Chapter Thirteen: Safety Net

Holly woke up and the first thing that she felt was frightened out of her mind. Where was she? Her tiny body uncoiled itself from where she was tangled around what looked like a bunch of rocks. She was in some cave of some sort.

Her green eyes opened as she looked around the small cave taking ahold of her surroundings. She suddenly felt very cold. She turned her head slightly and saw a dark hair man and a woman arguing not caring in the least that Holly was sitting down a few feet away.

She uncoiled her feet and rubbed the back of her head trying to remember what had happened, but honestly it was kind of a blur. She remembers shopping with Pepper and Natasha and then being grabbed. She had heard Natasha cried out in pain, but that had been it.

Holly had been taken by this strange dark hair man that was now arguing with this woman.

"You didn't have to take the girl," the woman spat. "I have no use for useless children not to mention that I doubt that she is one of the infinity stones."

"The light energy is coming from her," Loki replied back coldly. "It must mean something."

Lady Arista pursed her lips as if she didn't believe a word, but didn't elaborate. "How strange thought that the infinity stone is in a mere child."

"Or maybe on said child," Loki said, his eyes flashing as he turned towards Holly and saw that she was awake. He took sharp steps forward and Holly curled herself into a little ball hoping to get away from him.

Loki grabbed her by the collar of her dress. "Play nice and do everything I say, you peasant and you won't get hurt."

"I didn't do anything to you," Holly grumbled forcing herself to be brave as she forced herself to stare at those green eyes. They were the same shade of green as her, only his were filled with more malice.

Loki's lip curled into a manipulative smirk. "Well, I see that you're the Avengers newest little pet, but you're not one of them. You don't have anything that makes you stand out, only," he paused for a bit as he grabbed the pendant around her neck and twisted it slightly. It was in the shape of a wand and had an orange stone in the middle. "Who gave this to you?" Loki demanded, his fingers never leaving the wand.

Holly threw him a dirty look as she arched her head forward. "My aunt Tasha. Let me go, please. Take me home."

"I don't think so, especially not yet," he ripped the necklace from her neck with one small pull, causing Holly to land on her bottom and for Loki to get the necklace from his grip.

"That's mine!" Holly hissed as she went towards to retrieve the necklace, but she was obviously too small and slow for Loki's strength. Loki simply grabbed her from her pigtails and threw her towards the small corner where she had just woken up from.

"Loki," Lady Arista said obviously annoyed. "Just get rid of the little human urchin already. It's not that hard or would you like me to do the honors."

"Not, just yet," Loki said slowly as he looked back at Holly. "She seems to have some tie to the Avengers as if they adopted her or something. Let's wait. Who knows maybe it will be in our best interest after all and we can use her as some form of leverage."

Arista looked doubtful, but didn't comment anymore as she turned toward Loki and looked at the necklace that he was holding. "And what is that?"

"I got it from the little brat," he said as he looked at the necklace. "It seems like a simple human necklace make of fake gold in the shape of a stick, but look at the stone inside. It seemed that it used to be orange, but it's slowly turning lavender."

Arista snatched the necklace from him, her lips pulling into a smile. "We did it, we found the soul stone-the infinity stone."

Loki held his breath, "Are you sure?"

"Quite sure," Arista murmured as she stared at the tiny stone in between her fingers. "It's slowly turning lavender, but when it becomes darker that's when the real fun will begin."

"Damn it, Stark, pull yourself away I need room to breathe, damn it," Fury hissed at Tony and it didn't help that Tony was inches away from Fury's face. Apparently Fury was big on the whole personal space issue. "I am fucking serious Stark, either you pull back or I will throw everyone out of this room."

Tony jaw clenched. "Fine, you don't have to be such a baby about it." The others that Fury was talking about was everyone that was currently held up at his office at the moment which included the Avengers and Pepper who were looking for any information regarding Holly's capture via Loki. Right now after much persisting from Nat, Steve, and Tony Fury had most of his best agents and even agent Coulson looking for any scrap of evidence that Loki might have left behind which was almost none to say the least.

Fury sighed as he looked at the grim faces that were staring back at him. "I told you before and I'll tell you again. We'll call you if we find out something. We do not need all you breathing down our backs, understood?"

"I don't trust you," Tony said. "Especially since lying seems to be your middle name and your secrets have secrets."

Fury's jaw clenched. "Stark, Loki capture what looks like a human child and he's back to cause more mayhem. Of course he's my first priority here!"

"Director Fury," Coulson said as he stepped foot in the tensioned filled room.

Steve turned to Coulson. "Did you find anything, a trace?"

Coulson shook his head. "No, nothing I'm sorry, but knowing Loki it shouldn't be too long."

Pepper spoke up, her voice trembling slightly. "I'm sorry too long for what?"

Coulson hesitated a bit before he said. "Too long before Loki starts making his entrance or in this case his demands for him to give Holly back."

They were talking. It seemed like hours since Loki had deposited Holly in the same corner that she had woken up from. They had been talking ever since Loki had taken the necklace from Holly. They seemed to be arguing with each other and Holly could only hear the words "trade" "books" and "Asgard."

The necklace was on top of a small rock, but Holly didn't dare grab it, but her eyes kept flickering towards it. It was the necklace that Natasha had given her, she wanted it back. Her eyes closed, remembering how the necklace felt around her finger as she twisted it when she was nervous. Her eyes opened and she felt something hard in her hand. The necklace.

How had it come to her from all the way over there. She gasped when she saw that the stone was bright purple and that the necklace seemed to be trembling by itself.

Loki turned around swiftly looking at the trembling necklace in Holly's hand. "What did you- "

He didn't get to finish his sentence before everything exploded covering them up in a bright, purple light.

-End of Chapter Thirteen-