A/N:: Love the reviews!

HELICARRIER

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Nick Fury demanded the moment he stepped into the lab. Both Stark and Bruce had stopped watching the tracking algorithm to instead examine the files Stark had hacked. Harry hadn't planned on paying any attention but decided it would be worth it once "weapons of mass destruction" were mentioned. He passively kept his sense open to the scepter while he sat back for the show.

"Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you," said Tony.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," said Fury testily.

"We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile," Bruce said.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Tony flipped his screen around, "what is Phase 2?"

Harry sensed him before he even entered the room, but he couldn't account for how upset Steve would be, "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons."

Steve turned to Tony, "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow." Tony looked delighted.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…" Fury tried to explain, but he was promptly cut off.

"I'm sorry, Nick," said Tony, pulling up files that quite clearly, in Harry's humble opinion, showed plans for weapons, "what were you lying?

"I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit," said Steve tartly. They didn't get any further before Natasha walked in with his brother, no doubt having just finished interrogating and exchanging notes on Loki.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha angrily.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha asked.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," Bruce threw back.

"Loki's manipulating you," said Natasha. No, Harry thought, the scepter was mani-shit. The scepter was throwing off interference like mad. Unfortunately, the arguing around him continued as he tried to pull some of the magic away. It wasn't an enchantment though, so he struggled.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce retorted.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," said Natasha. Could he create an enchantment to contain its effects?

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction!" Bruce said.

"Because of him," said Fury pointing at Thor, "and people like him," he eyed Harry, who made sure he looked as indignant as possible. He momentarily abandoned the scepter but jumped back to it immediately.

"Me?" Thor sounded as incredulous as Harry felt.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned!" Fury explained.

Harry's magic had long since latched on and began to cage the scepter's influence but it took a few more tugs to contain it. He wasn't, therefore, paying much attention to the next development.

They pulled their weapons out almost before Harry realized what was happening. The sickly green light was distinctive enough that by the time the black smoke had dissipated, he was not surprised to see Hela, in all her glory, standing there. Her rather severe posture was made lethal by her apparent amusement at all the weapons pointed her way.

Natasha had her gun pointed immediately and her finger on the trigger, as did Nick Fury. Stark must carry more of his suit on him than he'd realized because had a repulsor on his hand and pointed up at her as well. Steve did not have any sort of weapon but had moved as if to fight. Only he and Thor hadn't moved.

"Identify yourself!" Fury growled at her. He would have been intimidating to most people but Hela was not most people. She flat-out ignored him.

"Hela," said Thor brightly.

"What're you doing here?" Harry asked in surprise. Wasn't she supposed to be in another galaxy?

"Hela?" Steve repeated, turning to Thor.

"Our older sister, Odin's firstborn," said Thor, "the goddess of death."

"She's the goddess of what?" Stark repeated incredulously, he was not the only one who seemed disbelieving.

Natasha and Fury both had expressions of grim resignation as if fully expecting a fight.

"Is she a friendly?" Steve asked warily.

"Did you just miss the whole goddess of death thing!?" Stark demanded, whirling to face the captain.

"She is wearing Loki's colors," said Bruce.

"I come in peace if that's what you mean, Father sent me," said Hela, smirk betraying her dismissive tone.

"Are you here to help us put an end to Loki's madness?" Thor asked hopefully.

Harry doubted it. Hela never got involved in Asgard's battles anymore. She helped with training, strategy, and negotiations but never went out herself. Not anymore. Even though he didn't doubt that she loved her family, he doubted this squabble would be enough to change her mind. He wondered if she'd go to battle for Helheim. Probably, but that was a moot point because nobody in their right mind would want to invade the realm of the dead. He wasn't entirely sure it was possible.

Unlike the other realms, no matter how long you flew around in space for, you wouldn't eventually run into Helheim. It was only accessible by magical means, guarded by Yggdrasil from mortals. This was why you couldn't simply bring people back from the dead. It was for the best, Harry felt, that only Hela had that kind of jurisdiction.

"I must speak with him," said Hela. "Whether you end up doing battle is not of concern to me."

"Why in the hell do you think we'd let you just waltz in here and get one on one time with the prisoner?" Fury demanded.

"What do you need to talk to him about?" Harry asked.

"You aren't letting me do anything," said Hela, "I am the Goddess of Death, Queen of Hel, and have drowned whole galaxies in their own blood tears. You are a self-important mortal born and dead, unnoticed by the true powers of the universe, in the blink of an eye. I will do as I please and there isn't anything that you can do to stop me."

Harry was trying not to laugh, while Thor looked impressed with her little speech. The others appeared to be in various states of shock, affront, and wariness.

Fury, it appeared, didn't have a response for her. He just stared, a little dumbfounded.

"What do you want with reindeer games?" Stark asked.

Hela turned to him, "there are powers far beyond Loki at play here, this is nothing more than a small sideshow in a much greater and more sinister scheme. A scheme I must uncover. Loki holds a piece of this in his hands."

"You think Loki is being controlled?" Harry asked her hopefully.

Hela looked at him grimly, "you should not be here."

Unintimidated, Harry rolled his eyes, "that's what Thor said."

"I'm surprised Father hasn't sent someone to collect you straight away," said Hela.

Harry shrugged, "it would draw too much attention with the other things happening right now."

Hela narrowed her eyes, "if I was headed to Asgard after this, I would take you with me," she said.

"You didn't answer my question," said Harry.

"I don't know the answer yet, but it is a distinct possibility," said Hela.

Thor looked hopeful for the first time since they'd been down on Midgard. The other Avengers looked skeptical.

"How do we know you aren't just saying that?" Stark asked snidely. "Miss-I'm-So-Powerful?"

"There are forces beyond Asgard," she said, "and Loki is nowhere near as powerful as I."

In the end, there really wasn't anything they could do to stop her from speaking to Loki, nor was there anyone who wanted to try. Goddess of Death and Queen of Hel were scary titles, even to SHIELD agents.

Any doubts the rest of the Avengers had were wiped away by the look of pure horror on Loki's face when he saw Hela. His face went so pale that Harry wondered if he was going to revert to Frost Giant form and his mouth slackened like he'd been sedated. For the first time, Loki looked truly rattled.

He put on his bravado act anyway.

"Hela," he sneered, "fancy seeing you here."

"Loki," she said, not betraying any sort of feelings about him. "Who gave you the scepter and sent you after the Tesseract?"

"Do not tell me you, too, have been taken by the "heroes" noble quest to stop my rule as well?"

"I'm here to discuss the stones," said Hela tartly. The stones…? He and Thor exchanged a confused look and they both ignored Stark's very immature comment.

Loki visibly flinched. He stared at her with a sort of emptiness Harry had never seen from his brother before. "I negotiated with The Other," said Loki robotically.

"Do you know what The Other wanted?"

"What do you care?" Loki sneered.

"It's important to me," she shrugged, an infuriating smile on her face.

He opened and closed his mouth several times.

"You wanted to invade Midgard and he gave you the scepter and an army?"

"In exchange for the Tesseract," said Loki quietly, "and the scepter back."

"And who was the Other working for?" Hela asked.

"I do not know," Loki lied. She would've believed him had she not been hoping he was wrong.

"You've lost your touch, brother," she said.

She left at a relaxed clip, internally wanting to scream. Shit, shit, shit. Her father was right.

Someone was after the infinity stones and she was beginning to have a very shrewd idea who.

"Make sure you get the Tesseract and the Scepter back to Asgard," she told her brothers as she was preparing to depart. Harry didn't think he'd be able to teleport for months and had no idea how she was planning on teleporting after just doing so several minutes ago.

"You can't just take—"

She gave Fury a look that dared him to continue talking. He did.

"The Tesseract has been SHIELD property for 70 years!" He said, "you don't get to just come in here and take it!"

"It was entrusted to the Norse thousands of years ago by Odin himself for safekeeping. They kept it safe until it was stolen from them but we left it hoping, clearly in vain, that humanity would be able to protect it anyway. You have not just failed in that but you have signaled to the rest of the universe that you were ready for interplanetary warfare using it," said Hela. "They are both going to Asgard as soon as possible."

The computer beeped. Everyone stopped talking, even Hela who probably had no idea what that meant.

"Got a hit!" Tony exclaimed, marching over to the computer.

"Where?" Steve asked.

"I can get there fastest," said Thor, summoning his hammer from by the door. It flew to him immediately.

"You aren't going alone," Steve said.

"We aren't doing anything rash," said Fury, "We'll get a strike team ready."

"Son of a bitch!" Tony muttered, jerking away from the screen, Bruce stared at it in surprise.

"Oh my god, Stark Tower?" Bruce muttered. They all stared at them.

"I guess I'll be taking you up on your offer, Tony," said Harry. "Take the scepter now, Hela. We don't need it."

Hela swept across the room and took it, "bring the Tesseract to Asgard as soon as possible."

"We might still—" Fury began to object to Hela taking Loki's scepter.

At that exact moment, the entire helicarrier shook violently, throwing them in every direction, "damnit!" Someone exclaimed, probably Tony. The room totally collapsed on them.

"Breach!" Came the voice-over the comm devices they'd given all of the "Avengers" less than a few hours ago.

"No shit," Harry mumbled.

"Hill?" Fury called on his com.

Harry sprung up immediately, "Loki!"

"I'll get him," said Thor, jumping up and racing off.

"Engine number 3 is down!" Agent Hill informed them.

"Stark, now would be a good time to suit up," said Steve, pulling his helmet on.

"Yep," said Tony, taking off towards the ship's underbelly and the rest of his suit. Steve bolted after him towards Engine 3.

Harry couldn't see Natasha or Bruce but could hear the labored breathing of, he assumed, Bruce. Natasha seemed to be trying to calm him down.

"It's okay," said Natasha, sounding rather panicked in Harry's opinion. "You're going to be okay, I swear on my life—"

"On your LIFE?" Bruce roared.

Harry jumped up, "Romanoff, RUN!"

She pulled free from her own trappings and took off. It was the Hulk who chased after her.

Grimacing, Harry mentally prepared to go after the green race monster, "Hela, you better go check on Thor and Loki."

"And leave you to deal with that thing?" Hela demanded.

"It'll be fine," said Harry, stretching a little and summoning his sword to his belt. He began to sprint towards the sounds of the Hulk's roars.

THOR AND LOKI

"Loki!" Thor thundered as he stormed up to the cell his brother was being kept in. Just as he was entering, several of Loki's mind-controlled minions were coming in from another door.

The moment they saw him they opened fire, forcing him to take cover around the corner, losing sight of both them and his brother. Knowing he needed to act quickly, he bolted out for a brief second and flung his hammer at them. He didn't wait to see if it would strike true (he knew it would) but rolled to the other side of the room, putting the cell between him and them.

The grunts from the men and the shearing of the hammer told him that none of the mortals would be getting up for a while.

"Loki?" He asked. His brother had a strange look on his face. He looked congested almost, confused and in pain too. It was weird given the stimulation. His black hair was a mess as well, like he'd been pulling it or something. Most tellingly, his eyes were flickering in color like a confused chameleon.

"…Thor?" Loki's voice sounded scratchy.

He moved back towards the command panel, "it's over, brother."

"Pardon?"

"Hela has taken your scepter," said Thor, "we have located the Tesseract and your forces are being rounded up as we speak."

"The—the scepter…." Loki repeated quietly, almost to himself.

"Yes," said Thor. "I will take you home to stand trial in a few days."

"Home," Loki repeated, looking a little disoriented as he stared at Thor.

"Did he hit his head on something?" A new voice asked, startling then both.

"I am not sure, sister," said Thor. "He seems off."

"Well apparently that shakes the scepter's influence," she said.

"You think he's being controlled?"

"I know so, now," she said. "Harry put an enchantment on the scepter to try to lessen its influence. The mortals needed one good blow to their heads to shake it. It would follow that Loki would need less than that."

Hope soared inside him as he'd never felt before as he watched Loki shake his head a few times, falling to his knees as he rubbed his temples, "he's coming to himself then!"

"Yes," she said. "Let him out."

Thor hesitated but decided to trust her, she was usually right about pretty much everything anyway. The glass door opened. Loki didn't budge.

"Brother?" Thor and Hela asked in unison.

Loki looked up after glancing around and swallowed heavily, "what happened?"

His eyes were startlingly green.

HARRY

Harry caught up with Natasha and the Hulk just in time and tackled the beastly green man, putting all of his strength behind it. Even though he was young, he could still easily lift 30 tons (compared to Thor's nearly 200 tons).

This meant that though he was not stronger than the Hulk, he could certainly send him flying, which he did. They landed in an airplane bay.

"Bruce?" He asked hesitantly as the Hulk stood up woozily and eyed him. He grunted and then charged at him.

"No Bruce then," Harry muttered. He couldn't tap into his powers or he'd seriously injure Bruce in his attempt to stop the Hulk, so he settled for his next best option: ducking.

The Hulk over swung and was just off-balance enough for Harry to deliver his most powerful roundhouse kick. The green rage monster catapulted back into the hangar wall, easily crashing through several planes.

Unfortunately, this only served to further piss him off. This time Harry wasn't nearly as lucky and his dodge was a moment too late. He saw stars as he was crushed by the massive green fist, flinging up into the ceiling. He reached out wildly, inadvertently yanking the Hulk up with him.

"Bruce, c'mon!" He panted as he rolled over, dodging another punishing shot.

The Hulk roared in frustration and annoyance, bounding to his feet as Harry followed in suit, quick to ensure that he held an advantageous position if their brawl continued.

It did.

The Hulk charged forward with another grunt and attempted to slap him, but Harry managed to roll under the arm and deliver as powerful an uppercut as he could manage. He was pleased to see the Hulk stumble backward—unfortunately, that seemed to be the only effect.

Harry was quick to press his advantage, trying to knock the Hulk and Bruce unconscious. He vaguely recalled reading on one of the briefing files he'd been given that this would transform the Hulk back into Bruce. He hoped that was right.

He swung as hard as he could at the Hulk's head twice before jumping back to avoid the flying fist coming at him. He didn't quite manage and was blasted into the glass of the empty lab they were destroying. He could hear the crunch behind him from the window but ignored that as he wiped some blood off his face and stepped forward again. This would've been a lot easier if he could just pull out Eir-gram and go for the kill.

He could try enchanting the Hulk, but that took more time than he had and more concentration than he was willing to divert from this fight. Additionally, he was running a little low on power between teleporting across realms, fighting the scepter's influence, and looking for the Tesseract.

The Hulk sized him up for a moment before barreling straight at him. Harry, despite his Aesir genetics, didn't have enough time to dodge and before he knew it, they were both through the window. They tumbled straight off the helicarrier and to the earth below.

Harry wished desperately that he had Thor's flight abilities, but he didn't, all he had was another punch to send him catapulting away from the Hulk. The rush of wind through his hair and the overwhelming feeling of flying would've been incredible at any other time, but knowing he was going to collide with the ground at any moment ruined it.

It got closer and closer. It seemed to take an eternity as he braved for death. He could move in with Hela and spend some time with the Potters. That would be nice. He'd miss his family though—impact came so fast that all he knew was oblivion.