Lynn stayed in Asgard for two more days.
The remnants of the Dark Elves were wiped out by Thor and his men in the early hours of the next day, and the guards of the Golden Palace regained control of the city gates and towers.
The charred marks from the battlefield still lingered on the stone bricks, and the smell of gunpowder mixed with the morning mist in the air created an indescribably strange atmosphere.
On the morning of the third day, Lynn found Odin.
He walked through the long corridors of the Golden Palace and found All-Father, sitting alone in a side hall. Odin was leaning back in his large chair, the Gungnir resting on the armrest, his gaze passing through the half-open window and landing on the distant, still-unrepaired city walls.
Lynn stood at the door for a while before going in. Odin didn't turn around, but simply raised his hand, gesturing for him to sit. Lynn didn't sit. He walked to the opposite side of Odin and stood very straight.
"After looking into things for the past two or three days, there are some things I'd like to clarify with you in advance."
Odin turned his head, looking at him with his one eye. "Speak."
Lynn didn't beat around the bush. "At Ragnarok, I will do my best to help Thor preserve most of the gods. Afterwards, I will find a place on Earth where they can continue to live and won't be treated as refugees. I will discuss the specific arrangements with Thor; neither of us will take advantage of the other."
Odin's eyelids twitched, but he didn't interrupt.
"The price is, I want the Tesseract."
The side hall fell silent.
The clanging of metal from soldiers clearing debris on the city walls drifted in from outside the window, distant and indistinct. Odin tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest. He looked at Lynn without speaking, as if getting to know this young man from Earth all over again.
What do you need it for?
"You should know that there's a purple-skinned sweet potato who's collecting Infinity Stones all over the universe."
Lynn spoke directly, his tone devoid of any jest, "Whether or not Ragnarok can be avoided, your time is almost up. At that point, some things won't be safe here. I need to control all the variables. At the very least, I can make things as difficult as possible for that purple-skinned sweet potato."
Odin remained silent for a long time before finally nodding.
"It's not necessarily safer for you to keep it than for it to stay here."
His voice was deep, " The Ancient One is gone, and no one knows how much longer Earth can maintain peace. You're willing to take this responsibility for Asgard and Thor, so I can't just leave without showing my appreciation. Take it."
After he finished speaking, he waved his hand in the air. The clear blue Tesseract emerged from the void and slowly fell in front of Lynn. Lynn caught it in his hand, his fingertips touching the cool Cosmic Cube.
Thank you.
Odin ignored him and turned his gaze back to the window. "Go."
When Lynn returned to Earth, he went straight to Tony's lab.
Tony was sitting at the holographic workbench, not even looking up. Only when his peripheral vision caught sight of what Lynn was holding did he completely stop what he was doing. He stared at the blue-glowing Cosmic Cube.
"Why did you go out and bring this thing back?"
"There's a purple-skinned sweet potato guy who's been collecting these things all over the world."
Lynn tossed the Tesseract into Tony's arms, "I'll save him the trouble."
Tony caught the Tesseract, glanced at it, then looked up at Lynn with an indescribably strange expression.
Lynn didn't explain further, but tilted her head slightly towards the underground vault. "Have someone send him to the underground vault. I don't have time to run around with him every day."
After saying that, he raised his hand and opened a portal, returning directly to his small apartment downstairs.
The house is very quiet.
Natasha was curled up on the sofa, a light-colored blanket draped over her, with a tablet resting on her lap.
She looked up when she heard him enter, and a smile appeared on her lips when she saw him come in.
Lynn walked over, squatted down in front of the sofa, hugged her, and sighed deeply.
"Tired?" She placed her hand on the back of his head and gently rubbed it with her fingers.
"Fine."
Lynn closed her eyes. "At first, I just wanted to live a quiet and peaceful life with the person I love, but unfortunately, trouble always finds its own way."
Natasha didn't reply, but quietly stroked his hair gently, one stroke at a time. Her touch was light, full of her own tenderness. After a while, she suddenly spoke.
"I also had a happy childhood. In Ohio, I lived in a very ordinary neighborhood with a house and a yard. I had a younger sister named Yelena. Yelena was very young then, and she followed me around all day, and I couldn't shake her off."
"That was in 1995. From the outside, our family looked no different from any other United States family. My father could fix cars, and my mother would cut flowers from the garden and put them in vases. Yelena and I went to school, came home for dinner, and squeezed into a small room at night."
Lynn knew what she was talking about. He didn't move, but just listened quietly.
" Alexei and Melina are not our biological parents. Yelena, like me, was adopted. Alexei is Red Guardian, Melina is a former Black Widow agent. They were ordered to come to the United States, posing as a family, to infiltrate and steal intelligence."
Natasha's voice was calm and even. "I didn't realize it at the time; I really thought I had a home."
She paused for a few seconds. The wind outside lifted a corner of the curtain, then it fell back down.
"Later, their identities were exposed. During the escape, Melina was shot, and her blood stained the entire seat red. I was sitting in the passenger seat at the time, and I didn't have time to think about anything. I mechanically followed Melina's instructions and piloted the plane. At that moment, all I could think about was getting my family out of there."
She lowered her head, a strand of hair slipping down her forehead and obscuring half her face. "We escaped to Cuba, and then Dreykov took Yelena and me away. Our so-called parents—one acquiesced, the other was powerless to stop it. Our home was gone just like that; those three wonderful years felt like a dream."
Lynn looked up at her. He reached out and took her hand.
Her hands were a little cold, so he brought them to his lips and gently touched them.
Natasha's voice lowered even further. "I'd forgotten all about it until the last two years, when I slowly started dreaming about her and our time in Ohio, and that's when I remembered. It's a pity the Red Room is gone, and Dreykov died because of my assassination. It's ridiculous, isn't it?"
"It's not laughable. Do you know how Yelena is doing now?"
"I don't know. I haven't heard anything about the Red Room since I killed Dreykov."
He sat down next to Natasha and gently pulled her into his arms.
She buried her face in the crook of his shoulder, her breathing shallow.
Lynn tightened his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head, and smelled the faint fragrance of her hair.
He calculated the time; Yelena should have regained her senses by now.
It's raining again in New York outside the window. Fine raindrops slide down the glass, like many unspoken words that eventually turn into long, trailing watermarks.
"You might not know this, but the Red Room still exists, and Dreykov isn't dead. Let me go with you to find her sometime and bring Yelena back."
Natasha looked at Lynn in disbelief and said, "Impossible, Dreykov is dead. The Red Room is gone too. Barton and I planted the bomb ourselves. We blew up a five-story building to make sure he was killed."
Lynn didn't refute her, but simply smiled at her and repeated, "Shall we go and bring Yelena back? If you want, I can help you make Dreykov and the Red Room disappear completely."
Natasha didn't answer. She simply raised her hand and gently hugged him back.