A/N: Yay! Two chapters in as many days! I'm on a roll! I'm not sure if the story alert email went out for the last chapter or not because I didn't get one (which was really bizarre), but hopefully there will be one for this chapter! If not, I may be updating to a totally new audience. Hi new audience! Welcome! You might want to read To Trick a Trickster before you get too much further into the story... it might help some things make sense.

Anywho, I hope you enjoy this chapter and hopefully it won't be too long before I put another one up. :)

Obviously Hydra wasn't going to let two complete strangers into their super secret base so Loki changed their disguises. They were now two Hydra agents with faces that you immediately forgot the moment you looked away. Flaversham got them into the base with little trouble, but once they were in they had a few issues.

"Flapperjapperwapper!" A gruff voice called, causing Flaversham to sigh and turn to the speaker.

"Yes, Mike?"

"Strucker wants to see you," The large man barely glanced at Loki and Lily, "It's about that girl you asked him to save."

"Elrod?"

"I prefer the term 'punching bag' personally," Mike chuckled and patted Flaversham roughly on the shoulder, "But the boss man wants to talk to you about her so maybe he's going to let you have her as a pet or something."

"You think?"

"Heck if I know. Go talk to him yourself."

Flaversham shot a quick glance at Loki, who was scowling fiercely at Mike and clenching his fists. Lily also seemed on edge, but that could have just been because she was in a fortress full of Hydra agents.

When the trio began to head in the direction of Baron von Strucker's quarters, Mike turned to get back to whatever work he'd been doing before. Loki stuck out his foot and tripped the agent. Mike's head caught the corner of a table as he fell and the big man was passed out before he hit the ground. Flaversham started walking faster and Loki snickered.

"I hope no one saw you trip him or someone is going to stop us and take you to HR."

"Hydra has Human Resources?" Lily scoffed.

"And a dental plan."

"Wow."

"He deserved much worse than the bump he'll have on his head. If I had the time I'd slit his throat." Loki snapped.

"You don't even know the half of it, but I'm not going to tell you because we're here to rescue Casey and not get revenge on her torturers. Right?" Flaversham asked, almost pleading.

"We'll see what we have time for."

"Oh great…" The agent rolled his eyes and lead them to the depths of the building.

When they got to Strucker's door Flaversham instructed his companions to wait outside, but, of course, neither wanted to do any such thing.

"I wanna see what he looks like!" Lily chirped.

"And I would very much like to slit his throat." Loki agreed.

"No. He only asked for me. If you kill him now then the whole base will be on high alert and there is no way we'll ever get Casey out. If you want to be helpful why don't you go to her room and pretend like you're escorting her down to meet Strucker."

"It seems as if someone has finally grown a spine." Loki whispered to Lily.

"I explained how to get there, didn't I?"

"Sir, yes sir!" Lily mock saluted and turned to march back through the freezing water on the tunnel floor. Loki stayed a few moments longer, glaring at Flaversham.

"I've pretended to be you before. I could do it again."

"If there are two of me running around people will get suspicious. Plus, someone has to keep Detective Blathen in disguise, right?"

"She'd be fine."

"What, don't you want to see Casey? I know she would be more than happy to see you." Flaversham raised an eyebrow.

"Quite being bossy, it doesn't suit you, Flavershimmy," Loki sighed, "I only hope she is truly happy to see me. Or at least, she'll let me help her get back to New York or somewhere safe."

"If I were you," Flaversham said gently, "I'd stop worrying over it and just go save her."

Loki sighed one more time and sloshed after Lily.

Flaversham straightened his uniform and knocked on his commander's door. The Baron opened it quickly and the agent briefly worried that he'd been standing next to the door and listening in to what the rescue team had been saying. However, when he noticed that his employer was jabbering away on a radio device he was fairly certain Loki and Lily would have no troubles getting to the cell and springing Casey from it.

"We will talk about this at another time," Strucker hung up and looked Flaversham over, "Come in, I have many questions for you about Miss Elrod."

As they passed through the hallways to get to the cell Flaversham had said Casey was staying in, they passed many Hydra agents. No one seemed to notice the disguised cop and Asgardian.

"So, what are you going to say to her when you see her?" Lily whispered as they turned a corner.

"I hadn't thought about it."

"Liar, liar, pants on fire. You've probably thought of a hundred possibilities and just don't like any of them."

"I'm unsure what to say first. Do I apologize? Do I ask her to come to Asgard? Do I see what she knows about Strucker so that I can kill him? Do I-?"

"Your problem is that you're used to being centered on you. Those are all things that would make you feel better to know the answers to. Don't you want to ask how she is?"

"I know how she is. Bloodied and bruised. It won't do either of us any good to cover what we both already know."

"Okay, then why don't you ask her where she'd like to go, and don't bring up Asgard immediately. Let her consider her options."

"Blathen, I…" He paused as he saw a brunette woman staring at him. She wore red and black and had a tall young man beside her with white hair. The pair were moving in the oposite direction through the halls, but the woman had stopped to look at Loki.

"Wanda, what is it?" The man asked.

Loki's eyes narrowed. In his vision Casey had said something about a person named Wanda playing with her mind. Was this woman now reading his thoughts and seeing that he was not the Hydra agent his uniform declared him to be? Would she sound the alarm when she realized who he was?

"Nothing. I think I left my water bottle back in my room."

"Oh, well there are plenty more in the training room."

"I would really like mine, could you run back and get it?"

It dawned on Loki that she was trying to get her companion to leave so that she could speak to him and see if he was actually a Hydra agent or not. Not wanting to let her be certain of the truth, he grabbed Lily's arm while Wanda and the young man spoke and rushed the detective down the hall, around another corner, and in front of a line of cells.

"Which cell did he say?" The detective asked.

"I cannot recall. Let's open them all. Who knows, we might even find someone else useful." Loki approached the first door and, though it took a few minutes, forced it open. It was empty.

"There's, like, twenty cells. Do we have time to check them all?" Lily asked.

"No, and even less time than we had. I believe a mind reader spotted us in the hall. I do not know if she will report us to another Hydra agent or not. Let us assume that she will."

"Okay, so which cells do we check?"

"Look for ones with scratches or dents in them. I'm assuming Acacia will have put up a fight." Loki began to inspect doors and Lily did the same. Every second they spent he worried that he could be missing her cell. What if she was just on the other side of this door and he was passing her by? He couldn't risk it. He began pulling apart all the doors he came to, much to the confusion of Lily. He attempted to peer through the glass on some of the doors with windows, but they were small enough that he couldn't see into the rooms that were dark. He was growing frantic as he went.

"Slow down, pal! I think I found it!"

Loki stopped, allowing the prisoner behind the door he'd just ripped off to escape.

"Look at this," Lily, pointed to a cell door that had once had a window. The glass was shattered and the protruding shards were speckled with blood, "And if that isn't convincing enough that the alter ego was here, take a look at this."

There was a little plaque nailed to the wall next to the door that had the letters "C" and "E" sketched onto it. It looked as if it had been there a while and was dusty.

"Those letters could mean all kinds of things," He said, beginning to take the door off it's hinges.

"Hurry up! I think I heard someone!" Lily breathed, bouncing on the balls of her feet and searched the end of the hallway for unwanted visitors.

Loki gave a final shove and the door came off quietly. The two intruders snuck inside the cell and Lily gasped loudly. Loki's fists clenched as he took in the cell. His teeth ground against each other and he fought the urge to punch the nearest wall.

Straw was all over the room, but it wasn't the only thing. Blood was smeared in several different spots. The mattress had a particularly big stain of it and the floor had many puddles as well. The room smelled terrible and it seemed as if something or someone had been locked away in there to die.

"She's not here," Lily pouted, kicking some straw with her boot, "I thought for sure she'd be in this one."

"At some point she was. Look," He stepped over to the mattress and found a scrap of red fabric, "This used to be her jacket," He reached into what was once the pocket and pulled forth three bent and torn playing cards, "These were hers."

"So where is she now?"

"Well, they don't often let bodies sit around to rot, do they?" He ground out bitterly. His mind was going at light speed, trying desperately to come up with an excuse for why there was so much blood in the room. Any explanation would do, just so long as she wasn't dead.

"No, that can't be it! I'm sure they just took her to another room for a while. Maybe she's in their dining hall or something. Maybe they're torturing her right now! We should go look for her some more!"

"Think about it, Blathen. Why else would Strucker wish to speak with Fliverspin about Casey if she were not dead?" Loki was disagreeing with every word he said, but he couldn't stop himself.

"Okay, his name is Flaversham - it's not that hard to remember. And there could be a hundred other reasons for why she's not here and her room is covered in blood. Maybe the monster got out and killed someone. Maybe she got hurt during torture and they moved her to the medical wing."

"If that is the case then Flaversham will know by now. Let us rejoin him." Hands shaking more than he'd care to show, Loki steered his companion out the door and back through the halls.

They were nearing the stairs that would take them down to the Baron's level when Loki felt an intense pain in his head. He gasped and had to lean on the wall for a moment. Lily yelped and rushed to help him.

"You okay? What happened? Was it the mind reader?"

Loki didn't answer as his mind filled with gold and blue. He grimaced and shook his head. Once his eyes focused again he knew exactly where he wanted to go. The scepter was calling him.

"Loki?" Lily whispered, "Can you walk? Are you okay?"

"No," He breathed, mostly to himself, "I will not come back to it so willingly."

"Uh…" The detective blinked, "Sorry, what?"

Loki shook his head again, finally getting his mind under control. He locked eyes with Lily and frowned. He was on a mission and he would not be deterred from finding where Casey had gone to.

"So… okay yes or no?"

"I'm fine. Let's keep moving, we can't waste a moment."

"Alrighty then." Lily looked him over apprehensively, shrugged, and continued on to the stairs. She almost shrieked when she bumped into Flaversham on the way down.

"It's just me!" The agent soothed.

"Good golly you're going to give me a heart attack!"

"What did the Baron want?" Loki hissed.

Flaversham took a deep breath and glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

"Casey Elrod isn't here."

"Norns," Loki's hands began to shake again and he lowered himself to sit down on one of the steps. The weight of the silver cuff was heavy in his pocket and on his mind. A thousand images of her face flashed before his eyes and then one instant played over and over again.

"I hate you, so don't come looking for me."

"Stay down or one of us is going to get hurt!"

And he'd done nothing but let her run away into the waiting cage that Garrett had ready for her. Loki cursed himself a million times over.

"Who did it?" He growled, "Who should I kill first?"

"No, no, no! She's not dead!" Flaversham exclaimed.

"Oh." Lily and Loki both said, confused.

"What do you mean she is 'gone'? Have they moved her to another base? Has the mind reader swayed her to join Hydra?" Loki got back to his feet, shaking off the gloominess that had set in a moment ago and filling with eagerness once more.

"Mind reader? Wanda? No, Wanda would never-"

"Don't waste breath telling me what hasn't happened."

"Right," Flaversham looked around the area nervously, "Now, this must have been last night sometime or very early morning, but somehow she escaped."