, their retaliation will be immediate, and brutal. We're not talking about a skirmish. We're talking about war. And it won't be fought in the Nine Realms. It'll be fought here. On Earth. In America."
There was no sugarcoating it. No nation tolerates strangers breaking into their home, let alone a realm like Asgard.
Tony understood the stakes, but as always, he shrugged them off. "That's not really our call, is it? It's not like Fury's the one making the big decisions. You know who sits in the Oval Office."
"No," Daniel said flatly. "It is Fury. The guy in the White House? He's just a wallet with a flag on it. He writes the checks, but Fury pulls the strings. Always has."
Stark said nothing. He knew Daniel wasn't wrong. Fury had mastered the art of plausible deniability. The president didn't need to know what kind of circle could open a portal to another realm, or what the consequences of using it might be. That was how intelligence agencies operated.
Same reason why Congress had tried—and failed—to confiscate Stark's Iron Man tech. Even with his influence, even with White House connections, the political machine had too many heads. Too many agendas. And not even the president dared offend the people who really ran things.
"All Fury's trying to do is protect Earth," Tony offered, half-heartedly.
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Do you believe that?"
Stark didn't answer.
"Forget it," Daniel said. "Let's talk mechanics. Even if my rune circle is flawless, it's not like we can just flip a switch and walk into Asgard. We're talking about pinpoint dimensional coordinates, and enough power to rival a small sun. Even two Mjolnirs and your Arc Reactor combined might not be enough."
Stark knew where this was going.
"And Thor's hammer isn't even in play anymore," Daniel continued. "So go ahead. Do the math. Figure out how much energy you'll need. Then calculate the odds of it working. Now tell me, are you still eager to roll the dice?"
No doubt, the whole operation was fraught with risk. And Daniel wasn't about to be held responsible if the portal tore open space-time and brought hell with it.
That was his official stance, at least.
But Tony wasn't fooled. He knew Daniel well enough to recognize the subtext. If Daniel was backing off publicly, that meant he had something else in mind privately.
Generating that kind of power wasn't as impossible as Daniel was making it sound. Stark's Arc Reactor was one thing, but the United States had dozens of nuclear plants capable of delivering immense output. The real issue was gathering it all in one place.
Then there was the wild card—the Tesseract.
S.H.I.E.L.D. still had it. Locked away. Hidden. A cosmic battery with limitless potential.
Stark had a hunch Fury was already running silent tests. Something about his recent behavior—his absence from U.S. soil, the tension behind his orders—smelled like long-term planning. Like he knew something was coming.
"Well," Stark said finally, "if you do choose to help with the circle, I'll make sure Fury knows you're the only reason it's happening."
But Daniel wasn't convinced. "If Fury wants my cooperation, he'll have to make it worth my time. This is a transaction, Tony. Not charity."
That was the point. All this posturing, all the talk about risk and war and magic—it was cover. Daniel had never claimed his rune circle could actually open a portal to Asgard. Because deep down, he knew it couldn't.
There was one reason: Heimdall.
Asgard's all-seeing gatekeeper controlled the Rainbow Bridge. Without his consent, no portal could connect to it. And humans? They didn't get to ask for his blessing.
To make matters worse, the bridge itself was still shattered. Thor might've gotten home through the Destroyer armor, but Daniel had studied the runes. The magic was incomplete. Twisted. Tampered with. Maybe Thor didn't even realize what had been altered—or maybe he did.
The truth was, the circle could appear to work. But Daniel knew: even if activated, it would go nowhere.
And that suited him just fine.
Because this wasn't about Asgard. Not really.
Daniel had his sights set on something else entirely: the Tesseract.
He'd waited decades to make his move. During the war, he'd known exactly where it was kept, but never dared get too close—not with Odin watching. That old god had seen through his secrets once before and exiled him to Jotunheim.
But now... Odin was weakened. His grip slipping. Asgard was teetering from Loki's betrayal and the destruction of the Rainbow Bridge. Even if Odin suspected Daniel's interest in the Tesseract, he wouldn't act on it. Not yet.
And with Fury distracted, Daniel saw his opening.
That's why he'd stalled. Why he'd pretended to be cautious. Why he fed Fury just enough to keep him curious, while buying himself time.
Then came the real twist: Professor Erik Selvig had vanished.
At first, Daniel hadn't thought much of it. Selvig was an academic, not a player. But when Jane Foster mentioned that she couldn't reach him—and S.H.I.E.L.D. claimed he was "assisting with a classified project"—Daniel knew something was off.
Selvig wasn't just assisting. He was working with the Tesseract.
Daniel remembered now. When Loki struck, Selvig and Hawkeye had been the first to fall under his control. So if Selvig was in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, then so was the Tesseract.
Too late to extract anything from Selvig now. He was under constant watch. Every word he spoke was filtered, analyzed, scrubbed.
That left only one option: Nick Fury himself.
And the only leverage Daniel had?
The rune circle.
Fury didn't want war. What he wanted was an escape hatch—an insurance policy. If Earth ever faced extinction—say, at the hands of the Kree—Fury wanted a backdoor to Asgard.
He hadn't expected Thanos.
And once the Mad Titan's armies arrived, everything would change.
The Tesseract would be a target.
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