Surprise, Surprise

(AN: Thank you to my lovely reviewers! I love you all!)


"Father! Mother! It is good to see you!" Thor crowed, rushing out onto the balcony to greet his parents. I glanced at Loki and found him cowering on the couch, trying to hide behind a pillow, and tossed a blanket onto him in sympathy. He smiled at me for a second before pulling his head under the blanket and remaining completely still.

"Come, you must meet my Midgardian friends!" Thor boomed, leading his parents inside the Tower. The other Avengers were introduced to the gods, and I was beginning to think I had been forgotten about when they turned to me.

"And this is Lady Ryan. She has a suit of armor much like friend Stark's. Lady Ryan, these are my parents-" Thor introduced, but I cut him off.

"Odin and Frigga. I know of the legends, Thor. It is very nice to meet you." I said, inclining my head to the two. Odin gave me a surprised, but respectful, nod of the head, but Frigga stepped closer to me with a look of questioning curiosity.

"I feel that an enchantment has been placed on you, Lady Ryan. A disguise. But it was applied shortly after your birth," she said, giving a soft gasp of shock and turning to Odin before continuing, "by Loki. Odin, I believe we have found the lost Goddess."

It didn't take me long to figure out what she was thinking, and I promptly blacked out.


"Ryan!" Stark snapped, and my eyes snapped open to find eight people looking down at me worriedly.

Eight people, but only fifteen eyes, heheheh, I thought, noticing Odin's golden eye-patch for the first time.

"Yeah?" I asked, wary of the reply.

"May I have a word with you?" Frigga asked, and I nodded slowly, pushing myself off the floor and leading her to my room.


"Well, I always knew my father wasn't the best guy, but I didn't think he was that bad... Abandoning me under a spell for sixteen years! At least my mother is actually my mother," I said, and Frigga sighed sadly.

"Loki didn't want to abandon you, he told me that himself, but he knew you would be safer without him around." She explained, and I sighed, leaning against the wall and closing my eyes.

"Could you remove the disguise? I want to know what I really look like." I requested, a little nervous about having magic used on me, but if it was going to remove the magic that was already on me, I didn't mind as much.

"Yes, just stand still a moment." Frigga answered, and I froze in place, holding back a sigh as I felt a new lightness in my body, as if a large weight had been removed from my shoulders. I opened my eyes to find my eye level standing higher than usual, and I went into the bathroom to look in the mirror.

The disguise had certainly worked to hide my true appearance. I had long black hair, and it was still wavy/curly, but not as unruly as before, and green eyes with a few flecks of gold mixed in. I was easily a foot taller, as well, with a larger chest and much paler skin.

"Why do my clothes still fit?" I asked as I walked back into my bedroom, looking down at myself and finding that nothing had ripped or gotten too tight during the transformation.

"When I removed the disguise, I used a bit of magic to allow your clothes to change sizes to fit your body as it changed." she explained, and I thought of a new question.

"Can I use magic?" I asked, and when Frigga nodded, I sat down, taking off my shoes and concentrating on them. With a small flash of light, they were magically enhanced so that they wouldn't wear out no matter how much I wore them.

"Why did you choose your shoes to test your magic on?" Frigga asked, slightly amused.

"These are my only pair of everyday shoes, have been my only pair for about three years, and I've grown rather attached to them, oddly enough." I replied, and she laughed, standing and walking toward the door.

"While you were unconscious, I asked Odin to explain to the others about you, so they should know everything except your true form." she said, and I sighed in relief.

"Ah! Female Loki!" Stark cried, pointing at me in shock. Clint took out a knife and flung it at my head, but I threw myself to the floor to avoid getting hit. The impact was slightly more painful than it usually was when I threw myself to the floor to avoid getting hit by something, but it was probably because I was taller than I usually was.

"Clint, it's me, Ryan!" I snapped, picking myself up off the ground and brushing myself off habitually. All the Avengers were staring at me in shock, along with Loki, who was still hiding on the couch.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Fury yelled from the elevator, and I broke out laughing at his impeccable timing.

"Loki! You'd better explain this shit!" Fury snapped, walking over to me. I only laughed harder.

"Explain what, Director?" Loki asked, standing up from the couch and walking over to stand beside me. I looked over at him, matching up what I had seen in the mirror earlier to his appearance and dropping to the floor in hysterical laughter.

"Okay, which one of you is the real Loki, and where's Tillman?" Fury asked, giving Loki a death glare.

"Right- heheheh -here- heheheh -sir!" I choked out between laughs, lapsing back into hysterics once I had finished speaking.

"Why does Tillman look like a female Loki, and why is she rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically?" Fury asked, and Loki took over this round of explanations.


"So why is she rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically?" Fury asked after learning who, and what, I really was, looking pointedly down at me. I was still laughing like crazy.

"That, I do not know." Loki answered, also looking down at me. I tried to calm myself down, but I just couldn't, so I reached out for a notebook and pen on a nearby table. The items came flying toward me and I caught them easily, starting to write down an explanation of why I was laughing.

Once I had written down as much as I could, I handed the notebook up to Fury, who read it.

"It says, 'You have incredible timing, Fury, and that's what amused me in the first place. But then you thought I was Loki and that made it worse. Finally, I realized how much I actually look like him and... yeah'. Really, Tillman?" Fury read, questioning me at the end. I could only nod, clutching my abdomen in pain from how hard I was laughing.


Five hours later, I sat alone in bed, messing around on the computer and listening to music. From the corner of my eye I could see the door opening and Loki walking in, climbing up onto my bed and sitting down by my feet.

"Why couldn't you have made me five-nine instead of five-three?" I asked, not looking up from the computer screen. I could see Loki over the top of the screen, anyway.

"What do you mean?" he asked, and I sighed in exasperation.

"Well, today I grew exactly one foot in less than a minute. It wasn't painful, but it was pretty shocking, and I still have to get used to how tall I am and how long my arms are. I won't be making any large, sweeping gestures for a while, since I could hit someone with an arm and I'd feel horrible about it. Also, the ground is blurry from nearly six feet up! Five-nine to six-three would be much easier than five-three to six-three, don't you think?" I explained, and Loki adopted a thoughtful expression.

"I apologize. Sadly, though, I did not expect your true form to reach a height any more than six inches taller than your mother was, so I couldn't make any modifications to the spell for that purpose." Loki said, and I sat up straighter, looking him in the eye.

"If I'm half-Jotun, how do I have such bad eyesight? Did your disguise fuck up my eyes?" I asked, and he sighed, shaking his head.

"No, it did not. Your imperfect vision comes from your mother, the only reason your eyes aren't as bad as hers is because you're half-Jotun." Loki explained, and I sighed in defeat.

"Does my mother know who, or more exactly what, you are?" I asked, and he nodded.

"I asked her not to tell you for your own protection. The spell I placed on you also blocked your magic, and if I hadn't needed to do that as well as modify your appearance and height, the disguise would have been much more comfortable. Your back pain came from the spell having to compress your spine, and your joint pain from your legs having to be compressed as well. I am sorry to have caused you that pain, but it was necessary to bind your magic so that it didn't throw off the spell." Loki apologized, and I looked down at my knees, feeling for the bump that had been there since I was about eleven, but it was gone. Next, I lay down on the bed, waiting for the usual discomfort, but it didn't come.

"Finally!" I sighed, smiling as I sat back up and went back to my computer, another question coming to mind.

"Why do I sometimes have cravings for certain foods or drinks?" I asked, and Loki laughed.

"Now that, I can only attribute to your being half-human." he answered, and I smiled, glancing at the door and then at my phone.

"Miss Tillman, you have received a textual message from Brianna. Would you like me to read it for you?" Jarvis informed me, and I rolled my eyes at my phone.

"Yeah, sure." I said, staring up at the ceiling.

"It reads, 'Where exactly in New York do you live? I'm at the JFK airport, but I don't know where I'm supposed to go from here'. Would you like me to-" Jarvis said, but I cut him off.

"Reply, 'I'm coming to get you, look for a red convertible with me in it'." I said, turning to Loki. "Can you turn me back to what I usually look like to go pick up my friend from the airport?"

"Easily. Hold still for a moment," he replied, and I froze, wincing in pain as I felt my legs and spine get compressed. I looked in the screen of my phone, confirming that everything else was back to "normal".

"I have informed Mr. Stark that you will be borrowing a car to retrieve your friend, and Miss Potts is preparing a room for her as we speak." Jarvis informed me, and I smiled, getting down from my bed and leaving my room, heading for the elevator and hitting the "down" button.


"Hey Ryan!" Brianna said, getting in the car with me. I pulled away from the curb, heading back to the Tower.

"Remember how I was in that battle like a month ago?" I asked, and she nodded in excitement.

"With the Avengers, yeah." she said, and I smiled.

"Well, I'm living with them at Stark Tower." I said, and she got really excited at the prospect of meeting the other Avengers. "And there's something else, but I'll have someone else explain it when we get to the Tower, since I don't remember the story that well."

"Oh, okay."


"We have another guest!" Thor boomed happily, bounding over to us as we stepped out of the elevator. I smiled at Thor and pulled Brianna over to Frigga to have my story explained.


"I didn't even know any of that until, like, noon today, so please don't get angry." I pleaded with my friend, but she laughed.

"I'm not angry. Surprised, but not angry." she said, and I smiled widely, sighing with relief.

"Good."


AN: I'm not trying to make Ryan into a Mary-Sue, I just thought of this plot twist a while ago and really wanted to include it.

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