Sorry, it took time to get this chapter finished because last week I was too busy. I was hoping I could have updated this before the Halloween but here we are now. Oh, and thank you so much for your kind reviews. I really love to know what you guys think about this story. And I'm so happy if you like it.

… …

"Sir, another video from Loki was just uploaded in Youtube," one of the agents informed to director Fury who stood on the commander bridge of the Helicarrier as it was approaching the east coast of the United States and the shores of Virginia.

"Put it on the screen!" Fury grunted.

Fury, Coulson, Natasha, Thor and Tony stared at the big screen where the favorite god of mischief gave another one of his brilliant magic shows. It was something new they hadn't seen yet, some of the tricks new also to Thor. And it was followed a short speech with his charming voice asking people of Earth support him in the fight for the brighter, better world. It sounded like Loki had taken the matter of saving the planet for his primary topic.

"Is he not in his cell?" Thor asked pointing at the screen bewildered.

The Commander Hill watched at the smaller surveillance camera screen from Loki's cell that showed him being safely locked up. "He has not left his cell. The video was filmed earlier and put on the internet just now."

"So, there is someone else helping him," Natasha pondered. "Who?"

"Sir, the video was uploaded from England."

Fury looked very much annoyed. "I want those videos removed from the net. I don't care if you'll have to take down the whole damn World Wide Web. Just do it!"

"Yes, sir!" The agents got into work, but then one of them grimaced. "Um, sir? All the videos seem to be now also available in the Torrent-net."

"Speak English! What does that mean?"

"It means that they are harder to get rid off, sir. The videos are there for free. People keeps sharing them, they are already all around the globe."

Tony Stark surfed in the net and turned at the others. "Well, not just that. This guy is all over the net. He has his own Facebook-profile now and already 7360 friends there. Let's save the world together!' Nice! He's gone Instagram and also has a half of a dozen date profiles. Hear this one out; an Asgardian king looking for devoted subjects. Double-crossers don't be bothered! Also this one if good; Hail to the king, baby! Now, where have I heard that line before? Some of these pages are actually pretty good, some looks like they were made by a ten years old."

"Is this a joke?" Natasha asked, giving Thor a questioningly look.

The god of thunder shrugged being as much puzzled as the others were. "This is Loki we are talking about. He is a known trickster in Asgard. It is not just power or revenge he is after; he loves to create chaos around him."

Fury turned at agent Coulson. "Find out what Ms. Morgan knows about this Loki's internet charade. Put a pressure on her. Make her talk!"

Thor glowered at Fury and moved closer to Coulson. "I will not let you harm that woman! I have given her my word."

"No-one's going to harm her," Coulson assured to Thor and as if telling to it to the others.

"I could have a little chat with her," Natasha suggested, lifting an eyebrow in a significant manner, when saying a chat meaning something a quite different. "She said that Loki has messed up her mind. I know how to strip a girl from false illusions."

Tony Stark grinned to that. "Oh, I would like to see you stripping a girl from anything at all."

Natasha and Commander Maria Hill rolled their eyes for that comment.

"No-one's going anywhere near her!" agent Coulson protested, knowing something about Ms. Morgan than other didn't. "I believe she is traumatized enough from everything she has faced. If we would have a subtle approach with her, she might switch sides voluntarily. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to do things in my way," he explained and glanced then at Thor as he was leaving the commander bridge. "I'm going to get a cup of coffee. Anyone join me?"

When Tony and Thor left with Coulson for some caffeine refilling, Fury got curious about agent Romanoff's suggestion. "So, you believe that Ms. Morgan is brainwashed by Loki?" Fury asked in a silent tone. "What would you suggest we should do?"

Natasha shrugged. "Some cognitive recalibration. But Coulson may not like it."

"Meaning?"

"Send me to talk to her and you'll see."

Fury glanced around him like they were about to do something naughty. "Do it!"

"You might want to switch off the surveillance camera of the interrogation room." With that Natasha smiled, turned on her heels and left.

... ...

Emma stared out through the interrogation room's window, pondering where the S.H.I.E.L.D. people had taken Loki. The narrow corridor seemed to continue a long way to the right. She took note there was one guard standing opposite the door of the room she was been held. The man glanced at her with his dark, observing eyes, and she moved away from the windows, walking a few circles in her cage, trying to calm herself down, telling herself that everything was going to be alright, somehow. She just needed to keep calm. She had no afford to loose control. She was worried for Loki more than she was worried for herself, she realized. And yet she was angry with him, for leaving her alone in that morning, for calling her a lost creature and even more for getting caught.

She kept thinking why she was cursed like this. When she had finally found a person to trust, someone to let really close to her, someone whose touch she was craving for, how come the whole world seemed to be against them.

The door opened again and the red-head female agent stepped in, casting a short gaze at Emma. "Don't worry, I'm not here for a girl-talk," Natasha said and the door closed behind her.

"I won't talk to you," Emma said, getting a bad feeling. There was something about that woman that made her skin crawl. "I'll only speak with that other agent guy."

"Agent Coulson is having a break." Natasha walked closer to their prisoner with careless steps. "There's something that bothers me about what you told me about Loki."

"I haven't really told you much about him."

"That's true. But you seem to stand up for him constantly. I wonder why? What happened with him?" Natasha pondered aloud but Emma didn't bother to answer that. "You slept with him?"

Emma snorted resentfully, clenching her cuffed hands. "That is none of your goddamn business!"

"A sore spot, huh? You said he messed up your head. Believe it or not, I have some experience of that. I know what that it feels like when someone is toying with your mind…" the red-head said, for the first time in a compassionate voice, as she moved closer. "You helped the archer out there in the glacier when Loki was going to kill him. At least you tried to help him. You see, Clint is the only friend I've got. So, I'd like to help you out here in return."

Emma couldn't help but to smirk a bit confused. "Really? So, now you want to be my new best friend?" she asked sarcastically.

"Not really. Sorry about this, but we needed to get your head straight," Natasha said.

And what happened next, happened so fast that Emma never saw it coming. Without a warning the woman shoved her towards the wall, span her easily around and slammed her head hard against the back wall. All that, before Emma had made a move to fought back with her chained hands.

Bang! And she found herself from the floor on all fours, her head aching with a splitting headache like she would have been going head to head with a big mean goat. A small grunt escaped from her as her vision went black for a second with a flash of pain, but what came back with her sight was much worse, much darker, much more painful.

Natasha watched at the blond one crawling on the floor as she was going back to the door. "You'll thank me later," she assured with a hope that she had stripped off whatever spell Loki had put on their captive.

The darkness Emma had been holding back found her once again with that sudden, unfair assault against her. The bestial rage surged over her, blackening her mind, bringing out something primal and unstoppable that she couldn't keep at bay any longer. And it hurt so much like she would have punched knives through her fists. She heard a terrible, heartrending scream before she realized that it had escaped from her own mouth, smelling blood, her own, as something sharp had pierced through between her knuckles feeling cold as ice. After that something snapped inside of her, the darkness swallowed her mind and what was left was the beast.

"Ms. Morgan?" Natasha asked cautiously when Emma rose on her feet visibly trembling, her back towards the agent. Natasha could hear Emma's breathing turned into harsh rasps and pants after that awful scream like she had been eaten alive, and she thought that maybe she hit her too hard on the head.

The door slid open but Natasha returned to her victim a bit concerned. "Hey, are you alri…?"

Her words were cut off when all she saw was glimmering blades flashing before her eyes, nearly cutting her throat, she just barely dodging them with her cat-like reflex. Another set of blades was already coming towards her and she blocked Emma's hit, not yet understanding where those weapons had emerged from.

With a kick she sent her armed opponent slamming hard against the wall but this time Emma didn't drop on her knees. The blonde came onto her again like a ferocious beast and that's when Natasha noticed that she hadn't smuggled those blades there with her, they seemed to grow out from her fists, like three 8 inches long claws on both hands. They weren't made from steel. That was all she could tell.

Natasha was starting to get the picture why Coulson had been treating Ms. Morgan with kid gloves. "I'm sorry! Let's talk about this!" she suggested hastily, dodging those deadly claws which was considerably easy as it appeared her advisory being unaccustomed with them and especially with cuffed hands.

Another slash with a furious scream came too quickly and Natasha got two nasty cuts on her left arm. And that made her giving all she got, sending her opponent towards the windows with a kick.

Relentlessly Emma stood her ground against the agent who was quicker than she and highly trained in combat, but physically Emma was stronger, the primal instincts pushing her to the limits. As she was about to launch another attack, every muscle in her body stopped obeying her with a sudden flash of pain that went through her body like a lightning. She screamed and slumped onto the floor sitting weakly against the wall under the windows since her feet didn't carry her any longer.

The fully armed agent that had been guarding behind the door stood now in the doorway staring at the women, his stun baton, a long electroshock weapon, pointing at Emma that he had used on her. "Stand down, miss!" he shouted out roughly.

"What do you think you're doing?" Natasha asked from the man annoyed and slightly panting, checking quickly the wounds on her left arm and then turning her eyes at Emma on the floor. "I had everything under control here!"

"Sorry, ma'am, but it didn't look like that," the guard said moving in.

"You cut off one head and two more shall take its place."

Emma growled in pain, her muscles dancing with their own will after the shock. Her eyes were closed and her mind in a state of a mess, the haunting visions and torment from her past mixing up with the present. "You cut off one head and two more shall take its place…" she hissed that devilish mantra of her former capturers that she had once used to endure all the torment they caused her, taking strength from those deranged words.

Loki! All she wanted was Loki. The thought of him made her overcome the pain and she was feeling her muscles recovering surprisingly fast.

"What are you saying?" Natasha asked listening to her, unsure what was going on, pulling out her own pistol. "Ms. Morgan, stay down!" she ordered and was going to contact Fury or Coulson, or just about anyone to come down there.

The guard stared down at Emma hearing her words and he took a cautious step closer, taking a look at the surveillance camera up in the ceiling. Conveniently it seemed to be turned off. Then like he would have been possessed, the man moved to Natasha and without a warning knocked her out cold, unexpectedly hitting her on the head with the back of his weapon. Losing her consciousness Natasha collapsed on the floor on Emma's feet. And greatly puzzled Emma opened her eyes again, the pain nearly all gone. She lifted her gaze slowly from the unconscious female agent to the guard as the man was moving closer taking a knife from his belt.

"So, the little lab rat has return home?" the guard whispered at her with a cold, hollow smile, looking at her sitting there all numb, pointing his knife towards Natasha. "It was such a tragedy, really. You killed agent Romanoff while trying to escape and I had to put you down. But don't you worry now. Our doctors will resurrect you once we've got you back. Hail Hydra!" he continued in a silent voice and squatted down next to the female agent. He was going to stab her and make it look like Emma would have done it with her claws.

Hydra? Here? Those words send chills through Emma's spine in a worst way possible and she clenched her fists, noticing that her body obeyed her once again. The man hadn't expected her to recover so fast. With fiery rage like a vicious serpent, Emma pounced on the guard and punched him in the face as hard as she could. She felt her claws piercing his skull with a sound of bone breaking, killing him instantly.

She cried out horrid, pulling her deadly blades off his face and getting up on her trembling feet. She had not meant to kill him, only make him incapable of hurting her, but now the lifeless body of the man fell onto the floor next to Natasha Romanoff. The female agent was still out cold and Emma rushed, partly crawling, out from the room in panic, feeling sick on her stomach and terribly afraid of what she had become.

When she made it to the corridor she kept stumbling against the walls, her legs still learning to carry her. She stared down at her hands, at those sharp, sparkling, translucent claws that were coming out from between her knuckles. They nearly looked like… ice but fortified somehow, having a feeling of hard, cold steel, and there was something inside of them. She was trying to get those horrible things off from her hands, unsuccessfully, only hurting herself. And when her hands got wet by her own blood she forced her hands free from the handcuffs, pulling them off and somewhere in the process her claws drew back in. Then she stopped as the scent in the air captured her full attention and she took a sniff, a long inhale like a bloodhound, her all senses sharpening.

Divine… Safe… Loki…

It was the only scent that smelled safe, so she followed it, wanting nothing more but to find him.

… …

Loki breathed heavily after spending some time conjuring a wide variety of energy blasts and spells trying to break free from his secured cage. He had even kicked and punched his fist hard onto the glass, only hurting his hand and ending up cursing.

The cell must have been made for a true monster, Loki pondered and cursed the mortals who had captured him. He must have been mad to let them caught him. His plan, if he even had gotten one, had failed and he sulked in his lonesome misery. All the good he had (mentally) gained with his time with Emma felt like it was slipping away through his fingers like sand. How could have someone he hardly knew made him feeling stronger, whole, and undamaged? Because that was what he had felt with her. For a small moment she had liberated him from his rancor, replaced his long-lived hatred with a sense of caring and warmth. With her he had felt like he could have had the whole world.

A gun firing resonated on the corridor, behind the only door to his prison room, and Loki turned towards it, listening carefully with curiosity. It sounded like something unpleasant was coming at his way. The sounds of gun firing and pained screams of men ended as suddenly as they had started with one aloud slam on the door. Loki was only hoping that perhaps Thor had finally changed his mind and decided to help him after all.

The door slid open and Loki moved next to the wall for a better view. And to his shock he didn't see his brother but Emma walking in and shoving a wounded soldier out of her way. The soldier's body collapsed on the floor when she let go of him, ghastly gurgling and coughing sounds growing faint as the man was drowning into his own blood, his lunges been pierced by her claws.

Loki blinked a couple of times to make sure he was seeing correctly. "Emma?" he whispered with a sigh as he watched her approaching his cage walking up the few steps.

He was speechless, taken aback and horrid by the sight of her. Her dark jumpsuit had bullet holes with blood stains around them, four he counted; one on her left shoulder, one on her right thigh and two above her waistline. And her hands, he took note to his grave shock, her beautiful small hands had something like blades sticking out from them, three on each hand.

"Emma, what have they done to you?" His voice was a whisper as he leaned against the strong glass wall, lifting his hands on the glass.

The gaze of her lovely blue eyes wasn't hers, the expression on her face cold and emotionless like a predator's. His heart sank with a desperate hope to touch her, to bring her back from that darkness where her mind was dwelling. On that moment he regretted that he had ever wanted to see her true beast-side. He was looking at it now, and he could understand now why she had wanted to keep that darkness at bay. She had fought her way to him and it looked like she had had to gone through hell for it.

"Emma… It is going to be alright… I promise," Loki said softly, feeling himself as a terrible liar. He couldn't help her as long as he was inside the cage.

His scent had guided her there, and when Emma finally stood before him, watching at him through the transparent wall, the dark curse she had been under was slowly fading away. The pain caused by the several bullet wounds, that had pushed her into savagely acts, was leaving her. She stepped even closer to the wall, staring into his green beautiful eyes as if searching for something in them, and then recognizing him. Loki spoke to her assuring everything was alright and his voice was calming her down, bringing her back. Tears came out first and then her completely shattered own self followed.

"Loki…" Her voice was small and fragile, differing strikingly of her monstrous acts.

Emma lifted her trembling hands on the wall wanting to break through it to him and Loki moved his hands to meet hers, only the glass between them two. She saw her blood stained claws and her breathing was quivering hard. And Loki could understand her fear, feeling her pain, the strangest sense of empathy filling him. It was like he would have been watching himself on the moment he discovered that he was a Frost Giant, when his hand turned freezing and blue in Jotunheim; the moment he was starting to realize he was cursed, a monster.

Her gaze focused on Loki again and she looked like she was going to fall in pieces. "Help me…" she sighed weakly, her eyes begging him. "Help me!" she screamed, panic-stricken by her own violent acts, fear twisting her face.

Loki shuddered a bit by her heartbreaking voice and for a moment she feared that he too saw her only as the beast she had turned into. She let out a helpless cry and fell on her knees, sinking on the steel grid floor, pressing her head against the glass.

"No, no, no… It is alright," he assured softly to placate her, tears creeping in the corners his own eyes. He stared down at her claws, his expression confused and pitiful, uncomprehending what had happened to his beautiful, fierce Valkyrie. To him those blades looked suddenly very much the same as the icy weapons conjured by the Frost Giants that they fought in Jotunheim. Loki gasped, fearing he was somehow responsible for that odd transformation.

"I couldn't control myself." Her pained voice faltered. "They are here… the Hydra. I killed them… I didn't want to. I killed them, Loki. I don't know how many… Please, don't let them take me away… please…"

He kneeled on his right knee to be closer to her, his hands against the wall, his eyes never leaving her. He could tell that she was in a state of shock. "Look at me, my Valkyrie," Loki said shivering, his voice calm but enjoining. And Emma obeyed, her strayed gaze returning to his eyes. "Listen to me. I swear to you everything is going to be alright, my dear," he promised with a weak smile. He couldn't do for a better. "Remember…?" He swallowed to clear his voice. "You remember when we were hanging in that frozen canyon in Greenland. I promised you that you will be save, didn't I?"

Emma took a moment to think. "Yes…" she answered weakly and a small smile visited her lips. "You swung me up from there."

The security alarm went off and the sound of it carried through the closed door from the corridor, but Loki didn't let it bother.

"Yes I did. And I promise you now that you will be save, with me, I swear to you. Please, trust me."

Emma whispered his name. She just wanted to touch him. She ran her left hand over the glass on the level of his face, and she winced when her claws retracted, returning back where they had came from, the small holes between her knuckles healing in a heartbeat. "I don't know what is happening to me. Loki, please help me…"

Loki had never seen anything like that and he kept watching at her in concern. At least she was returning being herself. "I will. I will. But you must open this cage to let me out. Can you do that for me, my Valkyrie?"

Emma nodded nervously, checking for a door or a button to push. "How?"

He got up on his feet encouraging her to so the same. "There are controls that will open the door," he explained, pointing his hand towards the control table that he had seen Fury using.

"Okay…" she breathed, mustering up her courage and thoughts, as she hurried at the control table. Still greatly anxious, she tried to figure out which button in that digital board would open his cage. "Which one? Does it need a code? This is too damn complicated!" she yelped in distress, her focus momentarily stolen by the dead soldier in front of the door. "Oh god! I killed him…"

"Emma, listen to me! You can do it. Calm down and concentrate," Loki encouraged her gently, truly hoping she would find the right button in time. But it was a bit too late.

"No!" A rough male's voice carried from the door as Thor rushed in. "Do not do let him out!" the god of thunder spoke, his gaze quickly dropping down on the dead guard on the floor and then returning to her as he walked closer. "What have you done?"

Thor's sudden arrival and his aloud voice startled her and she let out a pained scream as the claws popped out from her hands as if with a will of their own, her left hand's blades piercing the control table accidently. Sparks flew from the digital board and she pulled her claws away from the panel stepping aside, cutting ever more of the panel. The pain caused by the blades coming out, however short-lived, felt crushing, nearly blackening her shattered mind again. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" Emma whimpered looking wretched glancing at Loki, but then she turned her angry gaze at Thor who had made her do it. "Do you have any idea… how much that hurts?" she screamed, her voice full of agony and anger.

"What the…?" Thor stammered, staring at the small woman and the claws that were growing out from her hands.

"Emma! Please, calm down!" Loki gasped seriously worried, feeling a small shake in his cell. For one who had always been pulling the strings Loki hated his powerless state, having no influence of things around him whatsoever. With an ominous feeling growing inside of him he watched at his Valkyrie who looked like she was preparing for a fight with his brother. "Oh, for heaven's sake! Thor, do not hurt her!" he cried out.

The short circuit in the control panel made the machinery of the cage functioning unexpectedly, and the floor under the cage opened leaving Loki's prison hanging above emptiness, violent draught and howls of the freezing wind filling the room. Loki didn't dare to move inside the cage, his arms width on his sides as if hoping to keep the balance. He hardly dared to breathe, staring at Emma and Thor with pleading eyes.

Something was sparking above the cage and the lights of the cell went out.

Without thinking much Thor rammed to the cage just in the nick of time before the four metallic arms, holding on the cage, released their grip and the cell was completely unanchored. Thor groaned slamming hard against the glass wall and doing his best to support the weight of the cage against the railing on the other side. He was literally keeping his brother's life in his hands as he fought against the gravity, trying to keep the cell inside the air ship, the railing on the other side slowly giving in. The draught was sucking everything small enough towards the opening and his cape and hair were flaring wildly in the wind. "I got you…" he grunted with a grimace and it looked like he would have been hugging the cell. "I got you now."

Loki and Thor stared at each other into the eyes, Loki scared to death if his cage should fall down but hating his brother for always showing up in a worst time possible, and Thor desperately struggling to keep his brother alive, not letting him go this time. Thor groaned, holding on the heavy weight, having nothing to take a good grip on.

A hopeless, sad smile twisted Loki's face and he nearly laughed, thinking that maybe he should have started to jump inside his cell to make it harder for Thor to hold it. "Why?" he asked from Thor, wondering why he didn't simply let him fall. "What is the point, Thor? You refused to help me when I asked you help. Do you think this would change anything?"

"I will not let you fall, Loki!" Thor groaned, telling to himself that he owned this to his brother since he failed to protect him in Asgard. But it was getting harder, the weight of the cage becoming heavier for him to hold. "Get help!" he shouted at Emma. "I don't know how much longer I can hold this!"

Loki rolled his eyes. "What a brilliant idea, Thor! If she would run out there like that they will kill her… or she would kill them, all. Really? I would not be surprise if you would try to do 'get help' with her!"

"If you will not stop shooting off your mouth I just might!"

Emma was struggling with her own mind and trying to keep herself together, returning her fearful gaze from Loki to the broken controls, cursing herself for breaking it. Most of the digital board was gone and the remaining part of it not working. She had risked his life!

"Fuck!" Emma roared in a panicky voice, slicing furiously the whole control table in pieces.

Thor grunted, glancing at her over his shoulder with difficulty. "Now who is breaking all the stuff?"

Emma glared at him, her helpless expression turning into a severely pissed off one. "Wiseass Asgardian prick! It was your fault. You scared me! Do you want me to come over there and shove my spikes up in your arse?" she roared like mad.

"Good to have you back, my Valkyrie." Loki let out an amused snort, wiping a tear away from the corner of his eye, bouncing his gaze between the two. "Thor, apparently she likes you," he said in his charming sardonic tone.

Thor returned his eyes at his brother who stood on the other side of the cell at least trying to make his burden a bit lighter now. "Loki, do you think this is funny? We could both die if we fall and she has claws coming out from hands!"

"Yes, Thor, thank you for narration. I can see that. I am not the one who is blind here."

"She looks like a nightmare creature. What manner of beast have you turned her into?"

"Oh, fuck you! You're not that pretty yourself!" Emma cried out to the god of thunder, shaking her hands for hoping her claws to pull back in. She hadn't yet figured out how they worked.

"Loki, you make her stop! She killed all those people. Is she mad? Is this your doings?"

Loki was offended by Thor insinuations. "Even though I would love to take credit of her actions I assure you this is none of my making."

Thinking hopelessly how to help Loki Emma moved to the cage, circling to the left side of it. There was another smaller opening in the railings. She would have so wanted to stab her claws into Thor's back and for a short moment she really planned to go for it. She carefully went down the stairs and took the dead guard's sub-machine gun. Then she came back with the weapon.

"Loki, step aside. I'm going to try to shoot this open," she told to Loki and aimed the gun towards his prison.

It was hard enough to use the weapon with her claws but she managed to fire a short round at the glass wall that remained intact, the bullets bouncing off from it onto the walls of the room. Of course it had to be bulletproof! She cursed and threw away the weapon that dropped into the big hole and out from the Helicarrier. What to try next? Her claws?

"What the hell is going on here? You started the party without me?" Tony Stark asked as he entered the draughty room in his Ironman's armor. "Um… honey, you're better put those down before you hurt yourself!"

"Hey, do you have a can opener in that fancy suit of yours? Please, open this damn cage before it falls!" Emma shouted at the Ironman begging.

"No! Tony, help me!" Thor shouted, feeling his hands sliding on the glass and the steel grid floor he was standing on was giving in under the weight he was holding. "I can not hold on for much longer." He was leaning against the cage over the gaping hole as he had managed to push the cage towards a bit. But anymore further on and he would have dropped off with the cage.

"Oh my, am I a popular guy now?" Tony grimaced moving in and putting his suit into action, pushing the cage with Thor, using his rocket thrusters for boost. "Wouldn't it be easier just to let him go this time?"

Everything seemed to happen at the same time. As the superheroes were keeping Loki's cage on board, the door slid open yet again and Nick Fury stormed in with Coulson and a few armed agents. Emma turned at them, her beast-mode just waiting to been turned on. The red laser sights of the agents' weapons sought her out.

"Commander Hill, please, close the hatch down here," Fury spoke to his communicator, taking control of the chaos around him. Then he noticed Emma and her claws. "Ms. Morgan, put down your blades!" Fury ordered.

Emma glanced at Loki and he looked back at her with a sorry look in his eyes, mouthing her name, knowing he had failed her. He didn't want her to get hurt anymore she already had. He was already safe as Tony had managed to push his cell to a safer distance from the hole, the cage laying slightly askew over the strong steel structures of the room. The floor closed, ending the draught, and the place was a bit safer again.

"Brother, please!" Loki pleaded with Thor not to let them hurt Emma. "Thor! Get me out from this cage!"

Emma felt helpless, fighting against her inner demons as all focus was on her now, she being the target. "Stay away from me! I know what you are. You are all of Hydra!" she shouted, taking a defending stand, clenching her fists and her icy claws grew a few inches in length. "I warn you! Back off! I will not go through that hell again!"

Coulson was speechless by the sight of her. She definitely was her father's daughter. "Ms. Morgan, please calm down!" Coulson said calmly taking a step closer the stairs. "No one is going to hurt you."

"Oh, hell! I have had it with mad people killing my men!" Fury grunted severely annoyed. "Stand down, miss! And put your weapons down, or we will shoot you!" he repeated his order.

Coulson glanced at his fellow agents and Fury by his side. "Please, sir. That is not helping here."

Thor heaved a long sigh after his exertions, returning his gaze from his brother to the agents. "I will not let you harm her. She is under my protection as is my brother. Why the hell did you lock him inside this deathtrap?"

Soon everybody was shouting at each other; Loki hoping to soothe Emma and crying out for his brother to help. Thor at the agents. Fury to Emma and to Thor to back down. And Emma at everyone else, the darkness entering her mind and bringing out the beast again.

That's when agent Coulson made his move, overstepping his authority. He pulled out his special handgun, and shot at Emma when she was about to jump at them like a wild beast with her claws, hoping to do it before the other agents would shoot her down.

The hit felt like the time would have stopped around her. Emma dropped on her knees, leaning against the railings, staring at the agents with puzzled expression. She pulled a small, red dart from her upper chest, a tranquilizer dart, and collapsed on the grid floor as her body fell numb along with her mind. Her last sight was Loki watching at her in terror from his cage, slamming his fist on the glass wall and calling for her name. She had gotten so close to him.

He looked like a fallen angel watching over her...