Day two had dawned over the arctic wilderness. Loki stood next to the bright orange SnowCat, arms across over his chest and watching at Emma who had climbed on the roof of the truck with binoculars for a better view. "So, can you see anything from there?" Loki asked.

He was grumpy that he had dented the roof while trying to join her there, crushing the roof on his own side of the truck. These mortals' vehicles were poorly designed for someone his size and build. It was not that he would have been a clumsy, heavy brute. He considered himself of being just quite the opposite.

They had managed to return over 90 miles and taken a new route with the right heading to the safer direction, driving through the night, taking only a couple of short breaks. It was morning already and Emma had closed her eyes for a short moment before the sunrise. The old nightmares had awoken her and she had preferred to keep driving instead of trying to sleep again.

"There are no fjords. It looks safe, but that's all I can say. The ice canyons can be tricky like we found out last evening," Emma said as she sat on the roof of the vehicle, looking ill at ease, staring to the endless whiteness around them.

Loki leaned against the truck with one hand offering his other hand to help her down. He could tell there was something bothering her, other than the damage he had done to the vehicle. "What troubles you?" he asked when she lowered herself down from on top of the vehicle, accepting his help.

Other than she was stuck there with him unsure would they make to the coast at all, just waiting when he would freak out again? She had really begun to like that softer side of him and never wished to meet the dark one again. Her short meeting with Frigga had only strengthened her believes that he wasn't all mean, bad-tempered creature.

"Well, even if we won't fall into a canyon, there is still one small problem, a couple of actually. At first, we might run out of fuel because we had to circle and I wasn't prepared for this journey properly," Emma told. "And next, I have no idea how to get you on to a flight to the States without IDs if we make it that far."

"That second one you can leave to me, but I cannot much help with the fuel. We should waste no time," Loki said and was about to move on his side of the truck when he sensed something approaching them fast from the east and took a glance over his shoulder. "Let me have that," he said nodding towards her binoculars and Emma gave them to him. He gazed through the optical instruments. "What are those?" he asked pondering in a curious tone.

"What do you mean? What do you see?" Emma asked looking at the same direction as he was.

Before they were visible to a mortal eye, the god of mischief saw two flying aircrafts, rocketing towards their direction high over the magnificent pure white glacier and he lowered the binoculars looking at them with bare eyes. Emma heard the sounds of the aircrafts when they kept approaching. "Sounds like jets."

Only a few seconds later, the Quinjets flew over the SnowCat and circled back a few rounds lowering altitude and remained hovering around it. Loki and Emma watched as the flying crafts flew over their heads. Interested Loki stepped close to Emma giving her the binoculars back as the Quinjets hovered lower and men in black combat outfits with big guns were dropping down from both of the jets. There was about 300 feet between the jets and the SnowCat.

"Oh shit!" Emma whispered more than worried, staring at the sudden rush of people in front of them. And the soldiers didn't look too friendly at first sights and she glanced at Loki, pondering were those soldiers there after him.

The aircrafts got Loki's full attention. "Please, tell me that you can fly one of those," Loki asked, pure excitement in his voice.

Emma had no idea who they were and where had they come from. And she didn't like Loki's question. "Do I look like an army trained pilot?"

Loki's forehead furrowed in a disappointment, giving her a short valuating look. "No, I guess not."

"Oh, you are not thinking what I think you are thinking, are you?"

Like preparing for a battle, Loki conjured the golden, horned helmet on his head. It appeared on him with a flow of gleaming magic and made an indelible impression on Emma as he stood there in all his might. He looked like some super-rich, badass king from the Dark Ages. A sexy, mean devil he was.

A dozen of red laser sights pointed at them, a couple at Emma and the rest at Loki, little red dots on their chests. The armed combat soldiers were moving towards them over the snowy plain looking eager to open fire at the two of them.

"Loki. Stand down! We will open fire if you resist arrest! Repeat, stand down!" An ordering clear male voice spoke from the aircraft's loudspeakers.

"They know my name," Loki chuckled more than pleased, only wishing that he would have brought a proper weapon of his own, the spear of Odin would have done nicely. He had only his daggers and a few throwing knifes. It seemed he would have to improvise.

Emma threw her hands up and wished that the god of mischief would have done the same. "Loki, remember what I told you? They are not here to welcome you. Please, think! You're outnumbered. They've got guns. A lot. Big, big guns," Emma tried to reason with him.

Loki gave her a short compassionate glance for her concern. "Are you implying that they might have some manly size issues?"

"W-what?"

"Because I do not," Loki assured mildly. "Do not let the size of my horns fool you."

What the hell was he talking about, Emma pondered, staring at him stupefied and mouth open, not recalling making jokes about his horns while drunk but she had a bad hunch about it. "Okay!" she finally managed to say. "Thanks for sharing that. They're probably going to kill us both but I'm glad you got that off your chest. Jeez! You know what? That revelation made me feeling a lot better. Now I can die as a happy woman."

Loki had liked her comic side but this time her jesting didn't humor him. "Are you quite done yet?" he asked, shooting her with a look of light annoyance.

"I'm not. They are going to kill you. And me too, by the looks of it."

Even with their big weapons the soldiers were only mortals. Loki knew he could handle them, though it might not be easy. "Take cover, my dear," he said softly and moved towards his formidable adversaries, lifting his arms slowly up on his sides not as to surrender but to buy some time. "I am Loki of Asgard," he stated in a strong dark voice, valuating his situation, letting his gaze to find out every little detail. "And I shall accept your surrender if you yield now and kneel before me. Otherwise, you all will fall!" he declaimed like he would have been the king of Greenland already.

"Damn!" Emma whispered hopelessly, cautiously moving opposite direction from him, taking cover next to the SnowCat as he had asked. Good thing he got his self-esteem in a perfect balance though.

A terrible racket broke the arctic silence as the blazing howl of gun fires filled the air. Every soldier and both of the aircrafts opened fire at Loki. Emma dropped sitting on the snow, leaning against the truck and covered her ears, seeing how a big swarm of bullets ripped apart of the apparition of the god of mischief, the rest of the illusion fading away with the wind. Utterly shocked she was truly hoping it had only been his illusion, worry filling her heart and latching her breathing. They hadn't given him even a fair chance. That had been plain madness, a cowardly murder.

The gun firing fell silent and a couple of the red laser spots returned at Emma as she lifted herself on her knees, the rest of the soldiers guarding each other's backs, cautiously checking their surroundings as if waiting for Loki to pop up out of the blue. So they knew more about Loki that she had when she'd met him, she pondered. Scott must have told them. Were they from that S.H.I.E.L.D. too? Emma noticed one man standing further away from the rest, armed with only a crossbow. Good luck for him. He had no chance with Loki if he still was out there. Emma thought if she should have told them that Loki never played fair, but then again, she had witnessed how their weapons shredded his illusion apart mindlessly. She wasn't on their side either. They could do the same to her too. "Loki, please be alive. Oh, God forgive me but please, let him be alive."

"Careful now. He's still out there!" Barton spoke to the soldiers thru his earpiece. "Johnson and Fischer, get the girl!"

Two soldiers in black outfits and helmets moved towards Emma and she stayed on her place her hands above her head. "Emma Morgan?" the other man asked, his weapon pointing at her like she would have been a criminal.

"Yes?"

"Get on the ground! Hands behind your back!" he ordered, taking out handcuffs.

"Please, don't touch me!" Emma begged, remaining on her knees, searching for Loki with her gaze.

The soldier shoved her on the snow, being unfriendly, his knee pushing her down roughly, pulling her arms behind her back. And she didn't like that, grimacing in pain, her face in the snow. "No! Get your hands off me!" she screamed at that barbaric creature. What had she done to deserve that kind of treatment? She had been much better off with Loki.

From the middle of the soldiers group a strong gust of wind threw a massive amount of light snow in the air, creating a thick rain of falling snow, disturbing their vision from one another. The left engine of the other Quinjet's burst in fire as a simple shovel, fortified with Loki's sorcery, broke the turbine, hitting hard between the turbine fans. The aircraft crushed whirling down on the ground left wing first. The god of mischief reappeared behind two soldiers and took them down with ease with his dagger, moving fast as a lightning. The weapon in his deadly hands found another victim, the bulletproof vest unable to protect the men inside from his brutal force. Two throwing knives hit mortally wounding their targets. Loki unleashed all of his hatred, that he felt towards Thor and the others Asgardian traitors, upon the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had came for him.

The soldiers, who were restraining Emma, left her on the ground and rushed aiding the others. Emma leaned on her forearms, the handcuffs only around the right hand's wrist, and watched Loki dancing his deadly dance, moving from one soldier to another, taking them down one by one. As much as she saw from the blocking snow, he was unstoppable. Within the falling white flakes it looked like he would have been a horned demon inside a giant snow globe. Random gun firings banged in the air, Loki not taking a scratch. They were all falling just as he had sworn. Emma couldn't look at it anymore; she ducked on the ground, covering her ears, eyes closed and praying for a miracle.

A speeding arrow caught Loki's attention. He grabbed it in the nick of time, as Barton found a spot for a clear shot at the demigod. Loki greeted him with a throwing knife that barely pierced Barton's vest. Another two arrows were already in the air and Loki blocked them pulling the nearest enemy as his shield. With one forcefully throw he tossed the wounded soldier at Barton, knocking him down on the ground.

As their numbers were dwindling, the stress was growing within the men left on the battlefield. Using that fear as his advantage and with more illusions, Loki turned the remaining men looking like him. They were soon shooting at each other, while he leaped inside of the still hovering quinjet. With a gun he took from a dead soldier, he killed the assistant pilot who was handling the machine guns.

Mercilessly he forced the first pilot to take the plane down and then pulled him from his seat with force, cutting his seatbelts with a knife. He had a need for him so he dragged him on the cabin and nailed him from his right hand's palm on the side of the wall with his weapon. The man screamed in agony, the blade piercing his palm.

Loki let him go, watching his good deed, catching his breath. "Stay!" the god of mischief ordered roughly at the poor man how had no means to free himself. Then he was back at the bloody battlefield, where only two fake Lokis were left. They had already realized the deception and teamed up again.

Loki greeted them with a cold grin. "What a pity. There can be only one me!" And with that, he conjured two more knives with both hands and threw them at his doubles, who collapsed among the rest of their fallen comrades turning back looking as themselves. The hum of the Quinjets's engines was the only sound left on the frozen, blood stained plain between the aircrafts and the SnowCat.

The ferocious battle had gotten his adrenaline (or whatever divine ether it was that streamed in his Jotun blood) surging, pushing him into a savagely fierce acts, and now he beheld the results. Was he proud of himself? Well, he had pulled out of it alive, they hadn't. He had taken no pleasure of the killing, it had been simply a necessary evil for staying alive. Thor should have seen him now. It would have shut his brother's mocking mouth about him not doing battle but only tricks. He could do both.

A small sense of worry flickered in him as he noticed Emma lying on the ground unmoving close to the SnowCat. "Emma." Her name escaped from his lips as he moved through the field of fallen soldiers towards her.

The gun firing was over. The awful sounds of battle had finally come to an end. Emma heard someone moving next to her and she opened her eyes and cautiously lifted her gaze up and saw Loki squatting down by her side, looking seemingly pleased to see her alright. "Y-you're still alive," she sighed, touching his hand to be sure he was really there.

Loki pulled her gently up on her feet, his breathing steadying, and his gaze settling on her. "You sound disappointed," he said, taking a hold her hand and forcing the handcuffs open with mere strength.

Emma wasn't sure what to say, she only made a small shook of her head. Now she had seen all what he was capable of, from a sweetest talk to passionate kisses and to a savagely violence. And she only wished she'd had never found him at all. The sight of the massager made her sick on her stomach, making her realize she would never face any chance to defy him, ever, as long as he would make her tack along. And still after all of it, Emma stepped closer to him and pressed her head against his shoulder next to his neck relieved he was alive, seeking comfort in his arms, hearing his heart beating fast and fiercely in his chest. He had killed all those people with ease, not showing any sign of remorse, and yet when he returned to her he had treated her gently.

The whole previous evening and night had changed everything between them. She must have been crazy, but he was the only being alive in within 200 miles of freezing wilderness and she needed a hug, badly. Emma closed her eyes, listening his heart beating. That beautiful, dark, fallen god had a heart, and that was all she cared. They were in this together now.

Surprised by her sudden and unusual reaction, Loki wrapped his arms around her, holding her softly, and he felt her arms closing around him. He had broken through her strictly guarded personal boundaries, and he found her timid embrace calming him down. He felt her shivering and he was sure it wasn't because of the coldness. For someone who couldn't stand other people touching her, he took her hug as a sign of great trust and affection. Loki recalled his last hug been from Frigga, equally soothing, equally filled with gratitude. And he could have stayed there holding Emma a moment longer.

But then he sensed danger and with a super fast reflex, Loki snatched an arrow from the air that nearly hit him on the face. Emma startled by his quick move and pulled away from his embrace, her eyes then fixating at the arrow he was holding. Loki turned his gaze at the other end of the battlefield. So, there was one more left.

Hawkeye, still standing on his ground, watched them behind his bow and arrow, the string stretched all the way back again, severely aggravated by the lost of his whole team.

"Shelter yourself!" Loki told Emma hastily, his hands on her shoulders. Then he rushed in motion, stern fire in his eyes, using his illusions to veiling himself invisible for another stealth attack.

Hawkeye had predicted that and he turned his bow at Emma instead and released the arrow.

Gasping Emma stared at the sharp point of an arrow that stopped in the air, only three inches away from her chest. Loki's hand emerged holding it and with it the rest of the god of mischief returned by her side with a golden flow unveiling his illusion. Even more grateful for saving her life again, Emma lifted her eyes at the horned trickster god who had been there for her, his name getting stuck in her throat.

Under his helmet, Loki's eyes flamed with rage, taking a look at his last advisory who had just taken a wrong turn. "Brutal beast!" he murmured, gritting his teeth and snapping the arrow in half between his fingers. There was already another arrow in the air, and handling as gently as he could Loki sent Emma hurling towards the tail of the SnowCat over the snow. "I really meant it. This time stay in cover!" he ordered her again in a rough voice, and left to teach some manners to the hunter with the bow.

Barton moved swiftly, trying to get his aim on his target, firing rapidly arrows at the approaching demigod. He had taken a wild guess that had proven right, that the hostile demigod's attention was distracted by concern of the welfare of the girl, whatever the reason was. Pulling yet another one from his quiver he noticed there were only two special arrows left. He picked them both and fired at once, taking his aim.

Loki snatched the one meant for him with a mischievous grin. There other one landed straight in front of the SnowCat where the girl was hiding under the vehicle. With a small smile on his lips, Barton stood by on his place, putting his bow on his side, waiting, giving a tiny nod at the demigod towards the vehicle behind him.

Holding on the last arrow, Loki gave a quick glance over his shoulder at the direction where he had left Emma. He heard a peeping sound that came from that another arrow, the peeping quickening ominously. And before Loki made another move, the point of the arrow in his own hand exploded, sending him flying through the air with a mighty blow.

Emma screamed hearing and feeling the explosion shaking the icy ground. The golden helmet dropped next to the vehicle, and she was hiding under it, seeing the horns peeking from the snow. "Loki!" she cried out, unable to think clear.

Barton smiled. A decoy and an explosive one, the oldest trick in the book. Yet he had no time to waste.

Loki landed with a big thud and let out an annoyed, pained gasp. He shot a furious glare at his opponent, pushing himself up from the deep snow, angry as hell.

Emma crawled out under the SnowCat and picked up Loki's helmet with shaking hands, searching him helplessly. She heard the archer approaching and turned to face him, taking a firm grip from a horn of the helmet, hoisting it on her shoulder and ready to hit him with it. Why was she been dragged into this fight? "Stay away from me!" she screamed at him fiercely.

Barton moved closer, picking up his pistol, lifting another hand towards her. "You don't want to do this, Ms. Morgan!" he assured with calm voice. "I'm here to help you."

"The hell you are! You shot that freaking arrow at me!" Emma cried out, wading backwards in the snow away from him.

Barton had no time for quarrel. As he made a move to grab her as his shield, Loki pounced on him like a wild beast with an inhumanly long jump over the vehicle, taking on his revenge. Barton groaned in pain, steel piecing his body, as the god of mischief shoved the archer's own arrow through him with a force that wasn't stopped by even his bulletproof vest. Even in his poor state Barton took note that his explosive arrow hadn't done much damage to the demigod. There was only one scratch on Loki's cheek. Only one bloody scratch!

Loki forced Barton on his knees, stepping behind him, tearing from his hair to lift his face up and taking his dagger on the archer's throat. Finally someone was kneeling!

"Apologize!" Loki roared at the man, holding him still, a mad gleam in his eyes. His neatly groomed raven hair was in a state of mess after the blast but otherwise he was fine.

Barton ached in his grip, however accustomed with pain, his stamina crumbling. "Fuck you!" he grunted, and noticing the young woman watching at them looking horrid.

Loki pushed his knee against the man's back on the spot where the arrow was almost out, making Barton scream and nearly loss his consciousness. "Not from me," Loki grunted in a rough voice and glance at Emma, "Apologize from her!"

Barton's eyes meet with the woman's only briefly. He was sorry he had shot at her, but he wasn't going to give the pleasure of it to admit it to his tormentor. "Just get over with it!" he barely managed to grunt between his teeth. He had known from the beginning that in his profession the day could come when he would meet his maker. He had not expected it to come in a form of a mad demigod, though.

"Loki no!" Emma said in a breaking voice, watching at the complicated god creature who had put her under his spell. After all damage and ruin he had brought about around him, his was demanding an apology from a wounded man for her sake. She pondered that if he would have been there for her in her deepest despair in her young life, she wouldn't have become so broken that she was. "Please, for this once, listen to me," she said as if for a prayer, holding on his helmet, "I beg you. Don't do it! He's wounded already. Just... let him go."

Loki looked angry, his dagger on the man's neck, his fierce eyes at her. "Why would you care of his life? He not cared of yours!"

"Because," Emma swallowed, feeling that she had not influence of things no matter what she would say, "that's what makes me a human… for pity's sake…" she told giving a short glance at the man on his knees. Loki held literally the man's live in his hands, and no matter what he was she wanted no part of his death. "I don't want to become like..."

"Me?" Loki took a wild guess.

"…like him. I don't want to become like him."

Cold sweat on his forehead Barton let out a pained grunt. "You're not..." he took a small breath, glancing at Emma with squinting eyes, "that innocent yourself... Emily Morrison."

Gaping in a rising rage, Emma stared at him in return, taking a step closer, fighting an urge to shove Loki's helmet's horns through the man's chest. So, they knew everything about her; what she had faced and done in earlier live. Her birth name mentioned by him sent a wave of shock through her whole body as if she would have been shot again. For eight years she had done her best for trying to forget the horrors of her past and now it was shoved against her face. "You think you know me after reading a few lines from some crappy report?" Emma cried out. "You want me to kick another arrow through you, you bastard? You don't know a shit about me!" she screamed like a mad, letting the suffocated pain out.

Emma met Loki's questioning and bewildered gaze, lifting her tear-filled eyes at him only to turn and walk away. "Do… do what you want with him," she heaved a weak sigh and moved on the other side of the SnowCat, slumping her back against the vehicle, burying her burning eyes in her palms, waiting for Loki to finish his job. There she let out a bitter, muzzled cry.

So, there was a lot he didn't know about her, Loki thought following her with his gaze, and he was dying to learn more of his fierce Valkyrie. Those people she had told him about, who wanted to get rid off her kinds, who had hurt her; it seemed he was holding one of them in his grip. It would have been too easy and convenient to just split the man's throat.

He conjured his dagger away and leaned to speak to the archer's ear. "You should have apologized her," Loki whispered with a mean tone and shoved the archer on the ground roughly, leaving him lying on his side groaning in pain. He kicked the man on the stomach and the archer rolled around by his force. Loki would have kicked a lot more, but it looked like the archer lost his consciousness. Dead or not the man wouldn't be causing anymore trouble for them.

Sitting on the vehicle's tracks, Emma kept staring at Loki's gleaming helmet in front of her on the snow. Was he the devil with his horns, or was he just as lost as she was, in a wrong place in a wrong time? He had saved her, from that arrow, and forced a man on his knees to apologize her. He wouldn't have had to, but he had done it. And he had saved her yesterday in the ice canyon and after that he had been so sweet and kind towards her. She felt so messed up. She had no idea what to think of him anymore, expect that she trusted him more than the S.H.I.E.L.D. whatever it was.

She noticed him picking up his helmet from the ground and conjuring it to disappear between his hands like it would have been a magic trick while stepping next to her. "I hurt him," Loki announced in a quiet, not apologetic but more like a justified voice. "If it is any consolation to you, he is still alive," he continued, "barely."

Emma looked up at him, wiping her eyes, unable to say anything. There wasn't much to say anyway. The explosion had scared the living day light out of her and she kept staring at the small bloody scratch on Loki's left cheek. "Loki, you are hurt. I have a first-aid kit…" she said finally, forcing herself up on her shaking feet.

"Thank you but I am fine," the god of mischief assured and reached out his hand to her. "Come, Emma Morgan. I have a new ride for us," he said and she took his hand, holding it tightly.

With no more resistance left in her, feeling only numb inside, Emma went with him like an obedient dog, realizing that the S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't just after Loki anymore, they were now after her too. She was stuck with him as long as he would keep her. There was only one thing she needed to do first.

Returning to unwanted consciousness Barton watched them leave, lying on his side on the coldness of the snow, the arrow sticking from his abdomen, his ribs broken. He noticed that there was a folded blanket under his head and two more blankets covering him as if for a small attempt to keep him warm and an opened first-aid kit on his reach. He guessed that it wasn't a courtesy from Loki. The woman gave one more worried glance at him over her shoulder, before climbing in the aircraft with the mad demigod. Whatever the connection they shared, it seemed that the demigod held her in leash but she was also appeared to be his weak spot.

With his little strength left, Barton contacted Coulson. "Talk to me, Barton!" Coulson's voice said in his earpiece.

Barton groaned, wavering between consciousness and merciful senselessness. "Where the hell is that backup you promised?" he spoke with difficulty, nearly not breathing at all.

"It's on its way. You sound..? Barton, are you alright?"

"No! He got me. He got us all. The whole team's down. He just took a Quinjet..."

"We'll coming to get you. Hold still." Agent Coulson's voice was full of worry.

"Morgan," Barton heaved a tiny sigh, his eyes willing to shut close. "It's a long shot, but worth to try... Get her and you'll get Loki."