Merry Christmas!

Also, we're delving into Iron Man 3 territory here. I'm taking liberties with the timeline, obviously, and with the plot to incorporate the fact that Arianna is in it and that Loki was never taken to Asgard for punishment. Enjoy!

Chapter Sixteen

The next several days were spent in relative peace even if the group did have to have a pow-wow about what they were going to do now that they one-hundred percent knew that the Science and Weapons Department of SHIELD was responsible for the incapacitation serum that had been used on Arianna and Natasha.

Arianna still wanted to avoid the subject since there wasn't anything they could really do about it. It was, however, encouraging to find out that the Tower was being watched by Fury's agents since that meant Fury was on her side. No matter what he may have thought before, and no matter his feelings about Loki, Fury had obviously decided to put his trust in her again. Not that the extra security had done much the last time she'd been attacked.

It was at their meeting that Arianna learned they were losing almost half of their team. Happy was being sent to Malibu because Pepper had offered him a position as Head of Security and he would be working with her at Stark Industries; Clint and Natasha were being sent on two separate missions, though Clint was leaving earlier so he could see his family beforehand.

Bruce and Steve would continue to stay at the Tower, as would Tony, Arianna, and Loki, but Steve did mention that he'd probably start looking for a place of his own once they figured out how to keep Arianna safe on a more permanent basis.

Arianna did feel guilty sometimes about the others having put their lives on hold for her, but she was also sad to see Clint and Natasha leave – especially Natasha seeing as to how Natasha was her best friend. But she knew that the team couldn't stay together forever. There were missions more important than she was.

"What will you be doing?"

"What we used to do before we found out aliens are real. Just regular human evil," Natasha said.

"Right. I want you to be careful, all the same."

It wasn't long after Happy, Natasha, and Clint left – just a few days, really – that the news began reporting on three recent bombings that had taken place around the world. The last one had happened in Kuwait. A military church had been attacked while women and children had been inside; they had been using it as a sanctuary, but it had not provided the protection they had been seeking.

The news stations had received videos of the destruction caused along with a voiceover by a man calling himself the Mandarin.

"Why are we just hearing about this guy when he's done so much damage already?" Tony wondered out loud.

"Media control so the public doesn't panic," Steve answered. He shook his head in disgust. "Whoever this guy is, he waited until the women and children were alone before he attacked. That's what a coward does."

Arianna wondered if this had anything to do with the sudden missions Clint and Natasha had been called away on. She also wondered why Steve hadn't been called away. He was Captain America, after all.

"If this is the third attack, they should be closing in on him soon," Arianna said. "Especially if he's taunting them by sending videos."

"Or they have no chance of finding him and he knows it," Loki said. "That could be another reason he is taunting them."

They had all been doing their own thing when the Breaking News story had put them all on alert and they had met up in the living room area to watch the tragedy play out on Tony's hologram screen.

"Hey, Jarvis, pull up everything you can find out about this Mandarin guy and all the attacks he's responsible for."

"Yes, sir."

Within moments Jarvis had all the information available, which meant everyone in that room knew more than the general public knew. For instance, there had been more than three attacks made by the Mandarin – they weren't just accredited to the man; he had openly admitted to them. There had been nine attacks in all. The U.S. military was having trouble finding this guy – or group, more likely – because they could never find a bomb casing to I.D. a device.

"Why aren't they asking me for help?" Tony asked. "They know I can do it."

"I was just thinking that this is probably what Clint and Natasha were pulled away for."

"They don't have the tech that I have." Tony shrugged. "I'll get in touch with Rhodey, see what's what."

It turned out that once Tony Stark said he was going to do something, he did it. He called Colonel James Rhodes right away to find out why he hadn't been called in or at least why the use of his tech hadn't been requested.

"The Pentagon is scared. After what happened in New York, they need to look strong. Stopping the Mandarin is priority, but it's not –"

"It's not superhero business," Tony completed. "Got it.

"Tony Stark isn't just a superhero," Arianna cut in. "He's also a genius inventor, engineer, science guy."

"Who are you?" Rhodey said from his place on the screen.

It was really Tony's fault that she had intervened; he shouldn't have made a video call with everyone still in the room.

She answered the man's question and he seemed to recognize her name, at least.

"You said that the Pentagon is scared." She went on. "Meanwhile, innocent people are dying. Not using available resources to catch this guy and stop his attacks doesn't seem scared to me. It seems stupid and almost like a power play. As if they don't want the attacks to stop."

Arianna noticed when Loki lowered his head to hide the small smile that had formed on his lips.

"I don't like what you're implying, Agent Grace."

"I'm not an agent anymore, and I'm not implying anything. Only calling it as I see it."

"A'right. Stand down," Steve said.

Her tone was softer when she spoke to Steve, but she still said, "I'm not a soldier either. Doesn't any of this bother you?"

"Of course it bothers me. But I'm sure there's a reason for the way things are being done."

"The last time you took something at face value, SHIELD was trying to weaponize the Tesseract," Tony said.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest but he didn't say anything.

"Not one of us has a reason to trust government types at the moment," Arianna said.

"No, we don't," Tony said. "Bye, Rhodey."

"Tony!"

Tony ended the video call and Rhodey's face disappeared from the screen. He looked at the others in the room.

"I'm gonna order pizza for lunch, and then I'm gonna continue down the Mandarin rabbit hole. Who's with me?"

"Me," Arianna said quickly.

"I suppose that means me as well," Loki said.

"Bruce? Rogers?"

"I can help with research, but I'm not sure about going out in the field," Bruce answered.

"Let me know what you find," Steve said. "Then I'll decide what I'm gonna do."

"Fair enough. Still want pizza?"

"Absolutely."

Everyone took a break while Tony ordered the food and while they waited for it to arrive. Nobody went too far away; they just scattered around the large living room.

Tony and Bruce were still messing around with the technology; Steve was looking out the window; Loki and Arianna had gravitated towards the couch and were now sitting on it.

"You handled yourself quite nicely," Loki said softly. "Before, with Colonel Rhodes and Captain Rogers."

"Are you surprised?"

"No. I just thought you should know that I find that highly attractive."

"Oh."

Heat filled her cheeks and Loki grinned.

"That is even more attractive, however."

"Loki!" she exclaimed, voice hushed.

Loki placed a hand on her back to soothe her.

"I am only teasing, darling."

"I know, but still . . ."

It still fascinated Loki how Arianna could be so bold one moment and then so bashful the next. Though, to be fair, he'd never seen her act bashful with anyone other than him.

Neither Loki nor Arianna was a fan of overt displays of affection in public, but he still enjoyed getting away with whatever she allowed: brushing of hands, rubbing her back, holding hands when appropriate, even just sitting close enough together that their legs touched.

It had been almost a week since they had first become intimate. They had woken up together a few hours after and she had run her fingers over the marks she'd left on his neck. She'd had one or two marks herself and it had caused her to become slightly self-conscious. She hadn't hidden them and she hadn't pulled away from him, but Loki had been able to tell that she'd been wondering what the others would say.

She'd relaxed when no one had said anything about either of their marks. To be fair, most everyone had been distracted by the fact that Loki had no longer been blue.

Loki still didn't know why that was. Knowing his mother and her magic, it had something to do with him finding out that other people could accept what he considered the worst part of himself.

Loki and Arianna stayed to themselves until lunch arrived, after which Tony just tossed the pizza boxes on the coffee table and told everyone to dig in.

Everyone did.

Loki wasn't sure he liked pizza. There was a little zest to it that he was not accustomed to, and it was a tad bit greasy for his tastes. It did, however, fulfill the purpose of filling them up quickly.

While everyone had been eating lunch, Jarvis had been compiling a more thorough database on the Mandarin. Files had been taken from SHIELD, the FBI, and the CIA. There were even virtual crime scene reconstructions.

Once everyone was finished eating, Tony pulled up the information on the hologram screen. Tony had control of the technology, but everyone gathered around to see what they could see.

"Okay, what do we got here?" Tony asked as he began scrolling through the information, which really meant he was going through the holographic pages by sliding them through the air. "His name is an ancient Chinese war mantle, meaning "advisor to the king." South American insurgency tactics, talks like a Baptist preacher. There's a lot of pageantry going on here . . . lots of theater.

"Jarvis, what about the crime scenes?"

"The heat from the blasts were in excess of 3000 degrees Celsius. Any subject within 12.5 yards were vaporized instantly."

"And Rhodey wasn't being stubborn and secretive when he said they couldn't I.D. a device?"

"No, sir. No bomb casings were found."

"Rules out bombs on the ground."

"Probably missiles, too," Steve said. "Radar would have picked them up."

"Unless there's some new stealth tech we don't know about," Bruce said.

"I make it my job to know about tech like that," Tony said. "It's gotta be something else."

He asked Jarvis to bring up the thermogenic signatures again and to factor in three thousand degrees. Jarvis was able to access satellites and bring up the last twelve months of thermogenic occurrences.

A series of red dots filled the screen as a map of the world came up. Each red dot represented a thermogenic occurrence, but there were more than nine dots.

"Take away everywhere that there's been a Mandarin attack."

One by one, the red dots began to disappear. Finally there was only one left, and that was from somewhere in Tennessee.

"Are we sure that's not one of his?" Arianna asked. "Why are the heat signatures so similar?"

"The incident was the use of a bomb to assist a suicide," Jarvis answered. "It predates any known Mandarin attack."

"Which doesn't automatically mean it's not one," Bruce said.

"No, this man wants people to know the damage he causes. He would have taken credit for it," Loki said.

"But the heat signatures are very similar," Tony said. "So good job, Jarvis. Good job, Aries. Also good question."

"Since no bomb casings have been found, could the explosions have been caused by chemicals of some kind and not a device?"

"It would have to be one hell of a chemical cocktail," Bruce said. "But it could be possible."

"We won't know unless we check it out," Tony said. "Looks like I might be going to Tennessee."

Later that same day Arianna, Loki, and Steve were down in the training room . . . well, training. Steve was working out and Arianna was working with Loki – he was teaching her how to throw knives.

She was doing fairly well, though Loki thought she was aiming more with her mind than any actual skill she may have had. Either way, she was hitting her target every time.

"Your ability to focus is becoming stronger," Loki told her.

"Thanks. Still hope I never have to stab anyone, though."

"Well," Loki lowered his voice so that Steve wouldn't hear. "As long as you're with me, you can leave the stabbing to me."

Arianna let out a surprised laugh and then shook her head in amusement.

"Sounds good to me."

After a moment or two to sober up, Loki asked, "Why does Stark insist on going to Tennessee alone?"

"Well, he wants to check out the site of the explosion, see what he can find. It's interesting that the explosion was so like the ones the Mandarin is responsible for and yet he hasn't taken credit for it."

"Yes, but why alone?"

"He's the science guy." Arianna shrugged. "Aside from Bruce, the rest of us would probably be in the way. I know next to nothing about technology and neither does Steve, and you have a brilliant mind, but you haven't been taught about Earth's science."

"True enough," Loki admitted.

Loki had been learning what he could, picking things up randomly just by observing, but he definitely wasn't on the level of Tony Stark or Bruce Banner.

Then again, most people weren't.