Chapter 3 Revelation

An hour later, everyone was sitting in the large kitchen at Stark Tower, munching on finger food that Pepper had graciously prepared. The glass table was littered with plates, food and glasses. Ella sat in a chair with her legs tucked under her picking at a quartered turkey and swiss sandwich wedge and pita chips. Pepper sat next to her watching Thor and Jane eat.

"So you really decided to leave Asgard to live on Earth with Jane?" Pepper asked still not quite believing the sacrifice.

"Of course." Thor's reply was as nonchalant as picking out what socks to wear on a cold day. "I choose to be here with her, would you not do the same for the one you love?"

"I'm not sure," Pepper replied eyeing Stark who was across the room pouring himself another drink. "You gave up an entire kingdom to come here. This place is not the stuff of fairy tales, but I'm sure you already know that. But that is what you left behind, a world worthy of fairy tales."

"We can return whenever we like," Thor replied chewing his sandwich with enthusiasm. "But I would always make the same decision if I had it to do all over again."

Jane smiled at him.

"Too much mush." Ella said dropping her pita chip onto her plate. "Lost my appetite."

Jane laughed and watched Ella take her plate to the sink.

"Where are you going, Muffin? Stark asked watching Ella put her plate down and start to walk away. "It's your turn to do dishes!"

"Seriously? You have a dozen housekeepers for these things Stark. I shouldn't have to do dishes!"

"You hate dishes, that's why you should have to do them," Stark replied giving her his sweetest smile.

Ella wasn't feeling up to bantering with Stark so instead of replying she rolled her eyes at him and walked back to the table, taking a seat next to Phil. "So, what's the deal?" Ella asked in a very low tone, not wanting her voice to carry over the rest of the conversation in the room.

"What do you mean?" Phil asked, looking at her innocently. She could tell by the look in his eyes he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Don't play me Coulson. You know what I'm talking about. Fury told us you were dead. Being what I am and doing what I can do, I know he must have believed it at least when he told me. So then I find out you are alive and apparently well. You were the only friend I had at SHEILD, or anywhere else for that matter and you never once bother to give me the heads up? I'm sorry to sound hurt or whatever, but believe it or not, I more or less thought you cared about my feelings. There was no… 'hey I'm alive,' or 'screw you Dalton'! There was nothing from you!" She hadn't meant to raise her voice but after having a chance to think about it and having Phil right here in front of her now she knew Stark had been right to feel the way he had earlier about Phil's reappearance. Thought she would rather pull out her own eyeballs with a rusty spoon than admit that to Stark.

"Ella, you know better than that." Coulson smiled at her, his eyes twinkling as he spoke. "I would never call you by your last name."

She laughed not meaning to. "Damn it Coulson, I hate it when you do that to me. I never can stay mad at you, no matter how hard I may try or how much I may want to."

The smile faded from his lips as he heard the sincerity behind her words. "You know I can't tell you anything about it Ella. I'm sorry. A decision was made for the greater good of SHEILD. You know the drill. The most important thing at the time was the AVENGERS initiative. That's it."

Ella nodded. "Of course it was. Always the greater good of SHEILD. Whatever." She waved her hand as if to clear the air." I'm just glad you're still alive Coulson, but you have got to get me out of here. Stark and I are going to try to kill each other soon. I can feel it coming."

"Ouch! That stings Muffin!" Stark replied apparently eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Have you made any further discoveries regarding Ella's talents?" Phil asked Stark attempting to redirect the conversation.

"Well, not as far as the origin of her abilities. But the abilities themselves seem endless unless you ask her to clean up something." Tony sneered at Ella." So far we know she has the ability of telekinesis, she appears to be clairvoyant is some situations, she can definitely start random fires and she has the incredible ability of being a huge pain in the ass. She can almost duplicate herself, God forbid the day that happens, one of her is certainly enough. And last but not least she has a mood control button. Bruce helped me discover that little feature. It was an amazing experiment."

Ella wanted to hit him really hard for talking about her like one of his electronic gizmos he kept in the basement.

"Yeah, amazingly destructive and messy," Pepper corrected Stark.

"Banner let her work on him?" Phil asked. "How did you get close enough to touch the Hulk to calm him down?"

"I don't have to have physical contact anymore." Ella spoke quietly. She hated talking about all of the shit that made her a freak.

"Is there anything else?" Coulson asked, sensing Ella's discomfort with the topic. Everyone was listening to them now.

"She's a very talented which," Stark replied in a sing song voice. "But her biggest talent is being a bitch!" He laughed, extremely pleased with his joke.

Ella let it go, deciding to allow Stark to have his fun for now. She would get him back in a more subtle way later. Maybe she would lace one of his suits with red ants. "No one can figure out where it comes from though," she said to Phil. "It's great I have all this talent and can do all of this weird stuff, but why?"

"If I did not know better, Thor said rising from his seat and coming to stand next to Ella. He placed a large hand on her shoulder. "I would say you have been blessed with Asgardian magic."

Ella simply sighed looking back at Coulson who stared back knowingly. "So, you never did tell me, what you all are doing here. I understand why Phil is here, I think, but what about you two?" Ella was desperate to change the subject as she shifted her attention back to Thor and Jane.

"I wanted to make sure all of the Avengers were aware that Thor would be living on Earth for the foreseeable future and to inform everyone that Loki is no longer a threat," Coulson replied. "But if you think he is still alive…"

"I know he is," Ella said taking a deep breath. "But he isn't a threat, not to us anyway."

"How can you be so sure?" Thor asked, squatting down beside Ella so he could look into her eyes.

"Sure that he is alive or that he is not a risk to us? Ella asked simply.

"Alive." Thor responded quickly.

Ella thought about the question for a moment before taking Thor's hand from her shoulder and holding it between both of her own much smaller ones. "How long have you and Loki been brothers Thor?" She asked, gazing intently into the endless blue of his eyes.

"More than a thousand Earth years," He replied staring back at her not blinking.

"You were close?" Ella prodded him.

"Not always as close as I would have liked, but as children, we were very close, we shared everything." Thor responded, his voice was thick with the emotion of the memories, he found himself unable to look away from Ella's gaze. Her eyes were the same color as some of the most beautiful emeralds he had ever seen.

"If Loki were truly gone Thor and you were never going to see him again, there would be an undeniable emptiness in your soul, an emptiness that only your brother could fill. His place in your heart would truly be empty because he would be gone, not just from sight but gone from everything." The rest of the people in the room looked on, not quite understanding what was happening between Ella and Thor. If she had to try to explain it to them, she could not have done so. "Do you feel it Thor? Does that place in your heart that belongs only to Loki feel completely empty? Or can you feel the faint vibration that belongs to his life force, a life force that you know so well. It's that same vibration that we leave behind when we meet someone for the first time, our lasting impression, good or bad we always leave a piece of ourselves behind. I know that if I can feel your brother, you must be able to feel it too. You know him like no one else Thor. Do you really think Loki is dead?"

There was a long silence. It felt like everyone in the large kitchen had been holding their breath watching the Asgardian and listening to Ella's words.

Finally Thor broke eye contact with Ella. "She is right." He stood from his crouch next to her. "Loki is alive. I must return to Asgard, inform the All Father and find my brother."