Chapter Eleven

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What was left of the Avengers sat around the table awkwardly. Bruce and Tony weren't there and the space between Thor and Natasha seemed a thousand times bigger than just two chairs.

"What do we do now?" Steve asked, all out of plans. He was holding up better than expected, not as well as the others but still better than they had thought. Thor took it all surprisingly well too, although having a friend betray you didn't hit home quite as hard as a brother. Only Natasha seemed to have an obvious problem that she couldn't let go of, mainly because she had been the one fooled twice. None of them could give Steve a worthwhile response.

"We're going to stop them," a deadly quiet voice answered. They turned to see Bruce walking in, Tony in tow. No one in the room had forgotten what Bruce looked like angry, but this was different. They had never seen him determined before. Hulk had direction, a purpose that his calmer self lacked, until now.

"And how do you propose to do that?" Fury asked him. "Do you really plan on killing her?" Everyone except Tony held their breath, waiting for signs of green to appear.

"If we have to." Bruce's voice was cold; he sounded more like Clint or Natasha than the mild man they all knew. Tony stared at him, aware now of the change he had inadvertently made happen.

"If that's only the beginning, we need you, Bruce. If, for whatever reason Arella is against us we need you. Whatever Loki's planning, he won't hesitate to hurt her, to use her to destroy lives. The Avengers are going to fight him and if we can't stop him then we'll take him down with us. But we need you, Bruce. You might be hurt, you may never heal but you need to return that blow or else none of what we did against the Chitauri would have mattered, none of the battles we've fought since then will have made a difference."

He had meant Loki; he wanted Bruce to come with them when they went after Loki. Tony knew that Hulk wouldn't harm Arella. Now he wasn't sure if Bruce would stick to the same rules. The man who turned to him, his eyes dull but not defeated, wasn't the Hulk; he wasn't going to smash them. He was Bruce Banner and for the first time, Tony saw the potential to kill in that intelligent face. Bruce was going after her; he was going to kill her, but why? To save Arella from whatever Loki had planned? Tony knew that Bruce believed death was a better alternative than life in some cases. Then he remembered Loki's words.

I have an army, Arella, and a way to send you back home.

Home. Arella had run away, she had escaped from her home. Bruce was going to kill her to stop Loki from sending her back. What was so terrible about home? Tony wondered.

… …

"I don't need to teach them anything else, just make sure they stand still when it happens. I don't want to have to chase them all over Paris when I need them." Arella walked away from Loki's dazed recruits, the Asgardian trailing her. A few were on their knees, gasping for breath and one had fainted. TO be fair she had lost her patience and hit him with a fistful of shadows but still, he wasn't going to be of much use.

Loki nodded sullenly, not quite prepared to admit that she was the one giving out instructions.

"We get to Paris, we evacuate the city centre then we set up the portal. The Avengers will come as soon as they see us. The moment your friends come through I take Bruce and leave. You don't follow or send anyone after us. I don't really care what you do after that, Loki, I just never want to see you or anyone sent by you. Understand?" He stared at her for a moment then cocked his head slightly.

"Why evacuate the city? It's not as if the people will live any longer." She let him walk past her, chuckling to himself. "Oh, and Arella?" Loki stopped and turned to her. "Merza sends his love to his new sister-in-law."

She slammed the shadows into him, snarling in her own language. Loki merely laughed as he picked himself up off the floor.

"Don't you want to go home? Your friends are terribly lonely without you. I heard there was barely anyone at Tchako's funeral. Do you not want to pay your respects? He died saving you after all. I wonder who you felt meeting Hawkeye. He's quite a marksman, isn't he? A wonder if he could make the same shot. No, he probably would have hit the right person." She hit him again, throwing him back towards his recruits.

"Getting angry, Arella? I thought that was your boyfriend's problem. Oh but you would make the beast look like a child compared to your fury. You made the strongest man on your world quake with fear until he found a way to control you. You scared your sister, one of the most powerful women in the universe into hiding. You could destroy this world, if only you knew how."

"You confuse me, Loki. It almost looks as if you have a plan you're keeping a secret from yourself," she commented lightly, letting him get up before slamming him down again nonchalantly.

"Great generals learn from their setbacks. I always have another plan," he said as he wiped the blood from his lip.

"Plans go wrong, dreams never come true. Tchako died because his plan went wrong, Fran died because her plan worked. I don't make plans, Loki. I have an objective, getting it will sort itself out."

"You have an extraordinary faith in the plan of the universe," he answered and walked away. This time he didn't goad her and she didn't hit him. It was a vast improvement on last time.

… …