Arianna stood with her arms crossed tightly across her chest, unmoving and utterly expressionless. The only sign of her grief was the red rimming her eyes and the deadly look in her gaze. It was one that she had not often worn, but Fury knew that look. He'd seen it on both Clint and Natasha's expressions when Arianna went missing in Russia. It was a look that promised retribution. No matter the cost.

In front of the trio lay Clint's motionless body. The medical officer had closed his eyes to give him the appearance of sleep but the three agents' eyes were too sharp to be fooled as they took in the stiffness of Clint's muscles and the grey-ish tinge under his skin.

"We're running a tox screen to see if it was a cyanide capsule." Coulson reported heavily, not knowing what else to say.

"Barton had a wife and kids. If he was gonna go, it wouldn't be willingly." Fury pointed out.

Arianna's arms tightened just slightly while Coulson nodded.

"You think he was murdered." It wasn't a question.

"If I had to guess, my money is on the same someone who killed Stark." Fury said gravely.

Coulson pursed his lips. "But Barton was in a locked cell under observation. There was no sign of struggle, no entry wounds-"

"It's weird," Fury acknowledged. "But I also have a space corpse that looks like a Chippendales dancer rotting on the next table over."

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the dead, as-yet-still unidentified male lying on a slab on the other side of the room. It was also at that point that Arianna finally spoke up for the first time since Clint was pronounced dead.

"And it's less weird than Clint apparently taking his own life when he knows who's waiting for him to come home at the end of every mission."

Coulson nodded but he was still skeptical as he folded his arms thoughtfully. "Still, there's not a lot connecting a billionaire playboy and a S.H.I.E.L.D. assassin, unless you have any ideas."

He glanced over at Fury, whose lined face seemed to age ten years.

"There was an idea." Fury murmured before he abruptly turned on his heel and walked out of the morgue.

Arianna was pissed and Fury knew it.

She was basically vibrating with the urge to run out and find Clint's killer, but Fury knew that wouldn't help anyone. Especially not if Arianna was also a target and she was guaranteed to be one if the assassin really was going after those short-listed for the Avengers Initiative. It was bad enough that Natasha was out there alone although Fury supposed it was a good thing she'd found Banner first. Still, it was less than ideal that Natasha was in the open although Fury had strong faith in the Black Widow. Especially now that she was on the alert for a possible attempt on her life.

Which brought Fury back to Arianna. She was less skilled than Widow and still relatively new to the field. Maybe in a year or two it would have been different, but right now, Fury didn't trust her to handle herself alone out there. Especially not so soon after Clint's death. Arianna was good; but she wasn't that good, not yet. The only thing giving him comfort was the fact that Fury knew if he was the assassin, he'd go after Arianna pretty much last. With Clint and the golden haired alien underwear model dead, it made more sense to strike while the iron was hot and aim for the bigger targets like the green guy and Widow. Especially if they were together.

But, Fury could also see the assassin simply going for Arianna now while he or she was still around the SHIELD compound and had the chance. Hence why he was keeping Arianna under careful guard, to her intense dislike. But it was either deal with Arianna's frustration, or face Natasha's wrath if anything happened to the younger agent especially after already losing Clint. And Fury knew which option he liked less.

It didn't mean he enjoyed having Arianna drill a death glare into the side of his head.

Needing something else to do, Fury rang up Coulson.

"What's your 20, Coulson?"

"Coffee run." His best man reported. "Needed a breather. Got you a double macchiato. Just how you like it."

Coulson's voice dipped slightly.

"How's Ria?"

"Same as before." Fury answered shortly. Despite the fact that she shouldn't know who he was talking about, Arianna shot him a dirty look.

"You're talking about me, aren't you?"

Fury didn't bother denying it, but he stopped in his tracks as he heard Coulson breathe, "What the…?"

Arianna seemed to sense something was happening. She tensed, her body automatically preparing to move as Fury waited for Coulson to elaborate. But before he did, one of the security team watching the cameras around the compound called out to him.

"Director, sensors are reporting a massive energy surge." Fury and Arianna moved to take a look at the screen while the agent continued in a shocked tone, "Seems like it came out of nowhere."

Realizing that Coulson was likely right in the middle of the cause of the readings, Fury tapped his comm unit again.

"What are you seeing, Coulson?" Fury asked, looking at Arianna.

She was waiting on her toes, ready to run into action at the first signal, while Coulson answered in Fury's ear, sounding like he was shouting through a sudden storm.

"A meteorological phenomenon of some kind!"

Coulson paused as he likely spotted something.

"Oh, boy… Whatever it is, it came with bogeys."

Fury motioned with his hand, and Arianna was gone. He meanwhile asked in his comm, "They look like they're from Earth?"

"Maybe Middle-earth?" Coulson replied while outside the security room, Arianna shouted orders for their agents to move out.

Fury ran out behind her just as agents started to clamber swiftly into their cars. Arianna was already in the first one and Fury hopped in as she swung the door open for him. Her hand was already on the gearshift and her foot hit the pedal at the same time Fury shut the door behind him. The tires screeched as Arianna shot the jeep forward, racing out of the garage. The other agents followed swiftly behind her as they poured out of the compound and out onto the New Mexico desert.

Arianna frowned when she saw what was waiting for them. Where before there had only been an empty stretch of sand, there now stood an army that looked like it had stepped out of some epic fantasy historical movie. Dressed in gleaming gold and silver armour that glinted in the sun they were so shiny, the soldiers were armed with what looked like spears and swords. At the head of the army, five figures stood. Four were dressed in similar golds and silvers armour as the army but the one at the very front - clearly the leader - was dressed head to toe in gold. To complete the absurd scene, it looked like the leader was wearing a double-horned gold helmet (was he supposed to be a beetle?) and a green cape fluttered behind him in the dying wind as whatever energy had brought them here died away.

It should have been a pretty laughable sight, especially considering the weapons the strangers wielded as compared to the guns their agents brought. But considering the oddities of the last twenty four hours and the method of transport the new threat had used, laughing was about the furthest thing from Arianna's mind as she slammed her foot on the breaks ahead of Coulson's car.

The other cars around her swiftly followed suit, pulling to screeching stops about fifty yards away from the mysterious leader of the probably alien army. Agents leapt out of their vehicles in the next instant, taking up positions to create a barricade in front of the enemy. Guns cocked and pointed right at the army that responded by lowering their spears and pointing them right back at the SHIELD agents.

Arianna stepped out more slowly with Fury, following behind him as his second in command with Maria Hill not around. Fury strode between his agents, moving to face the alien leader who really looked like a regular if somewhat handsome man. If one ignored his otherworldly outfit including the reindeer helmet.

"Looking for directions, sir?" Fury called as he came to a halt, his one eye staring hard at the army's leader. "Because you seem to have lost your way."

The male chuckled darkly. "You would do best to kneel before a god."

Arianna scoffed at his words while Fury cocked an eyebrow.

"We don't really do that here. No matter who, or what, you are." Fury answered dryly.

The male sneered before he declared pompously, "I am Loki."

Fury's mobile suddenly started to ring. Loki continued over it.

"Crown Prince of Asgard."

Fury glanced at his pocket as his phone continued to ring.

"The rightful king of Jotun-"

As Fury's phone continued to ring shrilly, Loki paused very briefly before he cleared his throat and continued in a slightly more normal tone.

"Jotunheim. And…"

Fury's phone stopped ringing; only for Arianna's to start ringing within the next second.

"God of M-"

As Fury glanced at Arianna, Loki seemed to give up.

"Mischief. Are you gonna take that?" He demanded. "I'm in the middle of something here."

"I'm surprised someone who looks like they just stepped out of an Asterix and Obelix comic knows what a phone is." Arianna replied dryly before she finally answered her phone. "I'm working, Nat."

"So am I. I need to talk to Fury."

Arianna held out her phone. "It's for you, boss."

Fury took the phone and put it against his ear turning slightly away from Loki in an effort to get a little sense of privacy. "I'm a little busy here, Widow."

He paused as Natasha said something before he glanced back at Loki as he answered whatever question she had asked. "Space Vikings."

He paused again as Natasha said something short before he ordered curtly, "Handle it, then get to ground."

Ending the call, he held out the phone back to Arianna. She took it while Loki feigned sympathy.

"Lady trouble?" He asked sarcastically.

Fury ignored him as he asked brusquely, "Well, what exactly is it that brought you here, Mr. Loki?"

The playfulness instantly dropped away and cold anger returned to Loki's face.

"Vengeance. An agent of this planet murdered Thor Odinson, the Crown Prince of Asgard."

"Thor? Like the God of Thunder?" Arianna asked skeptically. Loki pointed his scepter at her.

"Don't play coy, wench!" He hissed. "You have no idea what you are dealing with."

He lifted his spear and reached for a blue, glowing box that one of the warriors beside him handed over. Fury eyed the box warily.

"What's in the box?" He asked. Loki smirked again, his green eyes almost glowing with glee.

"Ooh. Such insolence will not be tolerated. And your planet will be taken as retribution."

The box glowed brighter and as the air prickled with energy, Arianna yelled, "Take cover!"

The agents near the cars barely got to safety in time. Not a moment after everyone ducked behind their vehicles, a blast out of the blue box Loki wielded. The blast froze everything in its path, creating an entire wall of ice. Agents shouted as they ran when the blast knocked vehicles over as it froze them while Arianna grabbed Fury and ducked behind their own car just before a blast of ice shot up where they had been seconds earlier.

Lifting his head, Fury yelled back at Loki, "Declaring war on this planet will not bring your prince back!"

Loki didn't seem to care, but the female warrior beside him grasped his arm and forced him to lower his weapon as she cautioned, "Wait. The All-Father would want us to listen."

As the attack on them subsided, agents poked their heads warily back out while Fury said in earnest, "We have the same enemy here."

"Oh, I doubt that." Loki sniffed but Arianna appeared at Fury's shoulder, her hazel eyes hard.

"You say you somehow know that an agent of ours killed your crown prince. But what you apparently don't know is that the agent who you think murdered your brother fell to the very same person who really killed your brother." She said coldly. "As did another man."

Loki's eyes narrowed as he examined her intently. As the God of Mischief, he was a master of deceit. But he could sense no falsehood in the girl's words. Not to mention he caught the way her voice wavered just slightly when speaking of the dead agent and he could see the hints of grief in her hazel eyes. As Loki paused in his vengeance, Fury stepped in.

"You see, we've lost men too. Good men. We should be working together."

"We are not allies." Loki spat, disgusted at the mere thought.

"Then let me help you." Fury shot back. "I promise, when I find your brother's killer, you will have your pound of flesh."

Loki's brow shot up but he handed back his mysterious box to his troops, switching it back for his scepter as he mused with unnatural delight, "What a fascinating choice of words. But I shall require the entire corpse."

There was no hint of a joke now on the god's face. Fury just nodded.

"You need to give me time." He warned.

At first, Loki didn't look inclined to agree. But then his eyes drifted to the setting sun in the distance and he seemed to change his mind.

"Very well." Loki declared, looking back at Fury with barely concealed mischief. "You have until the next rise of Midgard's sun to deliver my brother's assassin…"

His tone darkened instantly, revealing yet again how volatile his personality was.

"Or I will reduce this planet to ash and ice."

Arianna was an inch away from bashing her head into the computer. Or maybe stabbing it.

Her search for Clint's murderer was not going very well. There were only a handful of names that knew about the Avengers Initiative and the more Arianna dug into them, the less likely any of them seemed to be suspects. Of the list, only Alexander Pierce and Maria Hill had any potential motive to want to kill off the Avengers before they could even take off. But not only was the probability of motive extremely small, Hill had a rock solid alibi and Pierce hadn't even known about the plan to temporarily cure Stark because Fury had made the call so suddenly after Stark's destructive behaviour at his party. Which meant that the only other people with enough knowledge to be the mystery assassin were Fury, Coulson, Natasha or Arianna herself. And even if she for one second thought any of them might be the suspect, no one had the ability to kill the Hulk.

So who was the one who had been able to do the impossible?

Arianna had shifted her focus to looking into the method of murder against Clint in the hopes of finding a clue there when her phone suddenly rang. Glancing at the caller ID, she cocked a brow before answering the unknown number.

"I need your password." Natasha said without preamble and Arianna tilted her head.

"Why do you need that?"

"I need to get into the Avengers Initiative files, but I'm locked out of the system and wanted for murder."

"Sharing passwords is against SHIELD protocol." Arianna pointed out, although it was more of a test than because she was being difficult. If this wasn't the real Natasha...

"Tell that to Laura."

At Natasha's words, Arianna rattled off the random list of letters, numbers and symbols that made up her password without missing a beat. She heard typing on the other side and she waited for a second for Natasha to speak again.

"Thanks, Ria."

Natasha went quiet for a moment before she added in a voice so quiet Arianna almost didn't hear her.

"He loved you. You know that, right?"

Arianna's grip tightened on her phone and her eyes stung - but of course, there were no tears. She hadn't been able to cry since her time in Russia. And she hated herself all the more for it. What kind of monster was she that she couldn't even cry when her brother in everything but blood was dead?

"I know." Arianna spoke tightly around the lump in her throat, her eyes burning as she stared at her own computer screen. "Just like I know he loved you."

Natasha didn't answer; instead, she hung up and Arianna shut her own phone. She raised her fingers to briskly start typing at her own computer again. But suddenly, she paused as she felt a chill run down her spine.

Arianna didn't know how but she could sense it. Something was going to happen. Something bad.