! This chapter is not yet betaed. As soon as I get the Beta version I will take this one down and upload the beta version. ! I will go on holiday in August and have still loads of things to do so just as a precaution I uploaded it to end your suspence. Constuctive comments are always appreciated.


trip…trip…trip Was there water splashing? There was definitely water splashing! Bella slowly focused on every sound she could detect. She was obviously not dead if her pain around her neck was any indication. Lying on her left side on a hard wooden bench, at least she thought that it was a one, she realized that she was not bound. How curious? Did Loki believe that she was no threat at all? She could use that. Had the director been able to get away? She really hoped probably meant that she was now Loki's prisoner and that she had to find a way to get back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Her stomach turned at the idea of being a prisoner of the insane Asgardian. Why do I always manage to get myself in trouble? Suddenly her breath hitched at terrible realisation forming in her hand: She was now completely defenceless against any vampires. If Alice or another tracker was able to find her location then all she had a bigger problem and everything she had learned so far would have been in vain. She could not be caught! What if they were already on their way!

Ok. Bella. Focus! You need to get out of here. Fast. she mentally scolded herself. Time to use Nat's lessons: Rule number one: Don't get caught. Too late for that one. Rule two: If you are caught assess the situation properly and try to escape at the first chance you get and if you can take as much information with you as you can.

Focusing again on the sounds around her she realized that there had to be at least two other people in her room. Why two and why were they inside her room? Guarding her outside of the room would be more effective. She heard two different breathing patterns resonating in the small room. She slowly opened her eyelids a bit letting the neon light blind her for a second and tried to spy through her eyelashes, just as Natasha had told her to. In the small room with brownish yellow tiles she could make out two launching men in black combat suits guarding the only door. There was no way that she could escape with both of them inside. And she did not know if Loki wanted her alive. She guessed and hoped so otherwise she would probably already be dead, but that did not mean that those two would not shoot at her. No she needed an escape plan. She needed to separate those two. Taking a wild guess she hoped that if anything unusual would happen to her one of the two would go to inform Loki. Please let this work. She thought, mentally apologizing to any people who were actually affected by this dreadful condition and started to imitate a heavily convulsing body while thrashing her body seemingly out of control. She heard the two men jump up and shout commands, and then she could hear a door slam and one of the men was shouting at her and trying to hold her by her right shoulder. This was her chance! She immediately stopped and surprised her opponent by opening her eyes and violently slamming her right hand against his throat. As he was kneeling beside her bench this was enough to knock him down and Bella used his temporary distraction and jumped up and slammed his head against the floor, effectively knocking him out. Natasha was right! Man are like babies! Chuckling she quickly unclipped his gun and headed for the door. She did not know how far Loki was from his particular room but she had to get away. Slowly opening the door she saw that she was in some kind of old tiled underground tunnel reminding her of London underground stations used during WWII for safeguarding people during air strikes. Just as she wanted to step out, feeling her rapid heartbeat, she could hear fast running towards her location and she quickly slipped back into the room for temporary safety and prayed to any god that might be out there that they were not coming for her. She stood with her heart racing, holding her breath with the wall to her back. No, they were luckily only passing past her door and she could hear their steps quieten down with the growing distance.

This was her chance to escape. As she finally slipped out of the door she wanted to run to the right as she assumed that this would lead her outside, but she could not go back to S.H.I.E.L.D empty handed. She needed to know if Fury had to get away and in case not she had to make sure that the agency would find the cube again. The worst thing she could do was to escape and discover that she had been held at the very place the cube could be found. She had to lure the agency here and for that she had to see what was going on and ideally there should be computers. Realising that she was still in her training outfit she mentally groaned. She should have stripped her guard of his combat suit. Everyone would see that she was not part of this operation. But maybe if she held herself like one of them she could walk without problems. She doubted it. Gripping her stolen gun harder she carefully tiptoed along the filthy corridor towards the commotion. She could hear people chatter, tools clatter and the unmistakeable sound of keyboards. I really hope they have Wi-Fi. Bella carefully spotted around the corner, feeling her erratic heartbeat in her throat and could see two big men with Kalashnikovs protecting an entrance which was covered with glassy plastic panels to walk through. But how should she get past them?


A few rooms further, sitting on the ground, rested the God of mischief for the first time in a long time. One hand on his sceptre and the other on his left lower leg he contemplated what he had encountered so far on his brother's favourite planet. He had to admit they were more advanced than he had anticipated. But he had been shocked to discover that the girl he had dreamt about or had visions about during his time in Thanos' hands, was real and she was able to withstand the power of his sceptre. He did not know how she was able to do it, but he had several theories. He knew that she could be a huge liability if kept alive, as he did not know what else she was able to do, but he could not bring himself to give the order to kill her. She was intriguing, a puzzle he wanted to solve. When she had been hesitant to shoot the assassin called Hawkeye he knew that they knew each other to some point and therefore he had ordered him to tell him all he knew about her. To say that she had gone through a lot was an understatement. She had been abandoned for some time from those she had considered family: The so called Cold Ones. They had been intoxicating her with their pheromones. She had been bitten by one and had survived. Her parents had been brutally murdered and she had found the wrangled body of her father. The location he had encountered her had been her safe haven from the vampires hunting for her. Did they really believe that she would be safe there? They were fools. What they were planning to do with her was absolutely gruesome and even for him this was unacceptable. When he would finally be in control of this world he would eradicate those pests. Every single one of them! He would prove to the Allfather that he was a worthy king and that he could take care of his subjects. He would take care of the girl; even though the archer had told him that she would fight him with everything she got. To his dismay his musings were cut short by the activation of his staff. His mind was called back to where it had been trained.

"The Chitauri grow restless!" the blue-grey minion of the Titan Thanos, standing on the heavily eroded rock somewhere in the universe stated accusingly. His tone implied that he believed Loki to be stalling their departure. Thanos had declared the Asgardian ready for his mission to gather the Tessaract, he had been the hardest individual to manipulate to their will. What if he was not really ready to serve them and was able to sneak out of their grasp.

"Let them guard themselves. I will lead them into glorious battle." Loki answered projecting his striding image on the asteroid. He was looking exactly like he had looked at Asgard: His green and golden armour, his golden helmet with his horns, Thor had often teased him with and his father's staff.

"Battle?"The Other questioned stepping angrily forward, partially hidden behind a rock. "Against the meagre mirth of Earth?" He could not believe that Loki was taking so long. Everyone knew that this world was one of primitives. It should not take that long to open a portal!

Loki answered confidently strutting in the opposite direction "Glorious, not lengthy." But then he turned and goated the other creature. "If your forces are as formidable as you claim." To his delight the other one took the bait and responded angrily:"You question us! You question him! He, who put the sceptre in your hand, he, who gave you ancient knowledge, and a new purpose. You were cast out, Defeated!" But this time Loki still staring at his sceptre, was the one who became angry as the Other seemed to know exctly which nerves to push and snapped:"I was a king! The rightful king of Asgard. Betrayed." Loki spat at the Other, knowing full well that the Other loved tormenting him with his supposed shortcomings towards his adopted brother.

"Your ambition is little, born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil." the blue creature boasted with confidence. This little Asgardian was a nuisance that they had to accept until they had the Tessaract.

But still unknown to him there was someone trying to get a hold of the prince before him. A powerful witch who desperately wanted her son back after she had finally managed to locate him with her magic and the golden gatekeeper of Asgard.

Loki threatened after hearing the soft, almost faint whisper sounding remarkably like his dear adoptive mother "You don't have the Tesseract yet." The Other became enraged at the Asgardian's threat and was before him ready to strike him within a blink of an eye. "I don't threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words." Loki stated smugly. But the Other had one last ace against him as he slowly advanced towards Loki and circled him with raspy angry voice:"You can have your war. Asgardian. If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no Realm, no barren moon, no dark crevice where we can't find you. You think you know pain?" Loki got glassy eyes at the remembrance of the pain lancing through him during his "training" by Thanos henchman. To emphasize the spoken threat the Other used their mental connection and sent him another wave of pain through the delicate nervous system of the fallen Asgardian.

Fight the hold he has on you?

Which hold? He would bring him the Tessaract and in exchange he would get Midgard and he would never have to feel the pain, Thanos had inflicted on him.

The Tessaract in Thanos hands is too dangerous too imagine!

But he ignored the nagging sensation in the back of his mind. His mother could have no idea where to find him. He was not of her blood, so there were only a limited magical rituals to find him. Or did she?

When the pain in his head subsided he carefully opened his eyes again which were temporarily blinded by the neon light which he absolutely abhorred as it was a cold light. There was nothing better then the warm red, orange and blue light cast by burning, cracking wood in a big fireplace. Like the ones Asgard. What would he give to feel that warmth again. As he finally realized which direction his thoughts where taking he shook his head to clear his head. He had to focus. One of his security men was desperately trying to get his attention but he just ignored it. Were was Barton when you needed him? They knew that they should never speak directly to him, but to his second in command: Barton. Silently he let his gaze meander over the countless scientists the Hawk gathered in an impressively fast time. He had to admit he had chosen well as that man worked diligently and was absolutely deadly. Loki suddenly paused at the sight of an unfamiliar female scientist. Barton had brought every single one of them before him to be scrutinized as he could remember faces very well but this female was unknown to him. She looked slightly familiar, but he was not able to place her. She was wearing wide black pants, a white coat like the others, her hair was messily tucked up on the back of her head and she wore the biggest, glasses he had ever seen making her look like a large fly with her facettes eyes. She was tipping at the keyboard as if her life depended on it.

Loki put his head to the side wondering why she seemed to familiar to him and yet he had not seen her before. When he shifted his gaze on her screen he could see dozens of squares opening where she rapidly tipped in large numbers of codes? This had nothing to do with the Tessaract! As he saw her ducking when Barton marched towards Selvick work station it hit him and he jumped up! This is the girl! She had somehow escaped and she could lead their enemies here! He should have killed her when he had the chance! Snarling he jumped up and speeded towards the girl who did not see him coming as she was trying to break through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s defences as roughly as she could.

She wanted to be detected. She had no idea where they were, but by breaking into the agencies servers using one of her signature techniques to get in and then several voluntary mistakes she would normally never make, once she had broken through the defences they would certainly try to locate her. It would be a miracle to not find her with the "ruckus" she was making on the main server. God, those blasted glasses! They were sweaty, glitchy and she could hardly see. Chewing on her lower lip she hit the keyboards as fast as she could. Barton could not detect her or she would have a serious problem! She had shortly spotted the Asgardian sitting in some sort of trance on the ground and had used the rare opportunity to sneak past him. The jewel on his spear had looked more alive then usual as it had pulsated stronger than the first time. Just as she wanted to press enter for her final code she was suddenly pulled back harshly by a strong hand on her arm.

When she looked up at the tall person dragging her her heart skipped. She was dragged by non other than the mental Asgardian! His face was murderous as he forcibly dragged her down the long hallway, past the curious looking scientists. Wriggling and trying to get out of his iron grasp, she realized that she had no chance to evade him as he was dragging her towards the very room she had escaped about half an hour before. Was the man she had knocked out still unconscious? She hoped, but sincerely doubted it. Her heart was racing! She would not give up! Maybe she could manipulate the situation to her advantage. The vampires could already be on the way to get her!

As he finally pushed her through the door he suddenly froze with widening eyes at the unusual sight. One of her big muscly hard sotten guards, was lying on the floor like a small baby sucking happily on his deafening silence was occasionally interrupted by the suckling noise coming from the guard. Bella was just as stunned at the sight. Maybe I have hit his head a tat bit to hard. Albeit the serious situation she fought hard to not laugh out loud, but her shoulders were almost shaking. Whatever caused this situation was not good!

Very slowly the dark haired Asgardian turned his head towards the girl whose arm he was holding in an icy grip. Had this been her doing? Was she a sorceress or was it someone else? He could see that she was making an effort to not start laughing. If this were a prank than it was similar to those he had sometimes pulled on Asgard, but this was not his doing.

"What did you do to him?" he commanded her to tell him, but was surprised that she did not flinch at his harsh tone. His servants at the palace would have scuttled at it, but not this one. She just shrugged her shoulders and answered:" I just banged his small head on the floor." she chuckled. "Didn't think that it would have this effect"

She was curious for a Midgardian he had to admit that. No he could not let himself be distractedby her! She was a liability but if he was able to get her on his side she could be a valid asset.

Without any warning he changed his tactic and span around grabbing her other arm with his scepter's hand and pushed her hard towards the wall. Just as her back collided with the old tiled wall Bella hissed at the pain running down her back. She could not wriggle free of his grasp as one arm was completely grasped by his hand and the second arm was only partially in his grasp as he was holding the spear and her arm in his. She had to try to get out of the later grasp as the tall Asgardian was towering over her. He was so close that she could actually smell his scent. He smelled exotic, but she could not find a valid comparison.

But she had to admit it was not unpleasant. No, he was crazy, an army of vampires could burst through the door any minute and the Tesseract was still in the lunatics hands. There was no way that she could get distracted now! As she carefully looked up to his eyes to guess his intentions she realized that his hands did not feel cold as they had when she had first encountered him. She also realized that he was looking mesmerized in her eyes. His eyes had curiously the same colour as the jewel of the spear. Why were they the same colour? He continued to gaze into her eyes as if he was searching for something, and she was not able to break the gaze again. How long they were standing like that she had no idea. It could have been seconds, minutes or hours. She felt a soft tug somewhere in the back of her mind as if something in her head was expanding, but that would not be possible.

Loki suddenly closed his eyes looking and trembling as if he were in pain. Gasping he opened them again and Bella could have sworn that they changed to green. No they were green! Definitely. Why were they green now ! The Asgardian shook his head as if he tried to shake off some heavy burden and as he was no looking at her his grip softened, but he did not let her out of it completely. His eyes were emerald green. It was a beautiful colour. But they had been blue before?

Bella wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion. They had been blue before or was she imagining things? Is the sceptre controlling him as much as he is controlling his minions? But why had his eyes changed colour now? She had to find out if he was under the control of his much loved sceptre. But how should she do that?


Please don't believe that it is that easily solved.

*evil grin*