A.N. I do not own Inuyasha or Avengers.

"Look, we need to make a move," Tony declared heatedly. "The first twenty four hours when a person is missing are the most crucial and we're almost halfway there. So, come on, all seeing one, give us a lead!"

Heimdal stared impassively at Tony. "Some go beyond even my eyes."

"What of the priestess, Lady Kagome? My brother is adept at hiding himself, but surely one of her power must be difficult to conceal," Thor pointed out.

Turning and focusing, the watcher frowned. "There was… a ripple, as if to disguise someone. In Jotunheim. It is already gone though. I can not guarantee it is her, but it is all I can do."

"All you can-" Tony started angrily.

"It is a start, Man of Iron. I shall lead the Warriors Three and perhaps Lady Sif to Jotunheim to investigate-" Thor began, tone calm.

"Oh, no, however thin the lead is, she is my daughter and I will be going!" Tony was completely enraged at the idea of being left behind. "I will go to Jotunheim and I will find her."

"That's not a good idea, Stark," Natasha told him with a frown. "Not for you, or us. Jotunheim is supposed to be so intensely cold that a human wouldn't survive more than a few minutes before succumbing to hypothermia."

"Frankly, you need to consider that Kagome might not be… well." Clint caught Tony's hand before he could strike him, a hardline understanding in his eyes. "She's your daughter and she's immortal, but she has the body overall of a human. If she isn't okay, you need to be prepared for that. But you won't make her any better by freezing to death looking for her."

Bruce rested a hand on Tony's shoulder. "We'll get her back."

Clearing his throat, Steve stepped forward. "I'll go Tony. I don't know how I'll handle it, but I will handle it to bring your daughter back to you."

Looking like he would not tolerate this, Tony wrenched free and took out his cellphone before stalking away a few paces, as if searching for a signal. He pressed a button and put the phone to his ear.

"No way you have signal here," Natasha declared, arching an eyebrow.

"I'm Tony Fucking Stark-I am never without working tech," Tony shot back, all cockiness and confidence.

x~x~x

Emiko looked up at her Lord when she noticed his pinched expression. "What is it?"

Sesshomaru held up his phone, vibrating as the name 'Stark' flashed on the screen. He answered the phone grudgingly. "What is it, Stark?"

"Well hello to you too!" Tony replied snarkily. "Listen, Kagome is probably in Jotunheim. I would rather be flayed alive than not go after her, so I figure you probably have some magic mumbo jumbo to keep me alive and I'm pretty sure you are the best tracker once we're there."

Pausing for a moment, Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. "This one has a pathway to Jotunheim. Though you should not come."

"Meet you there." Tony hung up with a click.

Walking to Emiko, Sesshomaru took her hand a moment and squeezed gently. "This one will return with Kagome."

"Where are you going?" Emiko asked softly.

"He's going to the castle in the sky… His mother can open gates to different realms." Shippou padded into the room quietly. "It's okay. Go ahead and go. Take the distance tracker."

"Keep them safe." With that, the stoic male disappeared.

x~x~x

Shivers ran through Kagome's body constantly at this point, her skin tingling. She could not stand anymore, forced to sit in the snow. "I… I can't…" Her lungs ached and she didn't even know who she was talking to.

"Why do you make yourself suffer this way?" Loki asked softly, kneeling to be on her level. When he reached out, her barrier crackled to life and he yanked his hand back. "Your flesh is almost entirely blue and the only thing keeping you alive is the very power that puts you in this predicament."

"I can't… let you have it… let you have me…" Kagome crawled away from him, her body heavy before she collapsed again. "I will never give you what you want."

"Such power…. And yet you are a creature worthy of pity." Loki appeared to have disgust pulling at his lips, almost sneering at her weakness. His hand shot out again and this time, he endured the pain, pressing through the barrier to touch her skin. "I overestimated you… You are going to die very soon."

"Hm…" Kagome suddenly grabbed his arm and lashed out at his face with her free hand.

The smile on Loki's face after she struck him was disturbing to say the least. "So much fight in you…" He yanked her into his lap, feeling her residual warmth beneath her icy flesh. "Do you have the strength to go on though? Or will you break with tenderness, rather than force?" He ran a hand from her face down to her throat and to her collarbone. "Do you long for the touch of one who could be your equal?"

Wrenching free, Kagome kicked hard at the god and threw up a barrier anew. "Stay away from me, you-" She broke off, sensing a very familiar presence in the distance, as well as others.

Loki appeared to sense the same and he smirked. "Your father comes in time to die, if you will not choose me."

x~x~x

Icy wind seared at Tony, even through the suit as they touched down.

"Sir, the temperature here is highly dangerous. Shall I reroute the power of the suit to internal climate control?" Jarvis asked, though somehow the AI sounded slower than usual.

"Jarvis, buddy, how you doin'?" Tony replied, shivering.

"The temperature is affecting the circuitry of the suit and despite the enhancements, my signal routing back to the Tower is fading. If all power is routed to keeping the system up and going, you will have two hours. If power is not routed to keeping you at a normal temperature, you will die in minutes."

"Get out of the suit, Stark," Sesshomaru suddenly deadpanned, beside them.

Thor looked at the aristocrat with a frown. "The Man of Iron requires his armor-"

Stepping out of the suit felt like his skin was going to be torn from his flesh with a hot knife, but Tony did so. "You have something for me?"

Shoving a bundle of red cloth at the billionaire, Sesshomaru pulled an arrow from his sleeve. "You will keep up." He took out a vial of powder and ran it over the shaft of the arrow and whispered a soft incantation.

Feeling the bite more intensely than he cared to admit, Steve tugged the cloak borrowed from Fandral a little closer to his skin. Their friends would not be doing well here, the serum that gave him his strength just enough to put him above human endurance.

Tony slipped on the red garments, feeling a heat in them that seemed impossible. "What is this?"

"Skin of the fire rat!" Volstagg volunteered, grinning boisterously. "A very rare commodity. Your people hunted them out of extinction." He eyed Sesshomaru curiously. "You are not mortal."

Hogun looked unsurprised by the turn of events and looked at the arrow. "A way to track her," he guessed.

Walking back to his suit and letting it close him in, feeling warmer and slightly cramped due to the bulk of the items. "Lead the way, Tsukino."

The arrow began to pulse and rose into the air. A pink light surrounded it before it shot forward.

Not hesitating even a moment, Sesshomaru took off, allowing the others to trail him. He was unsurprised that Stark matched him in speed with the suit, so long as he flew. "You should conserve so as not to hinder."

"Not a chance! So, magic spell to find her?" Tony asked, curious about the familiar pink light that surrounded the arrow, reminding him of his daughter.

"That is the arrow your child buried in the heart of Naraku. It seeks its source," Sesshomaru answered, if only to keep the other man from asking again.

x~x~x

Panting with the effort, Kagome stood, facing the direction she felt her allies. She had to get to them before Loki, had to warn her father away… She took a step, muscles burning painfully as she moved. A sharp pain pricked at her heart as she felt herself reaching the end of her strength. Closing her eyes, she dug deep, feeling the stiff, almost atrophied power of her still newly recovered bit of soul.

It was rough, it felt not her own, but the power warmed her just enough to keep her moving. She shuddered as she took another step, feeling every ache acutely. "Please… Don't hurt my father…"

Amusement colored Loki's tone as he walked close to her. "It is almost the eleventh hour. I told you, if you do not bind yourself to me, I will kill one precious to you. If you wish to save your father, you will do what is required of you."

"You claimed that only to me. No one would know that you did not keep your word. Just give them a pass. You will not win me, Loki. You will not force this. All you will gain by hurting those I love is me as your enemy, for both of our long lives." Kagome reached out suddenly, her frozen hand gripping his. "An act of compassion… Put aside your goals, and I will work to see you freed."

Yanking his hand free, Loki's eyes burned with fury. "I am free, and I will never be a prisoner again. I am not an object of your pity, and I do not need you to save my skin!"

"If you are so powerful, than you don't need me!" Kagome shouted back, stepping forward with power radiating around her body. "I ask you for your compassion and you accuse me of pity! You are an idiot Loki!"

Just at that moment, an arrow came whistling through the air, sending them both leaping apart. There was only a beat of hesitation before Kagome went for it, launching herself at Loki with her weapon glowing with power.

Cold rage burned in the Frost Giant's eyes even as he grabbed her and turned her body so her back was flush with his chest, the arrow now in his own hand and pressed to her throat. "Come out, Lord of the West, or I will spill your ward's blood across the snow!"

It was not Sesshomaru that came out from behind the icy cliffs first, but Tony, guns blazing and pointed at Loki. "Let her go!"

"Is this what you prefer?" Loki whispered against Kagome's ear. "You can watch his despair as I slit your throat, bleed out with his pain on your conscience."

"Brother, release the Lady Kagome! She has no place in your conflict!" Thor bellowed.

Loki stepped back, feeling his brothers stooges at his back. "And what do you desire in this, Brother? Do you wish to shackle me and put me back in the Allfather's prison? I will never allow it."

"Then run away. I don't give a damn, Loki. As far as I'm concerned, you stay away from my planet and my kid and we're square. Just let her go!" Tony was focused on her blue lips, fear spiking inside him as he recalled the way his own flesh had felt. And she'd been here half a day… He stepped out of his suit suddenly and took off the red top. "At least put this on her!" And he threw it towards them.

Sapphire eyes widened and it was as if all slowed down for an instant. Sesshomaru's spray of acid sent her tumbling away and the words that came from her lips were nearly silent as glowing beads flew from the pockets of the fire rat haori.

Completely focused on the fighters coming at him as Sesshomaru was joined by Captain America and the Warriors Three, Loki could only let his hatred consume him as a necklace formed around his neck.

"Sit!" Kagome shouted, sending the 'god' plummeting face first into the snow. Triumphant but at the end of her endurance, the priestess fell forward.

x~x~x

Tony watched his daughter's chest rise and fall with more than a touch of parental worry. "How did you know I would do that?"

Not at all pleased to be a guest of Asgard, Sesshomaru cast a cool look at the sire of his ward. "You are not difficult to predict, Stark."

"But you knew, knew I'd go, knew I'd try to give it to her, knew she'd recognize the clothes… Or were you wagering it all on a guess?" the billionaire accused. "How could you know that I would react the way I did?"

Gold irises narrowed at the human male. "She is my ward." He looked out the window, glancing at their surroundings and standing clear so that the sunlight could seep into her skin. "She will be well enough to return by sunset."

Looking at his daughter's face anew, Tony frowned and sat on the bed beside her. "She's my kid… I never knew terror like when he held that arrow to her… but you had a plan the whole time." He ran the back of his hand over her face, feeling her warmth to reassure himself that she was well.

"She will always be in danger. She is coveted by any being who desires power. All that can be done is furthering her training." Sesshomaru walked to the bed and looked down at her, expression unreadable.

x~x~x

Loki glared through the window of his cell, spotting the reason he had been caught. "Do you plan on removing your degrading piece of jewelry before you return to Midgard?"

Kagome held her head high and stepped just before his cell. "No, I will not. Frankly, not too pleased about it-I had some sentimental feelings about those beads and I didn't want to put them on someone I really dislike."

"Dislike?" Loki sneered with contempt. "Can you not even muster hatred in that 'pure' heart of yours?"

"I can. But I don't hate you. I don't even pity you. Loki, you had every advantage you could have hoped for. I'm sorry that you have something inside you that feels so inadequate that you need a whole world to fill the void… But you are the only one who can do that. I ran across feudal Japan, in love with a man who would never love me back. It drove me crazy… But I am me. I can only be me. Inuyasha's love would not have made me feel better until I was okay in my skin."

"Are you attempting to bond with me over your insufficient self esteem?" Loki demanded, his lips curled in an unpleasant smile.

"No." Kagome met his gaze evenly. "I don't like you enough to 'bond'. It's just advice from someone hundreds of years your junior who has already figured this out."

"You believe you have figured this out?" Loki questioned, his eyes belying his contempt at the idea. "You are a fool of a girl, cast into an abyss of power that you are drowning in. I could have been your savior, could have taught you how to rise above your ingrained mortality."

Shaking her head, Kagome looked at him with utter disbelief. "You are unbelievably egotistical." She turned on her heel. "We'll see each other again. Your mother generously offered to further my training. I'll be back to check in on you."

x~x~x

Tony stared at Kagome over their shwarma, his eyes locked on hers. As much as he was enjoying this, her sudden interest in a private dinner at his place after assuring herself of her family's safety mystified him. "So…"

"Can we just eat?" Kagome asked with a sigh. When Tony shoved more food in his mouth almost dutifully, she finally smiled. "Okay… I wanted to spend time with you. Normal, father-daughter, eating meals and enjoying company time. When Loki threatened you, I was terrified. I… I love you, Tony."

"I love you too, Kagome." Tony was sincere for once, his eyes soft. "I'm glad you came home. So, are you really gonna go back to Asgard?"

"Sesshomaru helped teach me a lot, but I was practically helpless to Loki. Enough power would throw him back, but he overpowered me physically and I couldn't purify him. I need to know how to fight opponents I'm not used to." Kagome took a sip of her tea and smiled. "But when I get back, we should do this more often."

"I could teach you, I bet. A lot. Like fighting and tech and-" Tony started, hopefully.

"I'm not you. My way of fighting is going to be different. But I love you and I want to be around you. Just… We're going to need to accept some key differences and harsh realities." Kagome looked sad in that moment.

"Hey, look, I'm supposed to die before you. I'm your father, and it's going to hurt… But, it's worth it to me, to get to be in your life." Tony reached across the table and took her hand, squeezing gently.

Sighing, Kagome squeezed back and leaned across the table, pecking his cheek. "I'm glad I got to know you… Dad."

A.N. Well, that's the end of Secrets! I may do a sequel at some point, but for now, I've told the story I wanted to here. Thanks for sticking with me and reading through!