Thor looked offended while Loki looked murderous, neither listened. Instead, their anger seemed to turn toward each other again, each brother interpreting Eirlys's presence according to whatever had already taken root inside his mind. Loki saw her standing beside Thor and believed it confirmed everything he feared. Thor saw her desperately trying to protect Loki and could only conclude that her devotion had blinded her to what his brother had done.
Then Steve stepped forward. "Enough."
Vision moved with him, the two positioned themselves ready to intervene if the fighting resumed. Tony watched the situation deteriorate and muttered beneath his breath. "This isn't working."
Eirlys turned toward him. "What?"
Tony's helmet closed over his face. "If talking doesn't work, we'll try something else."
Before Eirlys could understand what he meant, Tony seized her by the arm and pulled her toward the edge, her eyes widened. "You piece of metal!"
He held her firmly at the corner of the platform, her feet dangerously close to the drop, Thor and Loki froze. Tony looked toward them. "Now we have your attention."
Neither of them moved, they clearly did not believe he would actually let her fall. Eirlys, meanwhile, stared at the enormous drop below her. She was too stunned to even be frightened properly. After a moment, she muttered under her breath, "So now a group of fancy mortals is going to try and stop a war between two gods. Grandiosity never seemed so real."
Tony's helmet snapped toward her. "What did you just say?"
Eirlys looked at him. "I said your plan is ridiculous."
That was enough, Tony's patience finally snapped. He tightened his grip and shifted her slightly farther toward the edge, though his other hand remained firmly positioned around her so there was no real chance of her falling. "Fine," he said. "Let's make this extremely simple."
He looked toward the two brothers. "You two stop fighting, or your princess takes a very unpleasant trip downward."
Eirlys glared at him. "Do not call me that."
Tony ignored her but Thor's face hardened. "Loki will not stop. Neither will I."
Loki's eyes remained fixed on Eirlys as Tony stared at them. For the first time, his confidence faltered. They really were willing to keep fighting. Even with her standing at the edge. And Eirlys finally understood something terrifying. Whatever had happened between these brothers was far deeper than she had realized.
She looked from Thor to Loki, then back toward Tony. "Perhaps," she murmured, "you should stop threatening me and start listening to them."
Tony's expression remained hidden behind his helmet. "That's what I'm trying to do."
"No," Eirlys said quietly. "You are trying to make them afraid." She looked toward the two gods. "And neither of them is afraid enough."
Eirlys realized that neither of them was thinking clearly. Her husband was consumed by jealousy and rage and her best friend was consumed by loyalty and anger. Neither seemed capable of seeing beyond what they believed had happened, and neither seemed willing to listen to her. If they would not listen to reason, perhaps they needed something else to shake them out of it. Eirlys looked toward the city below. Then, before Tony could understand what she was doing, she took a deliberate step forward, her foot left the edge.
Tony's grip slipped only because he had not expected her to move, and suddenly Eirlys was falling, Thor and Loki stopped fighting instantly. Both turned toward her, reaching out at the same time, their weapons forgotten as they lunged desperately toward the falling figure. But they were too far, Vision moved faster. He shot downward and caught Eirlys in midair, his hands steady around her before gently lowering her back onto the rooftop. Eirlys straightened herself, smoothing her robes as though she had not just fallen from a tower The entire battlefield had gone silent.
She looked at Thor and then at Loki. "Now," she said calmly, "will you two finally listen to me?"
Thor turned on Tony the moment Eirlys was safely back on the rooftop. "What in the name of the first thunder were you thinking?"
Tony barely had time to react before Thor stepped closer, anger radiating from him. "Are we not friends?"
Tony stared at him. "That's a little dramatic."
"How could you throw her from a building?" Thor demanded. "She was trying to protect the mortals!"
"I didn't throw her."
Thor looked at him incredulously. "I watched her fall."
"Yes, because she jumped."
The words silenced everyone, Tony's own voice had lost some of its confidence now. "I swear, I didn't push her. She stepped forward on her own. I was just as stunned as you were."
Steve looked toward Tony, then at Natasha. Neither seemed entirely certain what to make of the explanation.
Natasha's eyes narrowed slightly. "She actually jumped?"
"Yes."
Steve looked at Eirlys. She was standing beside Vision, completely composed now, though the faint tension in her shoulders betrayed how shaken she actually was.
Thor still looked furious. "You could have caught her."
"Vision did."
"After she fell!"
"Because we didn't expect her to jump!"
The argument continued, but Loki had stopped listening, he was still staring at Eirlys. For all his anger, jealousy and resentment, the sight of her falling had shattered everything inside him. His face had gone pale, and his eyes kept moving over her as though checking for injuries he could not see from where he stood. He wanted to ask if she was hurt, to go to her, and make certain she was breathing. The fact that she had deliberately thrown herself from the tower had frightened him more than he cared to admit.
Then Vision spoke, his voice remained perfectly calm. "You acted too irrationally for a subject who is currently hosting an unauthorized secondary life-form in her primary abdominal cavity."
Silence, every head turned toward him, Eirlys blinked and Thor stared. Tony's helmet tilted slightly. Steve looked genuinely confused and Natasha's eyebrows rose.
Loki finally found his voice. "She is what?"
Vision looked around at them. "The developing life-form. The pregnancy."
Eirlys's face went completely blank. For several seconds, nobody moved. Then Tony slowly turned toward her. "You're pregnant?"
Eirlys stared at Vision in horror. "I was going to tell them."
Vision nodded thoughtfully. "I understand."
Loki, meanwhile, looked as though the entire world had just shifted beneath his feet. Eirlys closed her eyes and let out a long, exhausted sigh. There was no point maintaining the concealment any longer. With a small movement of her fingers, the old Vanaheim enchantment dissolved. The magic that had subtly altered her appearance faded away, revealing what she had been hiding for months. Her pregnancy was unmistakable now. She was heavily pregnant, far enough along that she could feel the child moving beneath her heart, and with the uncertainty of Asgardian pregnancies, she knew the birth could happen at any time. The silence that followed was almost deafening.
Eirlys glanced toward Vision. "So that is why you kept hovering around me."
Vision nodded. "When I scanned you earlier, I detected an additional heartbeat. Your physiology indicated that you were carrying a child. I therefore determined that you required additional protection."
Eirlys's cheeks warmed. "I was hoping to tell them myself."
She looked toward Loki, who had not moved. His eyes were fixed upon her, his expression caught somewhere between shock, disbelief and something much softer that he did not seem capable of hiding. Then his gaze dropped briefly toward her stomach.
When he finally spoke, his voice was almost painfully quiet. "Is that… mine?"
Eirlys's expression softened, she gave the smallest nod. For one brief moment, Loki looked as though the entire world had stopped around him. Then his mind caught up with him, and the fear that had been buried beneath everything else resurfaced.
He looked at her again. "Then why did you hide it from me?"
Eirlys's eyes narrowed. "Because you were in prison."
Loki opened his mouth, but no answer came.
"And because," she added, her voice becoming more offended, "I have been trying to keep everyone alive while you and Thor have been attempting to destroy half of Midgard."
Thor glanced away as Loki remained speechless. Eirlys placed a hand protectively over her stomach. "I had planned to tell you when it will be a little peaceful ."
Something in Loki's face broke at that. But before he could say anything, Eirlys suddenly remembered exactly how he had behaved only moments earlier. Her eyes narrowed. "And after all of that, you still asked me whose child it was."
Loki's face fell. "Eirlys…"
"No." She lifted her hand toward the sky. "Heimdall."
The Bifrost opened above them. Eirlys stepped into the golden light with all the dignity she could gather. Behind her, Loki stood frozen and Thor slowly looked at him. "You truly have made a remarkable mess of this."