Author's Note: There is talk of Arianna's past in this chapter. It was mentioned in the first chapter that this story deals with trauma and part of hers is that she was raped when she was seventeen by an adult male that she had known for years and had trusted. I just wanted to warn you guys before you read this chapter that it is brought up here.

Chapter Eight

Over the next week the Avengers and Loki worked out a schedule of sorts.

Tony was redoing his whole security system and having better windows installed. He didn't want a repeat of anyone breaking in to steal Arianna. She had to be protected.

Bruce picked up the new technology fairly quickly – Tony never doubted he would – and Natasha was in the process of learning. Loki caught on quickly as well. The former god was practically a natural. He was intent on keeping Arianna safe, for which Tony was grateful.

Arianna had taken up sparring with Natasha. Tony watched sometimes. He was glad Arianna had people who would fight for her because she really was terrible at defending herself. She held back because she didn't want to hurt anyone. She had very few survival instincts.

She could block most of Natasha's blows, but that only worked for so long. Arianna wore herself out quickly doing that, and Natasha didn't put the full force behind her movements. If the red head had wanted to hurt Arianna, she'd have had no problem doing so.

Loki took up sparring too, even though he wasn't at full strength. He obviously knew what he was doing; he'd had centuries to hone his skill. Tony was surprised by how the violence of it didn't seem to excite him. Tony had thought Loki would be the type to get off on it, considering what he'd been like when they'd met.

Loki was almost brutal in his movements, but he expended no more energy than he had to. He was quick and precise, and he went for fatal blows. Loki didn't draw out the pain like he could have. He didn't enjoy torturing people. Loki didn't hurt anyone he sparred with, but Tony could predict his fighting technique by the way he moved. Plus, he'd delivered a killing blow to the agent that had slashed Arianna's leg open.

Loki could have made the man suffer and yet he'd ended the man's life in seconds. Tony could confidently say that Loki was not a torturer.

"You are a terrible fighter," Loki teased as Arianna slid out of the boxing ring she'd been in.

"Tell me something I don't know."

Arianna had trained with Natasha before but never as hard or as much as she had been since she'd been a target for kidnapping. Her body hurt, but she knew she had to push through it.

"Okay. You are a terrible fighter because you try to imitate what you are taught."

"Well, yeah. I'm learning from Tash, so . . ."

"You misunderstand me. Your body is not Agent Romanoff's body. You have to fight in a way that fits you. For example, I fight in a completely different style than Thor does. He uses brute strength. I fight . . . gracefully. In a way, it's almost choreographed. I have to get closer, move quickly."

"It's like a dance."

"In a way," Loki admitted reluctantly. "And you still need to use your energy correctly."

"You mean my ability. Sadly, no one can really help me with that."

Loki grinned. "I can."

Arianna began walking towards a table that had bottles of water seated upon it. She picked one up, opened it, and took a few swallows.

"Can you help me control it?"

Loki hesitated. Did he doubt his ability to teach her?

"I can help as much as you allow me to help. This ability, if it is anything like my magic was, will require extreme concentration."

"Well, I can do that. I have to do that every time I heal someone."

"And if you had to concentrate on harming rather than helping?"

That was the question, wasn't it? She never wanted to hurt anyone with her ability, not on purpose, not if she had any other option.

"We'll see. We'll try," she said.

Who else could help her with this? Loki was the best choice even if he was the only one.

That night Loki and Arianna met in his room. He'd never entered her room. Centuries of training and tradition engrained in Loki told him that unless a lady stated otherwise a man should not go where he was uninvited.

That was complete rubbish, of course, because Arianna wouldn't have minded him going into her sleep chamber – or bedroom, as Midgardians defined it – but she had come to him.

"You said you can help me," she said. "I want to know how. What do I have to do?"

Loki admired the determination he saw in her and knew that she really did want to learn.

"I can only show you how I learned, and my magic is – was – quite different from yours. Mine was mostly illusion. Yours very much is not."

"Okay, but do you think I can learn the same way?"

"Maybe."

Loki gestured for her to sit on the bed. It was the only thing on which they could sit other than the floor. Loki had a bed, a closet, a dresser, a bookcase, and a bathroom, but not much in the way of furniture.

Arianna hesitated before sitting down, and then he sat beside her.

"Where did you learn your magic? Were you born with it or . . ."

Arianna shook her head. "I read that if someone goes through something traumatic, it can sometimes cause someone to gain abilities. Almost like something in their brain was dormant until then. Something happened to me when I was seventeen and then I could do things I hadn't been able to before."

Loki had never heard of such a thing, but he wasn't from Midgard, so he didn't know if her theory was correct or not.

"I spent many hours studying and practicing my magic," Loki admitted. "Mother gave me access to many books on the subject. I wish I could let you read them."

Loki had used most of his time on Asgard studying and perfecting his skill. While Thor had trained to be a warrior, Loki had become a Master of Illusion. Training with Thor had never ended well. Loki had usually come away with bruises. Thor had even bloodied Loki's lip one time – not on purpose, Loki knew. Thor had apologized, of course, but Odin hadn't been pleased that Loki had been so easily hurt.

It had been one of the last times Loki had fought his brother while sparring. He'd always fought alongside his brother in battle, but he'd never given Odin the satisfaction of having them fight each other while training.

Loki was pulled out of his thoughts by the touch of Arianna's hand on his arm. He'd gotten lost in his memories and was thankful she'd distracted him. It didn't do to dwell on things he couldn't change.

"Were you listening in?" he asked.

"No. I try not to at all unless someone wants me to."

Loki shook his head even as a smile graced his lips. If Loki could read people's thoughts, he would think nothing of another person's privacy. He would always want to know everything that was being thought because he hated not knowing things – and he was paranoid.

"Okay, I did hear that, and I think it's a good thing that you can't hear other people's thoughts. Sometimes you don't like what you hear."

Tony had just exited the elevator that led to his huge loft when Natasha basically ambushed him.

"Fury wants to come by tomorrow morning."

"No."

The red head nodded. "Agreed. I told him that we'd come to him. You, me, Agent Barton, and the Cap."

"And leave the smallest Avenger alone?"

"She wouldn't be alone, but no. She'll want to come. I just don't know about leaving Loki alone."

Tony didn't really want to have a meeting with Fury, not after everything that had happened. Fury had been made aware of the break in at the tower but had denied any pre-existing knowledge. Tony didn't know if he believed the man.

After assuring Natasha that he'd go with her, Tony asked Jarvis to hack into SHIELD's database and to search for any existing files on Arianna. Tony knew next to nothing about her, and she wasn't upfront about herself.

He didn't need her whole life story or anything, but he did want to know why she was working for SHIELD and for how long she'd been employed.

A half-hour later he had what he needed. Arianna had been recruited at age eighteen. She was now twenty-eight, so she'd been an agent for ten years. They'd found her through a freak accident. A bus has turned over with children inside. No one had died, but Arianna had followed the injured to the hospital and had healed them. She hadn't been seen healing anyone, but people had made the connection anyway when all the wounded had miraculously been healed.

Natasha Romanoff had been sent to collect her. Politely put, she'd been sent to offer Arianna a job, but with SHIELD everyone knew there was no offering. You did what they told you or your life turned to crap.

There were two locked files under Arianna's name, but it took only a few seconds to get them open. The first one was filled with medical records.

She'd been part of an experimental drug program as a child and had been on SHIELD's watchlist ever since. Apparently, she'd been sick a lot when she was younger and her parents had been desperate. The drugs were meant to strengthen her immune system – and they had; she had gotten better after multiple treatment sessions – but since the drugs had come from the SHIELD science department, they needed to make sure there weren't any other side effects.

There hadn't been until she was eighteen. Whether or not she could do anything before that, Tony didn't know, but she hadn't been caught using her abilities before that.

Once Tony had gone over the second set of locked files, he wished he hadn't. He found out things he hadn't wanted to know, things he knew Arianna wouldn't want him to know.

She had been assaulted when she was seventeen. There were medical records for that as well, and police reports that stated how badly she'd been hurt. She'd been put in a psych ward for a month because she'd withdrawn into herself. She had stopped talking, stopped eating, kept having nightmares. At some point, she'd been fed intravenously and she'd been prescribed sedatives and anti-depressants.

Tony didn't want to know this. He didn't want to know any of this. He did, however, want to know who had done it, which meant he had to continue reading.

Once he was finished, Tony knew what he wanted to know and he knew things he had never wanted to know.

The next morning Tony made sure he got to SHIELD headquarters first because he wanted to talk to Fury before anyone else arrived.

"I've already told you I know nothing about the attack on your tower," Fury said.

"Just like you didn't know about the blood sample?"

"We already have samples of Agent Grace's blood. There would've been no reason to steal yours."

"Sure there would've been. You didn't want me to have it."

Fury didn't say anything to that, but he did speak. "There was a security breach last night."

Tony shrugged. "It's only fair. You guys hacked my tower – physically and technologically."

"You don't do things without a reason," Fury said. "What do you want?"

"I want everything you have on Arianna Grace deleted from your database."

Fury's brow furrowed and he glanced at the computer on his desk.

"Why? There's nothing in it that concerns you."

"No. It should, however, concern you. Do you even know what's in the locked files? Well, locked but not safe. It took me seconds to break into it. A few key strokes and I was in. Medical files, police reports, you name it."

Something changed in Fury's face. His usual confidence had been replaced by confusion. Did Fury not know about the locked files?

"There are no police reports on Agent Grace. She's not one for causing trouble."

There wasn't much that happened that Fury wasn't aware of, but it seemed that Arianna was a mystery to the director.

Tony shood beside Fury and tapped a few keys on the keyboard to bring up the file Fury seemed to know nothing of. He hated showing it to anyone, but Fury needed to know. He could help them in the future if more agents decided to go after Arianna.

It took Fury a few moments to read through the information on his computer. When he was finished, Fury didn't speak immediately.

"This is news to you then?" Tony asked, not sure if he should believe him.

"Until Arianna told me, I didn't know she could do anything other than heal people. That's why I sent Agent Romanoff to offer her a position at SHIELD."

There was a brief pause as Fury glanced at the screen again.

"Agent Grace killed someone."

"It seems that way."

"Does she know that you know?"

"No."

Tony had researched last night. He'd wanted to know the name of the man who had hurt Arianna. He'd found it.

The man had been older. Arianna had known the man for years. She'd probably been groomed. That's what older people did when they were attracted to younger ones. They bought them gifts and made them feel special, told them what they liked and expected nothing less. Arianna was so nice and caring, she probably hadn't suspected anything so wicked, so she'd fallen for it.

Something had happened to Arianna's attacker that the police hadn't been able to explain, so the police reports documented the attack but it didn't list her as a suspect in the death of her attacker.

There had been no sign of an actual murder, but there had been something else. The man had been crushed to death by apparently nothing. Some of the bones in his body had been crushed, and his organs had burst. His death had been quick but painful.

If Arianna had done that, Tony knew why she refused to hurt people with her ability. If that had been the first time she'd ever done anything like that, she probably hadn't been able to control it. She'd been reacting instinctively to protect herself, had been reacting out of fear and pain, maybe even anger.

"I want all of this deleted," Tony said. "From here and from their source. I know you can do it."

Fury agreed without complaint.

The Avengers were just walking into SHIELD as Tony Stark was coming out. Arianna was the first to spot him and it brought her to a stop.

"We wondered where you were," she said.

She was in the middle of her group, boxed in between Natasha, Steve, Clint, and Loki. Banner had opted not to come in case he got angry.

"Yeah, uh, change of plans. Fury will be busy today, but I talked to him already. I believe that there's a lot going on here that he doesn't know about in this situation. He was made aware and is now on our side."

Arianna didn't know what to say to that, but Natasha and Clint seemed relieved and Steve seemed to accept Tony's words at face value. Loki seemed to just want to get out of there as quickly as he could.

Arianna would have grabbed his hand to offer comfort, but she knew that with so many people present he wouldn't have accepted it.

"Fury promised to go over your files and delete anything incriminating," Tony said.

Arianna tensed. "Incriminating? What does that mean? I've – I haven't done anything."

The way Tony had spoken had put Arianna on edge. She knew about everything SHIELD had on her, of course, especially the file about the man she'd murdered.

No. Not murdered. Killed accidentally. That sounded better. Murder meant she'd had the intention of killing him, and she hadn't. Not even after he'd hurt her had she wanted to hurt him back. She'd never wanted to see him again, but she hadn't wanted to hurt him either.

"He's getting rid of anything SHIELD can use against you," Tony said, about as gentle as Arianna had ever heard him be.

So Tony knew. He knew and he wasn't joking around with her like he normally did and he wasn't being his normal sarcastic self. He was being cautious and Tony Stark was never cautious.

Arianna felt the sudden need to disappear. None of the people there had known before then aside from Natasha, but now Tony knew and Fury had obviously learned about it as well.

"Are we done here?" she asked, voice lower than she'd intended. "We had to wake up early for nothing."

She felt the others eyes on her, but she didn't care. Once she knew they weren't going to have to stay at SHIELD she went back out the way she'd come in.

Arianna hopped out of the limo as soon as it stopped outside of the tower. She couldn't believe Tony had dug into her life like that.

Actually, she could believe it, but she didn't have to like it. Tony Stark was innately curious, as most geniuses were, but he'd had no right to pry into her past. Why had he wanted to? What had happened to attract his curiosity?

It had to have something to do with the break-in and the consequent theft of her blood sample. He hadn't seemed interested in anything other than studying her abilities before that.

Arianna made it to her room and slammed the door. She made sure to lock it behind her. She didn't want to be disturbed by anyone. Natasha had been following her, but Arianna didn't want to talk to her either, and Natasha was her best friend.

Arianna sat on her bed, scooted up close to the headboard, and brought her knees up to her chest. She didn't know why she felt so angry, really, she just knew she hadn't wanted anyone to know she'd ever been hurt in that way, and she definitely hadn't wanted anyone to know about her having killed someone.

No one had proven it and no one could ever prove it, but SHIELD had made the connection. They'd forced her to agree to work with them. It was true that Natasha had been sent by Fury to offer her a job when they'd found out about the bus accident and her healing the children at the hospital. She'd been told they could use someone like her, someone who could go on missions not to fight or cause damage but to help fix the damage that was done.

She'd accepted the job offer only after meeting with the World Security Council and Alexander Pierce. They were the ones who'd found out about her assault and everything that had happened because of it. They threatened to lock her up if she refused to work with them. Because of what she'd been able to do to the man who had attacked her – a man named David – she was a threat to society. No one could defend against her ability unless that person also had an ability, or unless they killed her.

It didn't matter that she'd only ever hurt one person. They didn't understand what she could do – she barely knew herself – and so she was considered a threat and needed to be watched over. Whether they could do that while she was free or locked away had been up to her.

She didn't know how long she sat there, knees drawn up, but she knew it was long enough for her to have grown stiff. There were tears on her cheeks too, and she hadn't been aware that she'd been crying.

A knock sounded from the door and she firmly told whoever it was to go away.

"Aries, open up."

It was Natasha. Arianna still didn't feel like talking, but she knew Tash would understand, so she got up to unlock and open the door. Natasha stood there, a stack of folders in her hands. She silently handed them over to Arianna.

"What're these?"

"Files. Tony's files. He made a dossier of everyone on the team. He's curious and paranoid. He didn't single you out or anything. Anyway . . . he knows your dirty laundry, so . . . here's his."

"Those files were locked because I requested them to be, Tash. My medical files, the police reports, none of that was his business. The only reason you know is because you're my friend."

"He hasn't said anything to the others. I don't think he will. He wanted to know for the sake of knowing. He won't hold it against you or use it against you."

When Arianna didn't say anything, Natasha did.

"Tony won't apologize. He'll try to explain why he did it and try to justify it, but he won't admit he did anything wrong. He might not think it was wrong. But he will make it up to you in his way. I think he's starting with those files."

Later that night Arianna risked leaving her room. She'd wanted to avoid Tony for at least another day, but she was hungry and she wasn't going to starve herself because she was upset about Tony finding out her secret.

She made her way to the kitchen silently and made herself a sandwich. It was only when she'd put everything back in the refrigerator that she realized she'd been followed by Loki.

She jumped as she closed the refrigerator door and saw him in the archway of the door. She almost dropped her sandwich.

"Loki, don't do that," she scolded. "Make a noise when you walk."

"I wasn't trying to be silent. You were . . . distracted."

"I was hungry."

"Obviously."

Arianna sighed. She didn't want to play games, not that night.

"Why'd you follow me, Loki? Did you need something?"

"To see how you're doing?"

He made it sound so much like a question that it caught Arianna off guard for a few seconds.

"You've been hiding away all day. I confess that I was . . . concerned."

The negative feelings she'd been having for Tony softened at Loki's admitting to having been worried about her.

"I'm fine. Tony surprised me and I didn't like it at all. I still don't."

"Stark's surprise upset you, that much is true. But you are not fine. Whatever he did, it would not have made you react as you have if you were fine."

Arianna sat down at the table, which seemed to invite Loki to sit as well. She began eating her sandwich so she'd have an excuse not to talk right away. She didn't have any such excuse once she was done, however.

"Tony gained access to files he was never supposed to have access too. They had information on me and my past that I don't want anyone to know about."

She stood up, went to the freezer and pulled out a pint of ice cream. She grabbed two spoons from a drawer – one for her and one for Loki, since he liked sweets. She could share the dessert with him.

They ate in silence, which was just as well for her. She didn't want Loki of all people to know her secret. He had been tortured. She had been too, in her own way, and she had hurt someone because of it. It didn't compare to Loki's own torture or his actions at all, but she still didn't want him to know.