A Blind Mission

Kona groaned as she rolled over in her bed, hearing a small phone going off beside her. She opened her unseeing eyes and glared at her bedside table, glared at the phone even if she couldn't see it. She HATED that phone, because of who had given it to her, because of who called her, the ONLY ones who ever called her. She debated for a moment not answering, before she sighed, knowing that if she didn't, it would just keep ringing over and over or she'd end up with someone breaking down her door again.

She was NOT overly fond of being scared half to death while wearing nothing but a towel after showering in that manner again. The nerve of them to come barging in merely because she hadn't answered the phone! Why on earth would she have taken it into the bathroom with her to have a shower?! She had left it on her bed and stepped out to hear it buzzing away, a sign for a missed call. She had gone to pick it up, the towel around her, had just played the first message when the door had flown open with a crash, scaring her half to death as she whirled around. What went through the minds of people like that? To break into a blind girl's home?! She had been furious when the men started to sputter, seeing her like that, and apologize, and when she'd heard who they were and where they were from, how they worked for...she had thrown whatever she could at them. Her phone, her shoes, one of the pans she had managed to buy, anything she could get her hand on and use with one hand as the other kept the towel up. She'd chased them out and left a...very colorfully worded message after that.

"Stop calling me," she answered the phone, not even giving the person on the other end a chance to talk. There was only one reason they ever called her, one request they ever made and she ALWAYS refused them. She would have thought they'd pick up on it by now, realize that she was always going to say no to them, "I've told you once, I've told you literally a thousand times for years, the answer is NO. I will NOT join you. I will NOT help you. I will NOT be used again. You want to save the world, you figure out a way to do it on your own. I'm DONE."

She clicked the phone off and dropped it onto the bed beside her as she fell back onto her back, staring unseeingly at the ceiling above her.

It had barely been a minute before the phone went off again. She reached out and grabbed her pillow this time, moving it over her face as she screamed into it in frustration. This was slowly driving her insane. They didn't seem to know how to take NO for an answer. Every so often they'd call her, they'd request her help, request the use of her abilities.

She had…been having dreams.

Every since the events that had devastated New York years ago, she had been dreaming of things, things that seemed were yet to come. And it was all because of Agent Barton. When she had first mentioned to him that she had had a dream of Loki, of how he'd arrived on Earth so long ago…he'd confirmed that the way she'd dreamed it was how it had really happened. Ever since then, since being confronted with Loki and Thor and the truth of her past (what little she still knew of it) her dreams had gotten more…vivid, more…far-reaching. Sometimes it seemed that she could dream the future. She didn't often dream, she hated dreaming really.

Unless it was about Loki.

But that was just the problem too, the last dream she'd had of him had been of him standing before a man with one eye as he sat on a golden throne, Loki himself before him, bound in thick chains, before being led out by guards and thrown into a prison cell, locked away.

That was the last she'd dreamed of him and it worried her enormously. She'd been spending the last two years trying to do all she could to find a way to…Asgard, she believed Loki had called it. She had tried to find out more about herself, about who she used to be. She'd tried everything, hypnosis, meditation, recording her dreams (which didn't help as most were about the 'future'), researching myth and legend about the Norse Gods, trying for something, anything, to spark her memories, but they remained locked away as much as they had been.

But her dreams had put her on the radar of others and they kept harassing her, trying to get her to use them to benefit THEM. She had worked a bit with her dreams and sensations as much as she could since New York. Now that she realized she could dream the future and, at times, see the future in flashes in her head, she had tried to practice in them. She had tried to find some sort of control for them. It hadn't worked very well, it was like…whatever was blocking her memories was keeping her sight from increasing as well. It was like she could only tap into it when she wasn't aware or prepared for it. When she least expected it, it hit her, when she tried…she failed. It was enormously frustrating but it had afforded her an excuse to turn them down time after time, she wouldn't be of any use if her visions were so random.

It didn't mean they would stop though, no in fact they seemed determined to believe they could help her improve her gift.

And so she grabbed her phone.

"I said NO Agent Coulson!" she ground out, "I want nothing to do with SHIELD!" and hung up.

She had sat up, ready to throw her phone across the room…when it rang again. She flicked it open, "Leave me al…"

"Kona," Coulson cut in, his voice firm yet not loud, making her fall silent, "Please just listen, this isn't about SHIELD or anything. It's…"

"What?" she asked, a bit harsh, but she felt it couldn't be helped.

SHIELD had been the ones to lock up Loki, the ones to knock her out and let Thor leave with him. SHIELD had been the ones to manipulate Coulson's apparent death just to inspire their team of Avengers to go after Loki. If Captain America hadn't given that command and hadn't had her taken care of, she would have been there. She could have gone with Thor and Loki back…back home. But she hadn't been. SHIELD had seen fit to keep her back, and she'd been left on Earth. She didn't so much care about returning to Asgard, no, she could barely remember the place, she wasn't sure how much she considered it home any longer. No, she was…she was more focused on Loki, HE was her home.

And he'd been taken away.

And it had been a misery ever since, her, in her apartment, on Earth, knowing he wouldn't be let back, knowing he had to have been taken as prisoner if her dream was true, and knowing it was just her and her kitten…she'd changed his name. She couldn't bear to call him Loki any longer…that and she'd found out HE was really a SHE. She called the kitten Freda, she didn't know why just…it sounded familiar and it felt right.

Coulson sighed, "I've…found something out," he told her, "Something I'm not supposed to know. Something…YOU ought to know though."

"And what's that?" she asked, far more quietly this time.

She had made it abundantly clear to Coulson that he was NOT to call her unless…unless it was something to do with Loki. Oh she had raged when she found out the man was alive. She'd been in her apartment, idly sitting in her kitchen, a cold cup of tea before, when her door had been kicked in…yet again (she was starting to think she ought to invest in a steel door or something) and she'd been pulled out of her apartment and brought to another one of SHIELD's bases. Coulson had been there.

She'd slapped him.

Hard.

Because of him, because he'd let the others think Loki had killed him, they had gone after him with a vengeance, they had been even less inclined to believe her or Loki or Barton when they tried to stop the team from attacking him after the Hulk had beaten him. And there he had been, alive and well, trying to get her to join SHIELD.

She may or may not have punched him for that request.

It hadn't stopped the man from trying to contact her, from trying to appear randomly whenever she was alone somewhere outside her home. He appeared at the hospital, whenever she sat in the park, whenever she managed enough extra money for a small treat at a bakery…he wouldn't leave her alone. Half the time she felt like he was trying to understand why she kept saying no when she knew what it meant for the safety of the Earth. But when she'd explained everything that happened, everything she could vaguely remember, and everything she thought about SHIELD and Loki…he backed off. She felt like he'd been able to see how important Loki was to her, how…out of place she truly felt on Earth and he had seemed to understand. He had made her a promise that he would only contact her in the future if it was something truly serious.

He'd still called a few times to request her help on certain events taking place, which irritated her as, each and every time, she told him flat out NO, but…now…now it seemed like something might be happening.

"We've picked up some readings…in London, of an…anomaly of sorts," he began, "It's similar to the readings that we picked up in New Mexico."

She stiffened at that. She vaguely remembered something about New Mexico, that it was important, that it had a deeper meaning for her, like…it was the beginning and the end of something. She knew there was something about Thor, about him being on Earth. She winced, pressing a hand to her head, that was another little development, the more she tried to remember, the harder she tried…she got a headache, a sharp shooting pain, that made her stop.

"We think it might be a sign that…someone's coming."

"An Asgardian?" she breathed.

"We think," he emphasized, not wanting to get her hopes up, "I can't give you any specifics, I can't even tell you the location, but…you might find something in the mail that I CAN give you."

Kona frowned and pulled her phone from her ear when she heard a click ending the call. She got up and moved over to the door. She didn't even bother to change out of her night clothes as she made her way down the hall, her hand trailing it for guidance, down the stairs, to the mail boxes in the wall. She put her key into her slot and opened it, pulling out a single envelope. She opened it, feeling that there was a card within. She opened it, a piece of paper sliding into her hands as a voice spoke.

"Kona," Coulson began, his voice playing on the 'record your own message' of the card, "This is a ticket to London, one way, leaves at 2pm. Good luck."

Short and to the point, not that he could leave a long drawn out message on a card recording. But she looked in the direction of the paper, the ticket, and smiled. Before her eyes widened and she grabbed her phone, pressing a button.

"Eleven Twenty-Seven," a computerized voice spoke.

She let out a breath and turned, running back up the stairs. She had a plane to catch.

~8~

Jane Foster wandered through the halls of an abandoned warehouse in the middle of London, a small handheld device in her hand, trying to get ridings of what was most likely THE most incredible gravitational anomaly she had ever and would ever discover in her life. It was like this gap in the middle of the warehouse through which objects fell through one portal and out of one above it, over and over. Objects below the bottom most portal could float up towards it, lifted with a single touch, so much so that a child could lift a bus!

Which HAD actually happened, as startling as that was.

What had intrigued her most was that the signals they were getting off of the portal…they were almost identical to the signals that they'd picked up just before Thor had arrived in New Mexico. She was trying VERY hard not to get her hopes up but…it meant there was a chance that Thor was coming back, after years, after promising he'd return…he finally was.

Maybe.

She wandered through the halls, looking around as the scans picked up a stronger wave of activity down a darker hall. She had just turned towards it when a voice called out behind her.

"DON'T go down there."

She spun around with a gasp to see a blonde woman in a dull grey sweatshirt that seemed two sizes too big and black pants, no jacket, standing behind her. Her eyes immediately went to the white and red walking stick in her hand and up to the girl's own hazy brown eyes.

She swallowed hard, straightening, not wanting to show how startled she'd been, "And why not?"

Kona looked past her, down the dark hall, where a gentle breeze was drifting to them, a breeze that was not coming from outside as it wasn't windy out, raining, yes, but not windy. She frowned as she looked in the direction of the wind, it had taken her…ages to get there, far longer than it should have but…she hadn't slept at all on the plane there. She really HATED flying with a passion and had spent the entire trip sitting rigidly in the plan, in the middle seat as she had no need to look out the window nor was she going to attempt getting up to use the restroom at all.

She'd been awake since…she couldn't remember when, having only grabbed what she could carry in a single small bag…which was actually practically everything she had to her name on Earth. She grabbed the few clothes she had, she grabbed a trinket or two, and…that had been about it. She hadn't been able to take Freda with her though, but luckily the last year a lovely family moved in down the hall from her with a little girl who loved playing with the kitten. So she'd gifted it to the girl…and left before the parents could find out and refuse it. She'd landed and tried to find her way around…but she'd had no idea where to go or what to do.

She'd taken every spare piece of money she'd had and exchanged it, called a cab and…just driven around. She had closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could, praying that, just this once, her visions or foresight or sight or whatever the hell it was would not fail her. She had hoped that, with whatever the anomaly was that it would…she didn't know, tap into her psyche and let her sense the anomaly easier.

It hadn't worked.

It wasn't till they'd been driving and a car had suddenly swerved onto their street and then swerved left down an alley that she had gasped and ordered the cab driver to follow the car, just KNOWING that it would lead her to the anomaly. And it had. She'd asked the cabbie to tell her what was happening as they pulled up far enough away to not be noticed, but to still see the other car. He'd merely said that two women and a man had gotten out and walked into the building. She'd paid him and half-run out of the car to get to the building herself.

She'd followed the voices she could hear, being especially careful not to have her walking stick bang into anything and alert them to her presence. She'd followed that Jane woman when she'd heard another call her Jane. She knew (for who else could it be) that it was the woman that Coulson had been talking to Thor about when she'd been taken in by the Avengers. It was Jane Foster, a name that was far too familiar to her, a familiarity that stemmed from the part of her mind she knew was prior to her amnesia.

She'd followed the woman around, listening to her muttering and to the beeping of her device, and she'd…caught a glimpse, a glimpse of what was coming for the woman. She'd seen blackness, and stone pillars, and a red light, and Jane…a woman with brown hair gasping as the red was sucked into her…and then she'd felt the breeze, the breeze that couldn't exist and knew THAT was where it happened. She didn't know what it was or what would happen from it, but…Jane had seemed like she was in pain, so…she'd just wanted to help.

And if Jane died there might be less chance of her working out what the anomaly was and if it really would lead back to Loki.

Jane was waiting for a reply, she knew, but…how did one explain to a woman of science not to go down a dark hall because you'd seen it happen, being clearly blind, in a vision in your head? The woman would laugh her off and go anyway.

"I just…" she struggled to find the words, "I wouldn't go in there."

"I'm getting readings that I've never seen before," Jane told her, partially speaking the truth as she had no idea who this woman was or why she was there, "I'm not about to pass up finding out what they are."

And with that Jane turned and took a few steps into the hall…pausing when she felt a wind drift by her, before taking a few more…only to be sucked down the hall with a small scream that was cut off as she disappeared.

Kona straightened, listening before she sighed, "I TOLD you," she muttered. She took a breath and headed down the hall after Jane, starting to frown when she felt…no breeze at all. She walked farther, faster, but…there was no pull on her, no tug…it was like whatever that portal had been was gone.

"Please," she breathed, closing her eyes, praying, "Please tell me I haven't lost my way to him again."

~8~

Five hours later would find Kona sitting on the floor in the middle of the warehouse. It wasn't the same hall that Jane had disappeared through but…it was the only place she could find herself able to stop. She'd searched the entire building for the woman, for some flash of a vision to hit her but…none did. So she'd fallen to her knees in that spot and moved to sit back, curling her legs up to her chest, resting her chin on her knees and her arms around her legs as she tried to think of what to do. She could hear that woman, Darcy she'd heard a man calling her, frantically searching as well, never quite in the same spot, she was quite good at avoiding loud people, but she hadn't found Jane either. She could tell the girl was worried…especially when she heard sirens starting only moments ago, the girl had called the police.

Wonderful.

She had JUST pushed herself to her feet, needing to try and get out of there without being seen when she felt something shift around her. There was a small sort of…popping noise, a swishing noise…and then a thump, like something had hit the ground, not hard, but soft enough to make a noise. She quickly made her way over, her stick coming in contact with something that hadn't been there before. She knelt down and felt out, reaching a hand. She felt it, finding a device in it and let out a breath.

"Jane?" she called, moving her hand more up the woman's arm, to her elbow and shaking her, "Jane."

She heard the woman groan as she slowly woke, "What…" the woman began to speak, before she cut off, the sound of the sirens louder, "Darcy!" she hissed, getting up and rushing off.

Kona shook her head and ran after her, stopping in a doorway though so as not to be discovered. She…was hesitant just being around that Jane woman. She knew the woman was associated with, or maybe had relations with, Thor and that automatically put her on edge. There was just something about that man that was more than fearful to her. She was naturally alarmed by him, by the mere thought of him. She was…scared of him.

It was like she knew he'd hurt her in the past, like she wouldn't be able to believe he wouldn't hurt her in the future either. And what proof did he give her to the contrary? He arrived on Earth and Loki was ripped away from her. That hurt, that hurt so badly. And it hurt worse to know that he wouldn't have lifted a finger to defend his own brother, that he doubted Loki, that he didn't believe her. She had felt it when she'd been trying to get that stupid scepter off of that Natasha woman…Thor wasn't going to help at all. He was going to stand there and let them take Loki if she hadn't broken that scepter.

He had hurt her in the past, he hurt her in the present by taking Loki away, and she knew he would hurt her in the future, that was the pattern wasn't it? And now that she knew that Jane woman knew him, was close to him…it just made her all the more wary of her, of anyone associated with her. Because she could tell from the woman's words just before…it had NOTHING to do with readings being unique but with the prospect of what they held.

It was why SHE was there too, for the hope of reuniting with the men they loved. Jane was there investigating the anomaly too, she wanted to be with Thor as much as (though she doubted anyone could want to be with another as much as) she did Loki. And this was probably their only chance. It wasn't the readings, it was the hope of seeing Thor once more. She'd heard it in Jane's voice, the hope…the love.

Jane loved Thor and she knew from how SHE felt about Loki that Jane would take Thor's side no matter what. Whatever Thor did Jane would forgive him and she would support him. And anyone like that made her cautious, because that meant she couldn't trust Jane either. She could guess what Jane knew of the events of the past (probably more than she herself knew) but she also felt like…Jane wouldn't know the truth, THOR hadn't even known the truth from what she'd gleamed off of Loki.

Jane, the moment she found out that she was Loki's…would not trust her, she'd refuse to help her, and she would be left to her own attempts to see him again as well. She'd probably even be slapped for the role Jane likely thought she'd played in it all.

"Darcy!" she looked in the direction of outside when she heard Jane shout, and frowned…it should have been muffled by the rain she could hear feeling but…it was like there was no rain falling just ahead of her. She held out her hand, but felt nothing, she doubted there was some sort of awning or outcropping above her or she would have heard the rain splattering on that…it was just…like the rain stopped falling above them, like it fell but just never reached them.

"Jane!" the girl, Darcy, gasped and she could hear the girl rush over to Jane, "Where the hell were you?"

"Tell me you didn't call the police!"

"What was I supposed to do?"

"Not call the police!"

"I was freaking out!"

"You call the cops, they call the feds, the next thing you know we have SHIELD crawling all over Area 51ing the place…"

Kona let out a breath at that, at least now she knew, without a doubt, that this WAS Jane Foster, that was the only way Coulson would know about her and Jane would know about him. And it alarmed her quite a bit because…SHIELD DID know about it, or at least Coulson did. She honestly wasn't sure if Coulson himself had located the anomaly, or one of his agents had, and he merely hadn't told the higher ups about it, or if SHIELD was just waiting to see what would come of it.

The first was FAR more likely, SHIELD would have been swarming the place if they knew about it and…she knew that Coulson had been there when Thor had first been on Earth, he had access to the readings. If similar ones popped up, he would know it either had to do with Thor or Loki and…it seemed he was trying to give her the chance to get back to her home (or give Jane the time to stop the anomaly) before he was forced to tell the managers about it. She would have to remember to ask him which it was and thank him if it was the former.

"Jane!" Darcy tried to cut in.

But Jane was far beyond annoyed at the moment, "We had a stable gravitational anomaly, we had unheeded access. Our only competition was ten years old!"

Kona sighed, she knew what that was. It wasn't irritation at Darcy for calling the cops, for an anomaly of such a magnitude being pulled away from her…it was her seeing that her one chance to be with the man she loved was nearly compromised. She was…actually a bit cross with the girl as well. If the cops came in, if SHIELD was alerted to this…it would mean none of them would be allowed near the anomaly again. SHE would be forbidden to go near it as well if they caught her there.

"Jane you were gone for five hours!" Darcy finally managed to get in.

"What?" Jane breathed, sounding truly alarmed…

She couldn't see what was happening but she could hear Jane shifting, as though she were looking around and guessed that perhaps she'd noticed the falling rain…or lack of it that seemed to be happening just around Jane. She could make out the rain hitting the ground in other areas, it was like there was a circle around Jane, protecting her from the rain.

"That's weird…" Jane began, before she heard the woman trail off and gasp. She frowned not sure what was going on or why Jane had stopped but then she'd heard the girl move, walking away from Darcy, closer to her, closer to the alley she knew was beside the building.

She slowly crept out from the building, not even wincing as the rain began to fall upon her once more as she followed the sound of the rain not hitting the ground to the corner of the alley. She turned and pressed herself against it, her back to it as she listened, not willing to stick her head around it and risk being seen by someone else (for clearly Jane HAD to have seen something to distract her so) when she couldn't see them herself. She listened, straining her ears through the sound of the rain for any hint of what it could be…and then she got it.

"Jane."

She froze, her heart stopping in her chest as she felt like the rain that had been pouring had suddenly turned bitterly cold, her mouth dropping open as her eyes widened at the familiar voice. And not a good voice. She swallowed hard, before closing her eyes, trying to press herself more against the wall behind her, because now she knew what had captured Jane's attention, something she SHOULD have guessed at as there was only one thing that would have been able to hold her own attention in such conditions and pull her away from the hope of finding Loki again…if Loki had been standing in front of her already.

And that voice…she knew it now.

Thor had returned to Earth.

A/N: We're getting VERY close to the return ^-^ I wanted to take a chapter to look at what Kona was doing on Earth at the time Loki was left in chains. Lol, did you like the little nod to Coulson and his Agents? ;) Can anyone guess who 'Freda' is? ;)

Some notes on reviews...

We'll have to wait and see about the ending and when/if Kona's memories come back ;) As for Tatty bye...Ken Dodd? :)

Lol, I don't think it's bad, we'll be seeing more of Odin and his thoughts/reasons for reacting the way he is later ;)

I think Odin will be stun by betrayal yup, but Kona might just have something to say about that, in relation to Thor and some other 'betrayals' the House of Odin endured ;) I can't say about Frigga though, we'll have to wait and see }:) Yup, this story will be 10 chapters long :)

Lol, Loki definitely doesn't need enemies with Odin acting like that :( I can say there'll be a little twist about who the 'king' is, I noticed something particular about the King at the end that doesn't appear with the King at the start of the movie that will be mentioned and explained later ;)

Oh Kona will definitely slap Thor ;)

That's an awesome song, I think it definitely fits the story very well :)