It was mid-afternoon at Stark Tower. Tony and Bruce were working together in the lab. Part of the reconstruction of Stark Tower had involved changing the layout so the Avengers could work together comfortably when needed. Tony and Bruce had taken advantage of this opportunity for quite some time.

JARVIS interrupted their chatting abruptly. "Sir, it seems that a person has appeared in your living room." Tony's penthouse was one floor above the lab where the men were working. The other Avengers had living space on the lower floors. Jane Foster had even been provided a lab and living quarters for her, Darcy Lewis and Erik Selvig to use. The Bifrost had been rebuilt so Thor was able to return to earth regularly.

"JARVIS, What do you mean appeared?" Tony replied. He look quizzically at Bruce as they both stopped working.

"Sir, there have been no security breeches, no one has entered through any of the doors or windows. The person just seems to have appeared."

Tony began to pull up the video feed on his screen as Bruce wandered over. "What are they doing JARVIS?" "Sir, she seems to be sitting in the far corner of your living room by the window"

Tony and Bruce looked at the video feed and saw a person huddled in the corner as JARVIS indicated. Her knees where pulled to her chest, with arms wrapped around, her face was buried between her chest and legs.

Tony pulled up the recorded video feed from the previous few minutes. One moment the area was empty and the next the figure appeared sitting on the floor away from the wall. She had then scooted across the floor to the corner, where she now sat.

"Jarvis, is she armed?"

"No, Sir."

Tony and Bruce decided to investigate and find out who this person was and how they got into to his secured building. Tony put on one of the arm pieces to of his suits as a precaution and they entered the elevator. When the elevator opened on Tony's floor they carefully walked into the open floor planned living space. They slowly approached the person in the corner. She sat huddled in the corner without movement. She was wearing a dark green t-shirt and black pants and black boots. She was thin, her skin, that they could see, was pale. Her black hair appeared to go just past her shoulders. It looked damp and sloppily hung around her head. As they got closer they could see large purple and black bruising on her arms. Her hands were bloodstained. Her wrists had deep purple indentations that seem to be from being bound. They looked at each other with stunned acknowledgement of what they were seeing. They stopped when they were about 6 feet away from her.

Tony started in an even toned voiced. "Uh, hey…excuse me…how did you get in here? Do you need some help?"

The woman…girl…young woman… they couldn't tell how old she was, peered up so only her eyes were visible overtop her knees. They were a piercing green color. Tony and Bruce froze for a moment and then looked at each other. They had seen those eyes before. Just then, the girl took one of her hands and hid it in the crevice between her legs and chest. She then pulled out a small piece of folded paper and reached her arm out to the men.

Tony looked at Bruce, "I don't like to be handed things."

Bruce crept over and took the paper from her battered and bloodstained hand. He went back to where Tony was standing and they both looked down at the paper as Bruce unfolded it. Written on the paper in easy to read printing was:

I am the child of Prince Loki, the traitor.

The crown-price of Asgard, Thor, is my uncle.

I wish to speak with Thor.

Tony spoke up, "Thor isn't here."

She reached back in the space and produced another note and held it out to the men.

Heimdall will be able to alert Thor.

You can call out to him and tell him what I require

Just call out his name.

The men looked at each other quizzically. Tony thought and shrugged at Bruce. "We got to give it a try, just to see what happens." He did as the second note instructed. "Hey, Heimdall. Uh, we have a girl here who has given us a note that says that she is the child of Loki and she needs to talk to Thor." Tony looked at the girl, "Okay, now what?" The girl produced another note from the hidden space. It read, "We wait."

15 minutes had passed and Tony and Bruce sat in chairs that they has pulled out to the area that they had stood at before. The girl had tucked her face back into the space between her knees and chest after she had handed them the last note. Just then clouds started to stir and the rumble of thunder was heard. There was a knock on the glass of Tony's sliding glass door leading to the patio. Tony rushed over and open the door.

"Where is she?" Thor asked in a hurried manner as he rushed inside.

"Over here," Tony said as he led the way over to the corner of the living room.

"Heimdall told me what he saw transpire between you and her"

Thor walked over to her but stopped short when he saw her and her state. Thor sat Mjolnir down and knelt down on the floor about 5 feet away from her. In a soft voice he called to her. "Hela?" The girl looked up from her hiding spot again so only her eyes were showing and looked at Thor. Thor inched closer to her, almost crawling, so that he was right in front of her. She was visibly trembling. "Hela, what happened?" She just looked at Thor with only her eyes. "Who did this to you?" No answer. "What are you doing on Midgard?" No answer but this time Hela's shook her head slightly back and forth.

"Can you answer yes or no questions?" Bruce spoke up. Hela's eyes drifted over to him. She nodded.

Thor began speaking again. "Did you come to Midgard on your own?" Hela nodded her head. "Did someone on Midgard hurt you?" Hela shook her head. "Do you know who it is that hurt you?" Hela hid her face as her breath hitched and she nodded her head. She peered back up from her knees. Thor looked down and around and thought for a moment in silence. He started to say something but stopped and thought again. "Do you wish me to bring your father here?" Hela calmed her breathing and nodded her head. Tony was just about to protest but Thor rose and ushered Tony and Bruce to a different part of the room.

"Hey, Point Break, You can't bring your psychopath brother back here. It's not going to happen." Tony piped up.

"I need to bring my brother here to find out what has happened."

"Seriously, just scoop her up with you, swing your hammer around and take her to Asgard and let her sort this out with daddy dearest there."

"I cannot do that"

"Why not"

"Because Hela…. is not really allowed in Asgard"

"What. Why not? Wait, isn't she family, though?"

"Yes. It's complicated. But know that if I could bring her to Asgard I would. I'm not even sure if my father will allow Loki to return here, but I must go and implore the Allfather to allow this"

"We've got to talk about this with the others."

After a few minutes Steve was in the room. Hawkeye and Natasha were out on a mission.

"So tell us then, why can't you bring Hela back to Asgard. Why do you have to bring Loki here?"

"Hela is Loki's only daughter. When she came of age, she was sent to rule the Realm of Hel. She is the Goddess of the Dead. She resides in that realm. She can travel freely, however, she cannot enter Asgard. She isn't exactly banished nor exiled…but..it…it's hard to explain. She may only enter Asgard once the Allfather has decreed that she can return. My father does everything with a purpose, sometimes we do not readily see what that purpose is"

"Your family dysfunction has set the bar at a whole new level. This would make a great reality show. You wouldn't even need producers creating situations, you guys do a bang-up job on your own." Tony chimed in. Bruce just shook his head. Thor look thoroughly confused.

"I must return to Asgard and request that my brother be released into my custody so that he can try to figure out what has happened."

"So she isn't normally this quiet?" Bruce asked

"No, quite the contrary. Something terrible has happened and Loki may be the only one who can get her tell us what."

"How do we know that your brother won't try to take over the world again? How do we know that this isn't a plan between the two of them?" Steve questioned

"I don't think that Hela and Loki have had contact in the last few years." Thor said still in thought. "Hela is very powerful. She has a biting tongue as Loki does. She doesn't possess the same madness and hate that Loki had, despite her removal from Asgard and appointment elsewhere. If my father allows Loki to return, he could bind his magic. He cannot strip him of the magic, as that is part of his being. But he could restrict it and not allow full use of his magic."

"Wait, you said, had." Tony said.

"What?"

You said she doesn't have the same madness that Loki had."

"Yes, my brother has been punished and has begun to realize the damage, pain and suffering that he has caused. He is trying to atone for his wrongdoing."

Steve looked at Tony and Bruce. "What do you think?"

"Do we have a choice?" Bruce answered.

"Fury is going to be pissed."

Steve leaves to go to SHEILD headquarters to tell Fury about the situation

"Sir, I think the only way we are going to be able to figure out what is going on and how this girl got here is to let Loki come and talk to her." Steve explained to Fury.

"You want be to allow a war criminal back on our planet?"

"Thor said that his magic could be restricted and he wouldn't be as powerful as before. With the team assembled, we will have close watch on him at all times."

"I don't like this. But I also don't like gods from other places randomly showing up in people's living rooms. Tell Thor he can bring his brother back her for the only purpose of tending to his daughter."

"Yes, sir"

Steve called Tony to tell his what Fury's decision was. "Fury, said he could come, but he may only be here to tend to his daughter and then he has to return with Tho."

"Very well. Thank you my friends. Please, watch over her until I return." Thor walked outside to the patio and left.

Tony and Bruce turned to look over at Hela, who's eyes had followed Thor out the door. Her gazed turned back to the two men, she closed her eyes and put her face back into her secure hiding spot.

Bruce walked to Tony's kitchen and got a glass of water. He walked over to Hela and sat the glass down close to her feet. "Here's some water."

She peered up at him and then down at the glass of water. She looked back up at him and bowed her head in an effort to acknowledge and accept his offering. He backed away watching her and noticed that she did not pick up the glass. He went back to listen in on the discussion.

"I can't believe Loki has one child. Does he have anymore?" Bruce wondered

"I don't know. Don't know if you can believe everything in the mythology either. I heard Jane and Eric talking about things that Thor indicated were not correct in some of the myths."

Pepper had come home during their discussion and they brought her up on what was going on.

Bruce kept watching Hela as they discussed things. He saw her pull the glass closer to her and dip two fingers into the glass. She pulled her hand into the hiding place for her face. She did that again two more times, before pushing the glass slightly away from her body.

A half an hour had passed since Thor had left. On the opposite side of the room, Thor and Loki materialized after Loki had teleported them into the Penthouse.

"Where is she?" Loki stormed over to Tony.

"Over in the corner."

"How did she get here?"

"I don't know. Jarvis just said that someone appeared in the living room. We looked at the video, she literally just appeared. We came up here to check it out and we found her just like she is. She handed us this note and the others when we communicated." Tony said.

Loki looked at her notes.

Bruce jumped in. "I think something is wrong with her mouth." All turn to look at Bruce. "I gave her a glass of water. She didn't drink it. She just dipped her fingers in it and put them into the place where she is hiding her face.

Loki look at Bruce for a moment and then walked over to the corner that Hela had been sitting in since she arrived in Tony's penthouse. He knelt down and touched her hand. "Hela"

The girl peered her green eyes out from their hiding place to meet her father's matching green eyes. Hela let a long breath out of her nose slowly.

Loki wrapped his slender fingers around Hela's bloodstained hand and sat all the way down on the floor almost beside her. "Hela, look at me."

Hela shook her head.

"Hela, look at me." Hela shook her and buried her face in her hiding spot.

Loki raised his voice slightly. "Hela, let me see your face." He took both of her hands and pulled them away from her knees. She stretch her legs out, still looking down. She slowly look up at her father as his expression sank.

She stared into his eyes.

Hela's lips had been sewn shut.