OK, it is finals week with my schooling so I need to get a chapter up before I get too busy. As I promised, here is a better chapter than the last one. It is also quite long because all these details had to be put together or would not make sense. Watch for the point-of-view changes.

Again Missy, this one is for you!

Chapter Nine - The devil you know

SHIELD Island

SHIELD HQ was abuzz with activity as people were working hard in their day-to-day rituals and tasks.

Jane Foster sat in her car at the entrance gate, one of at least five cars that were waiting to be scanned by metal detectors and sniffed by dogs before they could enter the tunnel that ran underneath the river.

She was on the speakerphone built into her car with Lacey.

"So you think that your jailbird that you bailed is attempting to get close to you," her friend suggested.

"Do you have any other suggestions?" she replied. "I do not have proof yet obviously, but without him being on a any class roster, teacher's aide listing, or residence hall log..."

"Hon," Lacey's voice said as she moved up in line. "How do you not know that he is an exchange student? It could take some time to get those lists updated. Come on, you bailed him out for saving you from a bar fight. It's not like you slept with him or anything."

"That's what you think," Jane mumbled under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing," she told her. "Just hate sitting in traffic waiting for to get through security at the installation. I think that once he shows up for court and gets let off because it was self-defense, I am going to cut ties with him. Hey, I wish I could talk further, but once I get through, I go under the river so I am probably going to lose you."

"Well you owe me drinks next weekend," Lacey said as she was next in line. "Hit me up later if the government cronies let you."

"Will do," she replied and terminated the phone call as she approached the gate.

"ID," the burly guard asked as he peered through the windows.

Metal detectors ran underneath the vehicle and he ran her identification card.

"Clear," the scanner informed him.

"You are free to go Ms. Foster," the guard told her.

"Thanks," She replied

Jane drove over the spike strips and directed the coupe down into the darkened tunnel below the river and into SHIELD's parking garage.

She found the spot where her car was supposed to go and brought it to a stop.

Jane got out of the car, grabbing her black messenger bag from the passenger seat, and locked the coupe before she started walking.

Loki peered from the backseat as he had been cuddled up on the floor to the car. His invisibility charm was definitely getting overused, but it got him into the secret commandos' base known as SHIELD.

Soon he would be able to reach the power source.

He watched as Jane was suddenly accosted by a young lady who sprung onto her as though a child had not seen her parent in a long time. She was screeching loudly; to the stares of other operatives around.

"Oh am I so glad that you are here," the younger woman said.

"Oh you are, are you? I hadn't a clue," Jane replied.

Loki waited until she was away from the vehicle and proceeded to slip out before she could notice anything. He passed through the metal as though it were not there.

He stayed close, but not too close. Though he was invisible, he could be bumped into and discovered.

"So what have you been doing these past two weeks that I have been teaching?" Jane asked Darcy as they walked to the security checkpoint.

"Oh it has been so fun," her intern replied. "I have been sitting in the law department learning about different treaties, commands, and law systems. I have been able to create some impressive legal documents, none of course that will ever be filed, but it was sure fun to experience."

"Then you have been right at home," she replied.

"Most certainly," Darcy replied.

They each had their ID tags scanned and Darcy passed through because she did not have anything and she had already passed through a few moments ago.

Jane had to be scanned with a metal detecting wand, patted down, and her bag had to be searched.

Once she was deemed safe, the two girls passed through and proceeded toward the main building.

Loki lost sight of Jane and Darcy at the area where guards were searching everything and everybody that passed through. With his scepter and his armor on, there is no way that he was going to be able to get through without anyone seeing or feeling him.

How was he going to get passed and enter into the facility?

This would be more difficult than he believed.

So he regrouped to the outside to figure out what his next move would be.

Once she had dropped off her gear in her former quarters, the two ladies proceeded down the stark metal hallways toward the laboratory where security was leading them.

Jane and Darcy passed through the airlock doors and finally she got to see her mentor there. He was working hard with a couple of technicians that were there.

"Erik," she greeted him.

"Jane," he said her name and came up to give her a big hug. "How are you?" he asked. "How goes teaching?"

"Could do without the lesson planning and the grading, but it sure is better than being cooped up all day in this place with no windows," she replied. "How are you?"

"I have been better as well," he replied, "but you should see the scientific advancements we are making down here. This cube that SHIELD has has amazing and limitless potential."

"Cube? What cube?" she asked.

"Come with me," he told her, taking her hand to a vault.

He imputed a code, blocking it with his hand (smiling at her at the same time) so she could not see it.

"Procedure," he told her.

The door hissed open after unlocking and a rich light poured out of the crack.

Jane blocked her vision from the pouring light, but she did proceed into the vault with her friend.

"Ohmigod," she whispered in bewilderment. It was a cube contained within a large crystal cage. Light poured from it and nearly stung her eyes. "What is it?"

"We don't know," Erik told her. "We do not know its name or what it is. We just call the cosmic cube for right now."

"Cute. Do we know where it came from?"

"It was found in the forties after a villain called the Red Skull also known as Johann Schmitt stole it from a safeguarded location. Before it was nearly used to destroy New York City, but was lost in arctic along with Captain America."

"Captain America," Jane said. "The Captain America."

"One in the same," he told her. "The cube was reacquired by Howard Stark, father of your scientific idol."

"Get the hell out out!" she squealed, knowing her mentor was talking about Tony Stark. "So this thing has been in the possession of the government for over fifty years and no one has yet to tap into its potential yet."

"That is what we have been brought in to do," he told her.

Jane looked up at him.

"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" she said standing up straight and looking at her mentor. "Are we..."

Erik nodded while biting his lower lip. "They think that this cube could be used to potentially open portals and wormholes to different worlds. Different realms. We have been tasked since we are the ones that dealt with Thor and the others from Asgard to find a way to reach his realm."

She was so elated when she heard that the whole reason why she had been moved from New Mexico was to find a way to use this Cosmic Cube to open a portal to Asgard.

Finally, at last she would be reunited with the man she truly and deeply loved.

"I give you my word, I will return for you," she heard the words that echoed in her ears very time she thought about Thor.

Not if I get the chance to get to you first, she thought with a smile spreading from ear to ear.

"So when do we get started?" she asked as she looked up at him with a grin.

Loki stood up on the roof listening intently to the conversation.

"It takes a great deal amount of power to bring the cube to levels that are still safe," he listened to the mentor speaking to his apprentice. "Plus we have to hook into the city's power grid system. It all takes a lot of bureaucratic nonsense that we have to deal with. We will probably try this weekend if we can get it cleared."

His eyes reopened. Being that he was still masked in his invisibility charm and trying to focus on the conversation deep within the facility, his energy was being tasked to the limit.

But soon, his lack of power would be remedied.

And this fact brought a smile to his face.

SHIELD obtained the proper clearance and informed the public with a service announcement that the power grid was going to be tested. Power might flicker on and off sort of mumbo-jumbo, but there was no cause for alarm.

They would be able to test the cube and see if they were indeed able to open a portal.

With the use of star charts and coordinates from within Jane's notebook, they had an approximate location to the realm of Asgard.

Finally the night before the test was to commence, the scientists all gathered in the laboratory ready to power the energy cells to activate the cosmic cube. It rested in a small chamber below a circular dais platform at the edge of the room.

Suddenly, Jane searched the console and her pocket.

"Oh I left my notebook in my bag in my room," she squealed. "I will be back."

"Jane, would you also go get Commander Fury and let him know we have begun the powering sequence," her mentor said to her.

"Sure," she replied. "Back in a jiff."

Jane walked out of the testing lab.

Erik continued to turn the nobs and adjust the settings. Soon, it would power the cube and they would have the power they required to potentially open a portal.

The technicians got up from the console, but the male's jacket got caught on a switch...and pulled it down.

"Wait!" Dr. Selvig shouted.

The energy began to power the cables that snaked along the floor toward the dais at the edge of the chamber. The cube was still secured in its containment vessel there as well.

SHIELD agents stared around as the power started flickering on and off as they went about their business.

Jane Foster was with Darcy in the communications central room about to catch Commander Fury and bring him to the lab when they noticed the monitoring screens were fuzzing out, unable to keep whatever they were watching.

The lights went out and the emergency red lighting activated.

"What's going on?" Darcy asked.

"Ms. Foster," Commander Fury, "What is happening?"

"I don't know," she replied and went taking off back for the lab.

However, the doors all sealed during a blackout, locking them inside the room.

Loki sat upon the rooftop, his legs crossed with his scepter in his lap. He was meditating, focusing all his energy and his powers on pooling it all into one place.

His eyes flew open when he could feel the tesseract crying out. It was calling for him.

The orb in his scepter started glowing.

"At last," he said and began to mumble in his Asgardian tongue. He was reciting a spell that would give him his desired result.

Bring himself to the cube.

He vaporized into the magical vortex, passing through all the halls within the militia's fortress and floating above a stage where the cube was trying to collect all of his essence.

The cube however reached out with all the magical tendrils, pulling him closer to it. He tried to resist it, but the grasp was too powerful.

"Shut it down," Erik shouted. "Shut it down!"

The scientists forcefully brought the lever upward and got it to lock back into its off position.

The power slowly came down and allowed the cube to cool.

Loki was released from the cube's insurmountable hold and realized that he was free. He was also being released from the dimensional outland and given his bodily form again.

Now he would reappear within the confines of his enemy's fortress. Now he would be able to unleash his fury upon these mortals and claim his weapon.

But what they saw appear from a blazing white aperture above it was not what they expected.

A white nova slowly cooled down to a golden hue with black and green upon the dais.

When it was finally darkened took form of a being. It appeared to be human, cloaked in dark blacks and greens with a golden staff in hand.

Erik could not believe what he was seeing. Had in that moment of accidental operation, had they opened a portal to another world? Better or worse yet, had they pulled a being from another world.

Guards from SHIELD's infantry came running in.

"What happened in here?" the leader Torston said to him.

"I'm not sure, but I think we opened a portal," he told the guard, "and he appeared."

The guards all pulled out weapons to defend their base.

"Approach, slowly," he ordered the other two guards.

Erik watched from behind the console, but close to the door. He was not ready to be a part of something if turned ugly.

The guards walked slowly toward the stage.

Loki stood there, regaining his mind and composure. His linking with the cube had caused a moment of inconsistency; a temporary moment in the loss of everything within his physical form.

Finally, he heard the sounds of footsteps approaching toward him. They had primitive weapons that were compromised of metal projectiles meant to wound or kill whom they struck.

With his strength reconnecting with his legs, he stood up slowly, using his scepter as a support.

"Stop right there," the mortals said to him.

"I was unaware that I was causing harm to anyone," he replied. "What should I stop doing?"

"Stand still," another mortal on his left side shouted to him. "Drop the magic wand and bring your hands to where we can see them."

"You can see them," Loki said. "Want to see them further." He surrendered once to the mortals outside the tavern. He would not surrender when the tesseract was humming and glowing underneath his feet.

He attempted to reach for it, and that is when the enforcers opened fire upon him.

Angered at the wounds, which would heal before they knew it, Loki snapped to his feet and leapt into the air.

He struck one guardian in the shoulder with the bladed end of his staff. Blood poured from the wound. The mortal groaned in agonizing pain.

The other two guards struck him with a device that came from cables. It charged his body with energy that caused him to lose focus.

"Drop him!" the leader of this group shouted.

Loki pulled out the blade from the wound, but found that the energy was painful. It connected with the metal in his uniform and made it even more excruciating.

Soon he dropped to the floor.

"And stay down," the leader shouted. "Cuff him."

Loki felt his hands wrenched behind him as he was handcuffed yet again. These cuffs were strong and powerful, but he would get out of this.

His eyes were still locked with the tesseract which still sang in his heart. It wanted him to come back.

He would not take this distraction lightly. He would be back for it.

Jane walked through the electro-sliding door and proceeded down the hallway with her companion. They needed to get to back to the lab and make sure that everything was OK with Erik.

Commander Fury was trying to get the base back in order and establish connection with the lab where their friend was.

"God, I hope he is OK," Jane said out loud as the two girls walked.

"I'm sure he's fine," Darcy replied. "He can take a licking and keep on ticking."

As they arrived to a glass wall that was lined with metal shutters, she stopped abruptly when she saw a gathering of soldiers escorting a prisoner.

Her heart stopped for a moment and breath was hard to come to her organs that required air. She could not believe what she was seeing.

"Jane," Darcy called her name when she saw that she had stopped. "What is it?"

"I…" she tried to explain, but was speechless.

She saw Luke Kenton walking behind the group of soldiers, but he was dressed in a costume that was very similar to Thor's uniform that she had seen in New Mexico. However, his was black, brown, and gold with a long emerald cape draping his form.

"It can't be," she said. "How can…"

Her acquaintance gave her a wink with his right eye as he passed and she looked to the back of his black mane before he passed through a door.

Natasha Romanoff was watching at the end of their corridor watching Luke or whom she thought was Luke walking down the hall.

"Agent Romanoff," Jane went up to ask her, "who was that person?"

"He claims to be Loki, the god of Mischief from Asgard," the SHIELD agent said to her. "Why did he wink at you?"

"Maybe he thought she was cute?" Darcy replied.

"No," Jane snapped in reply. "I know him."

"How?" Agent Romanoff asked.

But she did not want to admit what had transpired between them. "I don't know," she said. "Just a feeling," Jane added to her lie before she dashed away.

The chamber was small, similar to the containment cell he had been in before. It was monitored by devices in the corners and a metal cage door looked into a hallway passage.

Loki moved his hands around in the thick silver cuffs that were made of a metal that he had never experienced before. It was hard and unrelenting, but he hoped with a little of his magic and Jotun powers, they would eventually release him.

Eventually, he brought himself to rest on the stone surface with his legs crossed over at his ankles and his head resting on the cuffs at the back of his head.

He was going to try and rest his eyes and meditate. He hoped that he would be able to feel the energy coming from the tesseract, mainly its location so he could procure it. It had been on the move since his entrapment.

It was a faint feeling when a familiar presence started to draw closer and closer to his confines. The aura was that drug that was settling his nerves about how to get out of his current cell, but the emotion of anger that radiated from her heart pleased him more.

"I knew that I should have left you in jail," the voice spoke to him.

There Jane Foster stood outside the bars in a defiant stance with her arms cross over her chest.

He turned his head ever so softly against the metal cuffs in her direction.

"Now Jane," he said, "is that any way to talk to the man who saved your life from a night of horror at the hands of a bunch of drunken students who attempted to defile you?"

"You planned it out to work that way," she snapped at him.

"Actually," he said, using the force from lifting his legs and bringing himself to sit up straight, "I was going to come out for a dance on the floor with you and then take an icy dagger to your abdomen. Quick, painful, and to the point."

"And all that about the fight with your brother and being adopted?"

"All truth, but you interpreted it in your own way," he told her. "I told you everything in my own words and you were sucked right into it."

Loki was now standing near the cage bars. "How do you feel now Ms. Foster, knowing that you slept with the enemy?"

"You disgust me," she said very quietly to him.

"But yet, you were so appetizing to me. I truly enjoyed that night we shared."

Jane was near the cage doors. Their eyes were locked on one another's. "Was any of it real? Or was I just means to an end?"

"Means to an end," he said with a smile on his face. "Definitely means to an end. But now Jane, a question to you. How do you feel knowing that your precious Thor will never be able to return to Earth and claim you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Thor destroyed the BiFrost Bridge," he informed her. "He chose to save a race of mindless monsters on Jotunheim than have the ability to return to you. He will never again step foot in this realm again."

Jane was upset at this news. Tears welled up in her eyes.

He almost had his hands free of the cuffs as he played with his hands behind his back. The ice from his hands had frozen the gears and spindles to where they were weakened. His hands would be free momentarily.

"That's not true," she said. "You are nothing but a monster."

"Better to bet on the monster you know," he told her. "I was there. We were battling with one another and he decided to save the Frost Giants than to return to your bed…"

"Which you thought of to fill with your…arrogance," she struggled to find the words that would provide the most pain. "Thor will come back."

"Without the use of the precious cube. I think not. You humans are so predictable. You think that you have all the answers, all the solutions to everything, and yet you fight, bicker, and destroy yourselves out of a jealous anger over what someone else has."

"And you are the great healer, right?"

"I have come to this world to rule as your king."

Jane gasped and stepped back for a second. Her hands covered over her mouth and nose. "Are you insane?"

"Quite lucid actually. How about it Jane? How about serving me and alongside me as my queen? Never want for anything ever again. To live forever and bring your science to life." Temping her would be the best way to secure her trust in this moment.

"I would rather choke on my own vomit than to share a room with you again," she snapped at him.

Typical reaction, he thought, but his hands were turned to where he could attempt a trick. One of his hands was finally free of the cuff and he gently slipped it out to freedom.

He kept his eyes on her focusing to keep her attention unaware as to what he was doing.

Loki attempted to reach through the bars and get his hands on her.

Another man, the leader of this militia had appeared, shouted out Jane's name, and reached out to pull her away from the cage. They slammed against the wall away from him.

Jane Foster was breathing excessively hard at the shock.

But he simply laughed at her fear.

Jane looked up and saw that Commander Nick Fury had somehow entered the prisoner ward and saved her from being grabbed by Loki before she had noticed his arrival.

He had grabbed and pulled her against the opposite wall before Loki could get his hands on her, even though he had been cuffed and secured within.

"You keep your hands to yourself," Fury told him.

"A couple nights ago," Loki tortured her, "she couldn't keep them off me if she tried." He chuckled lightly and kept it going, cackling like the typical super-villain.

She was angry and left the room through the door.

Fury was right behind her though as they walked into a conference room where Erik her mentor along with several other SHIELD agents awaited her; it appeared.

"Take a seat Ms. Foster," Fury told her. "We are going to have a nice chat."

What did you think about that? Loki has been captured, but is that his ultimate goal? If you want to know more, you need to review!