See Chapter One for Disclaimer


The movie was over. I was a little bummed.

I assumed, since the film had reached its completion, the glitching out would be over. No more helping fight aliens, no more investigating and being snarky with the avengers.

It was over.

Tony Stark wasn't real, he was just a character played by Robert Downey Jr., a guy I've never met, one I'd never fought alongside. Loki didn't need my help, he was just a Norse legend, played by a beautiful British man.

So I grew up. Ish. I was still the first person in line whenever a marvel film came out, and I seemed unable to curb my geeky excitement. But I'd successfully survived my army training, I had a job I adored, had spent the last 2 years trying not to get shot in Afghanistan and had lived long enough to finish my first tour of duty and make it to my brother's wedding.

It was a beautiful wedding; I'd been forced into a dress, some tight black number with no pockets so I was forced to bring a clutch purse thing. Of course, that meant I ended up with everyone's phone in my bag. It was all fine though, because I approved most heartedly of my new sister in law. My mother and father had cried the entire service, and my brother looked so stinking happy.

I was inordinately proud of the life we'd created.

Rhino was there, of course. We were still friends, never having moved forward into dating territory, but we were both happy with that. He sat with me, helping me deal with the older women who felt the need to remind me that I was "next."

I danced twice, once with Rhino, and once with my father…which was rather enlightening.

My father had been against me joining the army. He refused to go to my graduation, and my first tour had started 24 hours later, so this was the first time that we were face to face in nearly two years. At first it was awkward, but then he sighed.

"I didn't agree with your choice of profession at first. You know that. Which is hypocritical of me, but I just wanted you to be safe, of which joining the army is not."
I sighed. It was a conversation we'd held before, I knew the words almost by heart, but then suddenly, the script changed.

"But," he added. "You did well. You've done well. You're an amazing soldier, better than both your mother and I, but don't tell her I said that." I laughed, and relaxed. "I really am proud of you." I smiled at my dad's earnest expression.

"Thanks, dad." As the song ended he pulled me into a hug, one I returned gratefully, and my mom interrupted us with a small smile.

"Devon and Kaitlyn are leaving, but they wanted to say goodbye. Honey, would you go grab the camera?" Dad nodded, and lumbered off, and mom wrapped an arm around me. "C'mon sweetheart, dad will meet us outside."

Mom led me out of the ballroom. "So, he apologized, right?"

"Yes mother." I rolled my eyes.

"Good." She paused. "You know he's proud of you, right?"

I rolled my eyes again. "Yes mother."

She grinned. "You know I'm proud of you too?"

"Yes mom, I know."

"Good. Now go hug your brother."

I sighed, then smiled, and hugged Kaitlyn. "You are beautiful. Go enjoy yourself, all right?" She beamed, and then I turned and made a face at my big brother, who simply smirked and pulled me into a hug. I squeezed him as hard as I could, and he winced.

"Whoa, baby sister! War has made you tough."

I laughed. "No, that was the army. War has just put it to good use." I teased.

He grinned. "Who would've guessed that the clumsy little punk who rode my coattails would grow up to be a big bad scary soldier?"

"Mom did." I answered promptly, and Devon laughed.

"That's true, but mom knows everything." Devon explained. I nodded.

"That's very true." I agreed.

"Hey." Devon placed a hand on my face, and the moment turned suddenly serious. "Even though you still maintain that weird Loki obsession, even after all these years, I am so proud of you."

I smiled. "Even though you're a punk, you somehow managed to catch the eye of a beautiful lady who agreed to marry you, and now you're going to have fourteen babies and get the parents off my back!"

"But first;" Devon wiggled his eyebrows, "the honeymoon!" I punched him in the shoulder, and he winced then grinned.

"Seriously girly. I'm proud of you." He pulled me into another hug.

When he let go, I grinned. "I'm proud of us."

Then I winked. "And I ain't ever giving up on Loki."

And as soon as the words left my mouth, my scenery changed. I wasn't standing in front of my big brother, surrounded by my loved ones anymore, I was standing in front of the very person I'd just been speaking about.


"I thought this was over." I complained, taking in the pristine white room, looking much like an interrogation room, with nothing in it but a table, two chairs, and a huge one way mirror taking up one wall.

Loki sat in one chair, handcuffed to the table, watching me.

I sat down across from him, sighing heavily.

"Now what?" I asked sourly.

"You tell me." Loki retorted.

Which surprised me into silence. Loki wasn't actually a big talker, at least around me. He just glared. This wasn't the Loki I knew before, the one who was hateful and mean, who just looked at me and saw intel, or just another casualty, or later, a threat. This was the Loki I researched all throughout high school, the one I'd only ever got glimpses of: the scholar, wide eyed with a puzzle set before him, (the puzzle being me,) intrigued.

I shrugged. "Why would I know?"

Loki frowned. "You are not with Shield?"

"Nope!" I answered cheerily.

"Then you are with the Avengers." He inferred.

"Wrong." I grinned.

"Who are you and why have they sent you in first?" Loki spoke frostily. (Get it, Frost Giant? I'm funny.)

I relaxed in my chair. "They haven't sent me in. What do you mean first?"

"I assume Shield will send in numerous agents; in order to extract the full story." But Loki spoke slowly, like now maybe he wasn't so sure.

I hesitated. I'd seen the change in him; I knew he hadn't fully been in control. But the Avengers didn't. They fully blamed him for everything, they weren't interested in the full story; they thought they knew everything. As far as I knew they planned on muzzling him and sending him away.

Loki frowned. "They're not sending anyone in, are they?" He guessed shrewdly.

I grimaced, and Loki did something odd. His face fell, but then he shrugged, as if it didn't really bother him, that he was potentially going to be punished for something that may or may not have been entirely his fault.

"What are you doing in here then, if not to interrogate me?" Loki asked lightly.

I shrugged. "Not sure. I don't really have full control of this whole," I gestured vaguely, "glitching thing, yet."

Loki furrowed a brow, but then his face cleared. "Are you speaking of your odd mode of travel?"

I nodded. "Sure, yeah. I think I told you about it, a bit, in the cage?"

Loki's face brightened as he remembered. "Ah, yes, the inter-dimension traveler." He thought for a moment. "Which is how you disappeared before I could question you about your theories you were speaking of before, in Stark Tower."

I blanched. "Oh my god you actually heard that. How much did you hear?" That rant, though it had happened over two years ago, was one that haunted me. I was well aware that I had made no sense, it was a RANT, you're not supposed to make sense during a rant; you're just supposed to let everything.… out. Which I did. Which, apparently Loki overheard.

Loki smirked. "All of it."

I covered my mouth. "Oops."

"It was rather enlightening."

"How?" I rolled my eyes.

"The humans in your dimension are not so off in their theories, for the most part."

Well color me intrigued. "What do you mean for the most part?"

Loki raised a brow. "As amusing as I find you, I'm not about to share my whole life story with a human." Loki made a disgusted face, and I nodded. Yeah, Loki, but not. Still a jerk, at least.

"Who else are you going to tell? No one is going to listen to anything you have to say, not after this." I winced. Now who was the jerk? But Loki took it well.

He shrugged in agreement. "It's much too late for me. Redemption is not in my future." Loki chuckled lowly. "As you said, I had choices. This is the one I chose. I must suffer the consequences."

"But not if you weren't at fault." I argued. "Your cooperation under coercion doesn't make you an accomplice, it makes you a victim."

Loki's voice lowered dangerously. "I am not a victim." He snarled.

I pursed my lips. "Being a victim doesn't make you weak, Loki."

"Doesn't it?" He rasped.

"Perhaps it does," I acquiesced. "But you don't have to stay a victim."

"How?"

"Talk to someone." I urged.

"Whom do you suggest?" He retorted mockingly. "You've just said; no one will listen."

"I will."

That silenced him, at least.


I made a decision, not knowing if it would work or not: I reached into the clutch that had traveled to the new dimension with me and plopped down Rhino's phone. (I'd have to get him a new one.)

"This is Midgardian technology, so I'm sure it's simple science to you." Loki scoffed, though he did look rather frightened of the device I'd placed down in front of him. I deleted all of the contacts except for my number, and checked the battery. Then I slid it over to Loki's side of the table. He picked it up tentatively. "You should probably hide it somewhere on your person." I suggested. With a twist of his wrist, the phone slid out of view. To where, I didn't know.

"Keep it to contact me." I made another decision, it wasn't like he wasn't going to find out soon. "Thor's taking you back to Asgard. Odin will put you in prison." I tried to use wording that would tempt Loki into contacting me. "I'm sure prison will get tedious quickly, so I give you permission to use this device to torture me when you get bored. Or just to talk." I added quickly at the end.

Then the weirdest thing in the entire world happened. Loki gave me a genuine smile. It was very, very small, and his face was still scratched up and bloody, and he still wore his scuffed up battle armor, but he smiled.

I must've looked entirely shocked, because the smile disappeared.

I shook my head quickly. "I totally saw that!"

"Saw what?" He tried to glower, but it wasn't working on me anymore.

"Oh no, none of that now! You are totally not too far gone Loki Laufeyson, not if you can smile like that!"

Loki was shaking his head now. "You're seeing things."

I laughed. "Try again, dude. I'm not giving up on you just yet, Loki."

I paused, my head tilted to the side. "Interesting."

"Hmm?" Loki asked, confused.

"It's just, right before I glitched for the first time, when you showed up at Pegasus and first brain snatched Barton," Loki nodded to show that he knew what I was talking about. "I said something relatively similar." I shook my head. "Something along the lines of, 'I believe in Loki Laufeyson.'" Another thought came to me then, and I made a small noise of surprise, eyes narrowed. "Weird. I said something similar to that right before I showed up here, too."

There was something niggling on the edge of my conscious, something I was missing, but it was gone before I knew what. I shrugged. "Ah well." I looked back at Loki, who seemed to have come to some sort of horrifying realization while I was lost in thought. "What's with the face?" I asked, confused.

Before Loki could answer though, the door slammed open.

"How did you get in here?" I turned to face the Captain, dirty and still in uniform, his face slightly panicked. Stark hovered behind him, his face filled with suspicion. I opened my mouth to give them my standard answer, (I dunno,) but the door slammed shut before I could speak. I stared confused at the shut door, vaguely hearing the pounding coming from the other side, too focused on the slow drawling voice of Loki behind me.

"Well, this is a most…intriguing situation." I didn't like the undertone in Loki's voice, but when I turned to face him, his face was impassive. I laughed uneasily.

"I guess that means we're done now." I planted my hands on the table and made to rise.

"Your situation…" Loki paused meaningfully, and his voice now matched his face; a coldness that surprised me after the easiness of our conversation just moments before.

I knew when he spoke of my 'situation,' he meant my glitching, so I paused. "I believe I am partially at fault." He confessed, though it sounded more bitter than confessional.

I thought about that for a second. "You made me glitch?" I asked slowly, not liking where this was going, AT ALL.

Loki winced almost imperceptibly. "Not myself, per say."

"What does that mean?" I asked roughly.

"During my," Loki paused, "interlude with my former allies, I was not in full power." Loki searched for the correct words. "I do not like to be restrained." Loki shrugged. "I believe that subconsciously, not even I was aware, for if I had been so then would've been by allies, thusly subconsciously my magic was doing its best to find someone; anyone really, who would intervene on my behalf."

"You were trapped in a situation you couldn't get yourself out of, and needed someone to save you?" I recapped, and Loki flushed lightly, more in anger at my words than embarrassment.

"Partially. And when my magic found no one of such ilk in this dimension,"

"It dimension jumped." I concluded.

Loki nodded. "My magic gave you the ability to jump between dimensions. It opened the door, specifically for you, if you will.

I thought about that, then nodded. That made sense. "And the first time it happened, it was the exact moment where I said that I believed in you." I winced. "I haven't helped you, though."

Loki tilted his head. "Not yet." Then he leaned forward, placing two fingers on my forehead for just a moment; and I felt….a whoosh, I guess. What I usually felt when I glitched. Then he removed his hand, and it was gone.

"What did you do?" I asked, rubbing my forehead furiously.

He shrugged, and smirked, and I felt distinctly uneasy. "I might have need of you in the future."

Which means what?" I glared.

"I simply," Loki paused, "closed the door."

I glared, brows furrowed, then it hit me. "Which means that I'm stuck here, then?"

Loki was silent.

I took that as a yes.

"So I can't go home?" I guessed, and when he didn't move or react, I went ballistic.

"Why would you do that? Take it back, Loki. TAKE IT BACK!"

I leapt across the table, my hands reaching for his throat, but two arms caught me before I could claw his stupid face off, and dragged me away, out of the room. I started screaming, I couldn't leave the room yet, I couldn't, not until Loki TOOK IT BACK, but against my will, whoever had hold of me hauled me out, and then the door slammed shut.

I jerked out of the arms that had been restraining me, reaching for the door only to find it locked. I tugged on the handle a few times, then began banging on the door. When none of that worked, I whirled away to the opposite wall, and collapsed in a conveniently placed chair, my head falling into my hands. Sobs overtook my body, and I let them. That rat BASTARD.

It was some time later before anyone would approach me; and I was pretty much catatonic. I registered the voice, but couldn't properly answer.

"So, we've talked it over, and while we're not altogether sure where you came from, Cap said you were pretty helpful during the battle, and seeing as how pissed you are at Loki,"

I flinched, and the voice, I'm pretty sure it was Tony, softened imperceptibly. "We don't think you're bad news, and since we don't know exactly how you got here, we decided it would just be best if you stayed with us for a while. The Avengers, I mean. We're all gonna crash at my place for a while, so it's really the safest place for you. Thor's gotta go deal with, well, you know, but then he's gonna come back. I think he feels bad. But uh, that's the plan, if it's alright with you?"

"K." I don't remember speaking, but it was my voice that answered.

"Ah, alright then. We're gonna head out in a bit, we just gotta take care of something, then we'll come back for you. You alright with staying here till we're done with, uh, our thing?"

"K." It was my voice again, speaking without conscious decision once more. Weird.

"Alright then. Ok." There were footsteps, like he was leaving, but then he paused again. "By the way, what's your name?"

"K."

"Kay, huh? Alright, I guess it works. Well, we'll be back. You can stay sitting here, or I think Coulson wants to see you, he's in the med bay still. But uh, no rush."

I didn't really break out of my funk until after Stark was long gone, and our conversation replayed through my head.

Stay with the Avengers? What, do they think I'm a kid and need a babysitter? Probably, actually, I was what, sixteen last time they saw me?

Kay? Why did I tell Stark my name was Kay? Ah well, that works I guess. I certainly wasn't Charlie anymore.

Charlie didn't exist in this dimension.

But that led me to an entirely new dilemma. If Charlie didn't exist anymore, than who was I?

And more importantly, what now?

And even more importantly, what was i supposed to do with all these phones in my stupid clutch?

~END~


The Sequel, Adjusting with the Avengers, is available now.

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~CLC~