Angborn was not surprised that Fury wanted to speak with him but when he entered he found Triskelion's lobby eerily quiet. It was the quiet of something great that had been abandoned, and he idly hoped that the Triskelion did not stay quiet for long. There were only two people inside. One was at the reception desk and the other was waiting near an elevator. When Angborn walked inside the doors, the man at the elevator waved at him so that was who Angborn approached.

"Hello," Angborn greeted the person waiting for him, obviously a non-combatant.

"Hi," the human returned the greeting, tipping his head in respect. "I'm Leo Fitz. Hill asked me to show you the way to Fury's office."

"By all means," Angborn waved a hand towards the elevator, "lead on."

Fitz led Angborn to the elevator and they walked in when the door open. The doors closed.

"Director's Office," Fitz announced to the elevator, "both of us."

There was a moment where nothing happened as the request was piped up to Fury. Fury approved it and then the elevator began moving up. Angborn took a deep breath to keep from panicking at the strange sensation, and distracted himself by speaking.

"Are you a member of SHIELD's support?" Angborn asked Fitz.

Fitz looked a little confused, but then he understood. "Yeah, I'm in the science division – engineer."

"Ah," Angborn nodded. "I didn't think you were a warrior."

Fitz cringed inwardly at Angborn's casual comment, his ego taking offense. Angborn seemed aware that he had misspoken, but wasn't sure what to say to apologize. It stayed quiet until the doors opened and Fitz ushered Angborn out. He didn't leave himself, not being invited.

"Floor 5," Fitz announced.

Angborn tipped his head towards Fitz as the doors closed and Fitz gave a small, semi-tense smile. That was something, Angborn supposed. Like all the other rooms in the building it was illuminated with harsh fluorescents instead of the gentle glow of lightcrystals and it irritated his eyes.

Once the elevator began to lower, the doors that led to Fury's office opened. Again he was flooded with the humans' lighting system. Fury was behind his desk and Angborn walked to stand in front his desk out of instinct, standing at attention.

Fury looked a little surprised to see Angborn's reaction and told him, "at ease."

Angborn relaxed his stance and crossed his arms behind his back. "What did you wish to speak to me about, sir?"

He got right to the point, Fury noted. That was one thing Fury liked about soldiers. There was none of the political diversion.

"As I'm sure you've noticed Angborn," Fury told him, being equally frank with the Asgardian, "we're a little understaffed here at the Triskelion. No, that's not accurate. The truth is we're being stretched to the breaking point cleaning up New York and the black market that's selling Chitauri tech to. Terrorists are using the tech on their soldiers to make them more deadly, and many of our field agents have been incapacitated by them."

Informing Angborn about SHIELD's vulnerability was a dangerous option, but what Angborn did with the information would determine whose side he was on.

"It's annoying," Fury shook his head. "SHIELD's first real worldwide disaster and we simply aren't enough."

"You need experience," Angborn shrugged. "The battlefield is the best place to become stronger if you don't die. SHIELD managed to survive this long, so I am inclined to believe it will not die anytime soon."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Fury said, speaking without sarcasm.

"You should have seen my squadron the first time on the field," Angborn smiled at the memory. "We won… technically, but it was something of a disaster."

"Squadron?" Fury repeated.

Angborn decided to tell Fury, weaving the truth within the lie as much as possible to make it easier to believe. "I am the Captain of a squadron of Asgard's Star Guard. We call ourselves the Raven Blades. It's mostly a group of talented friends that have come together with me to help protect Asgard and the rest of the realms."

"And the rest of your squad will be okay without you?" Fury asked.

Angborn smiled and nodded. "My Commander is quite competent."

Jeren Darisson was more than just competent, he was gifted. He was also a pain who acted immature at times and still had a lot to learn about leading. But he had the rest of the squad to help him, and this would give him a chance to grow into the role of leader. Given some practice, Jeren might make a good one.

Angborn thought about mentioning that he was only going to be on Midgard for a few days until Bifrost was repaired and then he would be home anyway, but he knew that was a lie. He was a traitor who had freed Loki from his execution. Jaro had killed him, which meant there was probably a kill mark on him. Lying without any truth to smooth over the words was a bad idea, Loki had warned him, and something to only be done against fools who couldn't see through it. Fury would see through a blatant lie. Of that, Angborn had no doubt.

"Well," Fury said slowly. "I thought that since you were going to be staying on Earth for the time being if you might be willing to help SHIELD."

Asking for help, even from an Asgardian visitor, killed Fury. He had to though. SHIELD truly was at the breaking point. Angborn didn't need to be a mage to tell how much it hurt Fury to ask for help.

Angborn looked away out a window, answering after a second without turning back to Fury. "Prince Thor holds SHIELD in high regard. I have been to Midgard a few times over the centuries, but I've been impressed by you humans only once. Every other time I have come, you have been serving your own needs for money or pride. Thor says that SHIELD is like that one group of humans I knew that could be trusted."

"And who was this group?" Fury asked.

Angborn smiled, his reflection in the window copying the action. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, but they were an amazing group. It didn't matter how much power you gave them, they simply weren't corrupted by it. Thor says SHIELD is the modern-day version of them."

Angborn remembered meeting Arthur the first time. He had walked into the dining hall of Camelot's castle… and gotten a face full of apple pie. Who had started the food fight was unknown, but when he wiped the pie off his face he had seen Loki holding a tray, using it like a shield, and been holding a bowl of soup in one hand, ready to chuck it at someone. When he had seen Angborn he had doubled over laughing.

He had never seen Loki act the way he did at Camelot. There was no deception, no wall between his emotions, no keeping people at arm's length, no cool control of his emotions. It was only at Camelot that Loki had truly acted like himself, without reservation or mistrust. Camelot was gone, but what Arthur and his knights had stood for was still here – right in this building.

This was dangerous though. Asgard would probably kill him for treason, and since SHIELD was Midgard's defense force Asgard would be keeping a close eye on them. Staying with them would almost ensure Asgard would find him.

Then Angborn smirked. He might not have openly fought against Asgard until recently but he didn't fear them. It had been a long time since he had feared Odin. Angborn might not have spent years at Camelot without ever returning to Asgard as Loki had, but he couldn't abandon their present-day reincarnation any more then he could abandon Loki.

Angborn looked back at Fury and asked resolutely. "What do you want me to do?"

Although having an Asgardian on their side was a huge asset, Fury wasn't relieved yet. Angborn could agree to help and then lose on purpose. No, why was Fury so wary about trusting him? He was an Asgardian like Thor. And an Asgardian like Loki, a part of him warned. That was the crux of it, wasn't it?

"I would love to have you on the battlefield," Fury assured him, "but the World Council wishes otherwise. They don't trust you enough for you to work with SHIELD. In fact, they didn't wish for me to inform you of SHIELD's status and would rather keep you locked up in a room."

"Who is the World Council?" Angborn asked with a frown.

Of course Angborn wouldn't know about that, Fury chided himself. "The World Security Council is an international council that oversee SHIELD. I answer to them."

Angborn smiled. "So you're disobeying your ruler's orders?"

Fury was about to defend himself but Angborn shook his head.

"Don't worry," he laughed. "Odin's a fool to. In order to protect Asgard I've have to disobey him."

That one sentence spoke volumes for Angborn's personality. He was willing to act the part of a vigilante, outlaw, or traitor when needed without hesitation should the situation call for it. Angborn was a powerful ally, but a dangerous one. Yet the fact that Odin had pushed him into that roll did not slip past Fury either. What kind of a ruler was Odin?

Fury wasn't sure if Angborn's answer was comforting or not. "Because of the Council's decision I can't deploy you onto the field, but could you help out here?"

"At the Triskelion?" Angborn shrugged after thinking about it for a few seconds. "Doing what?"

"Nothing official," Fury said cautiously. "I can't have you doing too much or the Council will realize that I'm defying them. Mostly I want you as backup in case there's an attack by the EDF. I can explain sending you around the city."

"That's fine," Angborn agreed. "Although, what's the EDF?"

"The Earth Defense Force," Fury exemplified. "They're an alien hate group that arose after New York."

"Hate groups?" Angborn chuckled darkly. "I should not be surprised. You humans have long believed that you are the only sentient species in existence. Like Asgard, you do not like it when threatens your dominance."

If Angborn had not been so on point then Fury might have been offended.

As it was, Fury sighed. "Yes. There are dozens of groups, but the EDF is the most radical. They fancy themselves the true guardians of the humans and see SHIELD and its personnel as traitorous pawns of aliens who deserve execution. Recently, they've taken to killing SHILED agents and stealing our tech. Four days ago, the EDF attacked a convey and stole the cargo."

"What was the cargo?" Angborn asked warily.

"Among other things," Fury muttered. "The scepter Loki used at New York."

"The Chitauri's scepter?" Angborn whispered.

That was right! Loki and the Tesseract had been brought back to Asgard, but not the scepter. In light of the Tesseract, everyone had forgotten about it. Now it was in the hands of terrorists? Wonderful. Angborn was starting to get really fed up with the humans.

"Do you want me to help track the scepter down?" Angborn asked.

"No," Fury disagreed. "We've already got our scientists working on it. Unless you have some magic that could help."

Angborn shook his head no. Technically speaking, he wasn't a mage like Loki. Thoughts of Loki blundered into his thoughts. How was he doing now that he was free of his cell? Was he still being chased by the Star Guard, or had he finally killed Odin and gotten Thor on the throne? Thor would never allow his little brother to be hunted. Or had Loki crowned himself?

"That's right," Angborn said to cover for his sudden silence. "You've learned how to track the Tesseract's energy. Since the scepter draws its energy from the Tesseract, you can track it."

"That's the theory," Fury agreed.

"Not the reality?" Angborn mused.

Fury didn't answer and Angborn didn't push it. Loki was the "spymaster" of Asgard, but Angborn's Raven Blades usually helped him out with the espionage work, so he understood Fury's position within SHIELD and why he was so cautious around an outsider like him. Of course, telling Fury that might complicate his cover.

An icon on Fury's desk suddenly lit up with a ringing noise, indicating that he had an incoming call. Fury looked down at it and Hill's name popped up underneath the icon. Angborn could tell from the way Fury glanced up that he needed to answer this in private.

"Is that all, sir?" Angborn asked.

"Yes," Fury informed him. "Dismissed."

Angborn saluted and bowed before he left in the Asgardian manner, getting a raised eyebrow from Fury. He took the elevator back down to the ground floor rather than his room. Right now he had some serious thinking to do, and he was too antsy to sit still.

Instead, he went to the grassy field behind the Triskelion and shrugged off his jacket. There was no one else there. Angborn didn't mind the solace, but he was starting to feel a little creeped out by the silence. This was a place that usually was not deathly silent. Dropping his jacket on the stairs he walked out onto the field, putting the words "deathly silent" out of his mind along with all the other thoughts humming around in his head distracting him.

Angborn took a deep breath, counting seven as he inhaled and then another seven as he exhaled. He fell into stance, letting the heat and his thoughts fade away. Then he started doing a sequence of fighting moves, using the movement to ground himself. The familiar movements of the form dance worked to soothe his nerves that had been made tense from constant lying. Loki had to lie constantly like this when he had come to Midgard in the past, and Angborn didn't know how he was able to do it.

A smile twitched his lips when he remembered that Loki hadn't managed to do it during Camelot – his first long-term stint to Midgard. Kay, a Saxon loyal to Arthur Pendragon and fledgling mage Loki had been training, had figured out that he was really Loki, one of the entities the teen Norseman worshiped as a god. Although Loki had managed to keep him quiet he had needed to come clean in the end and tell the truth about himself to Arthur after he got into a fight with Thor in front of Uther Pendragon.

Angborn's movement faltered and he stumbled, almost falling, before he recovered himself. That was the first time Thor and Loki had truly stood on opposite sides of the battlefield. It wasn't a good memory.

He fell back into his moves, trying to keep any more thoughts from interrupting him. This form dance was one of the longer ones, and more styled for Eladrin then an Æsir like himself. Angborn couldn't do all of the acrobatics that Eladrin could, but chanced a back handspring. He managed to pull it off and landed. The landing was not as graceful as it could have been, but it was good for an Æsir.

He was going to go for a jump kick when there was movement in the corner of his eye. The almost meditative trance that he'd gone into snapped, and he was once more back to the world of reality and espionage. Angborn managed to save himself from flattening onto the ground when he tripped over his feet.

Feeling heat flushing across his face, Angborn quickly stood, brushing himself off. The movement had resolved itself into a human approaching him. When he saw Angborn was alright, he hesitated and then continued approaching, albeit at a calmer pace then a moment ago. Two things struck Angborn. One, he was wearing a black combat uniform he had seen other SHIELD warriors wearing, and two, he knew him.

"Are you okay?" The warrior asked as he stopped a bit away from Angborn. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

Angborn shook his head at Grant Ward. "It is alright. I simply got caught up in my movements."

Angborn raised his head and had to squint against the bright sunlight that shone over the top of the Triskelion. The angle of the shadows had changed, lengthened, indicating he'd been doing his forms longer then he thought. Ward stood across from him in the darkness, untouched by the sunlight that lit the motes of dust in the air around Angborn.

"I've never seen moves like that," Ward was saying as Angborn tipped his head down so he could see and not be blinded. "Were they Asgardian?"

"Mostly," Angborn replied as his eyes focused and he was able to make out Ward clearly. "Some were elfin, and some were from other species. I'm surprised to see you here. Weren't you escorting Jane Foster back to her lab this morning?"

Ward didn't seem perturbed that Angborn had changed the subject, getting why he didn't want to reveal his fighting style to a stranger. "She's been successfully relocated to another facility. I was recalled to Triskelion and just got back an hour ago."

"Ah," Angborn shouldn't be surprised. "I wasn't at the Triskelion at the time of your return."

Ward's expression revealed surprise. "Fury let you leave? Wow. I know I said earlier you weren't a prisoner but I can't believe Fury let you out of his sight. He's been kind of paranoid about Asgardians since we've only met two so far – one good and one evil. I don't think he knows what to make of you guys."

Angborn smiled instead of taking offense. "I just spoke to him. He did not mention my excursion around the city."

"DC," Ward supplemented the name still looking surprised and confused that Fury had let him leave.

"DC," Angborn repeated and then looked confused again. "Why do you have a city whose name is initials?"

Ward smiled and the other emotions vanished as if they had never been there. "It's short hand for District of Columbia." When Angborn still looked confused, Ward shrugged and said, "it's a human thing."

Angborn nodded seriously, believing that wholeheartedly.

"Did Fury get you to fill in for the other soldiers?" Ward asked him.

"Yes," he agreed, figuring that since Ward was SHIELD there was no harm in telling him. "Although I'm not sure about going into battle unarmed. I have no weapons."

Angborn could have smacked himself when he realized he was standing across from one of SHIELD's warriors.

"Could you show me to SHIELD's armory?" He asked Ward. "I know you humans don't fight with traditional weapons anymore, but I think I could find something. My guest pass doesn't clear me."

Ward seemed amused by Angborn's annoyance at the silver guest pass clipped to his discarded jacket.

"I can talk to Hill," he admitted, "but I can't promise anything."

Angborn finished his cool down routine and nodded. "I would find it odd if you could."

He could tell that Ward was curious, and Angborn watched him, silently giving him permission to say what was on his mind.

"What do you think of humans?" Ward blurted out.

Angborn wasn't surprised by the question and had already thought of a response, knowing that someone would ask him that. "I think you humans are as old as any other species in Yggdrasil, but in many ways you are very young. You did not have the guidance of an Elder God – not like the others species did. You have needed to learn on your own, and you have done an admirable job on it. You've come a long way in the millennials that have passed, but you still have much to learn."

"You don't think we should have been introduced to the other species, do you?" Ward asked bluntly.

"The other species have known about you humans for thousands of years," Angborn dismissed. "I don't believe that you should know about them. You are still too young to be trusted to act responsibly among the other species. EDF and the other alien hate groups that have sprung up since New York are proof of that."

"Not all humans are like that," Ward defended his kin. "Some of us know that not all aliens are bad. Thor isn't, and you're on our side."

"But other aliens, like the Chitauri, do mean harm." Angborn shook his head. "One of the things the humans still need time to grow out of is their narrow-sightedness. You see that some of us aliens are a threat, so react as if all of us are. I understand that trust must be earned, but earning the trust of humans is difficult, and you do not have one overall leader – no king or queen. There is no unity for your species, only war. You cannot find peace among yourselves, so how can we trust you?"

The longer Angborn spoke the tighter Ward's jaw locked and the more insulted he looked. When he finally finished he expected an outburst from Ward. Humans, he had learned, were one of the more prideful species. Ward didn't though. He exhaled, heaving it as a low sigh, and hung his head.

"You're right," he admitted. "I see why you don't trust us. We don't have a place in the nine realms, let alone in the galaxy and we have a reputation for messing things up."

Angborn was surprised by Ward's humility, a trait not commonly found by humans.

"The humans do need a spokesperson," Ward continued, "one person to speak for our species. We don't have one yet thanks to our current government, but I hope we get it soon."

Ward nodded agreement and walked back inside the Triskelion, his image swallowed by the shadows of the understaffed building. Angborn returned to his forms, thinking about what Ward had said, the sunlight warm on his skin.


If you have watched Marvel's Agents of Shield then please don't spoil anything. If you are human, as I assume most of my readers are, don't take offense. Also, I do mention things like evolution and gods and it will involve Earth's history. I am not endorsing or insulting any religion, so don't bite my head off. I'm not trying to insult anyone and this is about a fictional universe.

Let me clarify something else: Angborn has a girlfriend back on Asgard. Sheesh.