A/N: Chap 9 review responses are in my forums. A lot of folks jumped to the wrong conclusion with what happened. I don't think they read that last sentence about a flash of brilliant red-gold light. Hopefully this chapter will clear up what happened a little better.


Chapter Ten: Finding Thor

Bruce noticed the shimmer first.

While Tony Stark did his damnedest to make sure everyone in the room knew he was the smartest man there, Bruce caught an odd shimmer in the air that bore what looked almost like the outline of a wing.

Only a lifetime spent pretending kept him from cursing and running out of the command deck. Because the shimmer did not fade, as it would if it was just his eyes. It moved as a human would, shifting out of the path from the main entrance. Which meant the girl Thor called the Butcher of Ahl-Agulla was not only on the helicarrier, but was in the room with them listening to everything they said.

Finally, Fury gave them an out to go start working on finding the Tesseract. Tony, maintaining a light tone, stepped to Banner's side. "Shall we play, doctor?"

"Sure," Bruce said. "Let's play."

They walked out the back exit into the hall that led to Bruce's lab. The moment the door closed, Stark said, without a trace of humor or hubris, "What spooked you?"

Seems my mask slipped. "The girl that kicked your ass back in Albuquerque? Pretty sure she was in there listening," Bruce said. "There was a shimmer. An outline of a wing moving around."

Stark slapped his forehead with his palm. "Damn. I saw it too, but thought it was that concussion she gave me."

Bruce frowned. "Concussion? Tony, should you even be up?"

Stark waved it off. "Minor one. I've had worse just testing my repulsors. Come on, my Mark IV should be here from Malibu by now. An older model, but should do in a pinch."

They walked right by Bruce's lab and kept going to the hangar level. As they walked, Stark removed a phone that looked smarter than most mainframes. "Hey, Romanov, still in the command deck? Yeah, you might wanna join us in the hangar. Act casual."

Smirking, Stark said to Bruce, "No better way to catch a sneak than a sneak."

Bruce heard an undercurrent of dislike. "What'd she do to you?"

"Impersonated Pepper's secretary," Stark said. "And she kicked Happy's ass. Not cool, man. Not cool. Happy's very sensitive-having a 90 pound girl whip his ass really hurt his pride, you know? Nothing's worse than an unhappy Happy."

"She's 140 easy," Bruce said.

A brow shot up. "Really? You sound quite sure there. What'd she do to you?"

"She recruited me out of Delhi," Banner said. "And I've yet to see her in anything that wasn't indecently tight."

Stark laughed sharply. "Banner, are you a prude?"

Bruce shook his head. "I haven't been laid in ten years, Tony. And I'm not going to risk anyone to change that. Figure it out."

"Ouch."

Romanov stood waiting beside the self-propelled, self-guiding Iron Man suit.

"So, gentlemen, I take it you noticed our uninvited guest?"

Stark snorted. "Of course the super-spy noticed."

"What's the plan?"

"Brute force isn't going to cut it," Stark said. "I hit her with tank busters in Albuquerque and she barely even noticed. That armor of hers is on another level. So, if you can't beat them with your sword, you break out the pen."

"What did you have in mind?" Natasha asked.

"Think we can get our hands on some isoflurane?"

Banner stared a moment, before nodding. "Right. High concentration, aerosol it into her face. It might work better if we can deliver a shock to her as well. There's no guarantee, though, Tony. She's not human-it might not do anything at all."

"I'll be the back-up plan," Tony said. "If nothing else, if we can get her close to the outer hull we might at least be able to blast her off the ship."

"I have another idea for a backup," Natasha said with a pleased grin. "Coulson has a new toy we reverse engineered from Asgardian tech we recovered from Thor's first visit. Might be a good time to try it out."

"Unless the big guy wants to come out and play, Doctor, you should probably join Director Fury," Romanov said.

Stark snorted. "He knows about our guest, too? 'Course he knows."

Ten minutes later, Bruce finally saw their intruder on security cameras. Or at least, that miniscule sliver of her that the cameras could track.

Fury joined Bruce in the ship's security center set ten levels below the landing deck. The four technicians on duty ran sweeps using every camera on the ship, looking for any anomalous readings, until they caught a faint line in the infrared that didn't make sense to the search algorithms.

"She's on Deck Eight, Section C-23," Fury said into his headset.

Bruce leaned over to the tech. "Where is that?"

The tech pointed to a diagram of the ship to the last habitable level. "Higher numbers are at the bottom. Flight deck is Deck 1."

"Roger, sir," Coulson said. "We're going to try and lure her toward the outer hull in C-25 before we hit her."

"I don't want to tell you people how to do your jobs, but shouldn't you have Thor there?' Bruce had his glasses off and was pulling at them nervously. "Just in case?"

"Thor's the ace up our sleeve," Fury said. "I told him what was happening, and he's standing by in case we can't contain the threat."

The tech seated in front of them whistled. "Whatever this target's using, Director, it is next-level stuff."

"How so, Franklin?"

"No registers in infra-red, thermal or motion sensors. Thing is, I don't think her suit or tech was made for the wings. If she pulls them in tight, we lose her, but she lets them hang out just enough to pierce the edge of the refraction boundary when she walks."

"Thank God for small favors," Bruce muttered.

With Fury's direction, Bruce watched on the various security cameras as Stark found an unsecured, unused storage room at the end of a wide hall that led right up to the outer hull of the ship. Natasha and Coulson, with his huge, alien-looking gun, hid in a door opposite.

At just the right time, Stark called out the name "Loki!"

The intruder's hearing must have been excellent. On the camera at the hall juncture, they could see the faint, shimmering outlines of the far edges of the alien's wings pause, then back up and look down the hall. She seemed to know exactly where the sound came from because she didn't look at any of the other doors.

Bruce couldn't tell if it was the helicarrier hitting an air current or nervousness that made his stomach drop; either way he found it hard to breathe.

The invisible figure opened the door; Stark stood opposite with a large, pressurized can of almost pure isoflurane anesthetic. He opened the can nozzle like he would a fire extinguisher and blasted the alien right in her invisible face.

From her hidden space, Romanov jumped out and dove down on the ground just as the alien's invisibility flickered, using her body to trip the alien. Coulson followed with his weapon, when disaster struck.

The falling girl flared her black, silver-tipped wings as she fell backwards. One of those wings didn't just strike Coulson, it went through him. The man spun away in a spray of blood as the arm holding the weapon fell to the floor with the gun itself.

"I need a med team to Deck Eight, Section C-25, pronto!" Fury ordered.

Romanov didn't even look at Coulson. Instead, she stabbed two small devices at the alien's neck, introducing a powerful electrical shock that elicited a young-sounding scream. Stark continued to spray the girl in her face with the anesthetic.

Thinking quickly, Romanov rolled away from the potentially debilitating gas, grabbed the alien gun from Coulson's severed arm, and without a second's hesitation fired right at the girl's head.

The blast struck so powerfully it lifted the alien girl up from the ground and sent her spinning the rest of the way down the hall until she hit the outer hull and crumpled.

"Fury!" Natasha's voice was tense over the line.

"Med team's incoming. Stabilize him best you can," Fury said. It was the first time Bruce had ever heard worry in the man's voice.

As Romanov worked desperately to stabilize the wounded Coulson, Stark walked to the fallen alien. He reached down to grab her, only for the actuators of his suit to whine loud enough even the speakers in the hall heard it. He tried again, and the floor plates bent.

"So, got another problem here."

"What?" Fury asked.

"This girl's armor and sword? Jarvis is telling me it weighs about two tons. If I pick it up, the PSI per step is going to punch me through the floor. I'm going to need some heavy lifting here."

Fury looked to Banner. "Don't look at me. The Big Guy doesn't clean up messes, he just makes them."

Fury snorted. "Fair enough. Thor, are you listening?"

"I am, Fury. You have need of me?"

"We might need some Asgardian muscle."

"Say no more, friend! Save where I might find the Butcher."

Bruce left the security room and made his way down a deck and across the ship. By the time he arrived, Thor and Stark were both lifting and moving the girl, though the metal floor groaned and visibly dented under their feet. They stopped before they reached the pooled blood from Coulson's injuries. The injured man himself was already carted away for emergency reattachment surgery.

Thor and Iron Man together put the girl down. "This will be cumbersome," Thor noted. "Even between us, she is so heavy the floor groans under our feet." A gleam of sweat stood on his brow. "This armor must be made of unrefined uru or an alloy of it, to be so heavy and dense."

"Why don't you guys just take it off?" Banner asked. "I mean, it's just armor, right?"

Stark's face was hidden, but from his change in posture Banner suspected he wanted to hit his forehead again. Thor was much more good-natured. "Well spoken, Friend Banner! Those vambraces appear to control her technology. Let us look!"

Careful to step over the pools of blood, he came knelt down beside Thor. "Can you read that?"

"I speak many languages," Thor said in answer. "Ah, here it is."

He touched a control pad of the vambrace, and a second later they all heard a snap and saw the girl's body shift slightly. With a look up at Stark, Thor said, "Shall we?"

Bruce moved out of the way as the two men together-with godly strength and technological power, reached under the armor chest plate and lifted it. The alien girl's arms levered up and then flopped back as they pulled through the holes of the armor. The vambraces also split and fell away in the process.

Banner felt surprised when he saw how thin and youthful she appeared. She looked like a somewhat lanky, fit teenage girl in a unitard that covered her whole body, even down to her feet, but left her arms, shoulders and neck bare. Only, with wings.

Thor leaned over, and then lifted one of her arms to examine the odd line of tattoos that ran down from her shoulders to the blackened tips of her fingers. "Do you know what they mean?" Bruce asked.

"Just names," Thor said. "A curiosity, nothing more. Where shall we take her?" He pulled her ornate headpiece off and placed it with the armor and her blade.

Their headsets reverberated with Fury's voice. "We have a second isolation cell prepared. Deck Eight, Section J-45."

Thor easily lifted the girl. He cradled one of her large wings, but the other dragged through the bloody floor as they continued toward the designated cell. They had no choice but to leave the armor, vambraces and sword until a forklift rated for the weight could get it.

"She looks like a kid," Bruce noticed.

"Aye," Thor said. "But child or not, she must have prodigious strength to wear the armor and bear the weapons she does. Be cautious-death can come from beauty just as fast as vileness."

"I'm going to have to remember that," Stark said as he walked beside him. "Hey, Fury, any word on Coulson?"

"We're medivacing him to a SHIELD facility in Austin. Ship's doctors have him stabilized, and the cut was as clean as they've ever seen. He's a good case for a successful limb reattachment."

Thor, with the girl in his arms, nodded. "That is good. The Son of Coul is a friend. This child has much to answer for, methinks."

When they reached it, Bruce thought the isolation cell looked like an RV. It was a stand-alone white-walled rectangle with carbon-filament reinforced windows and sound absorbing walls. Within it was a bench that could fold out to a small bed and an equally small bathroom. Thor gently placed the unconscious girl on the bed, and then stepped out.

The sound of the door closing was accompanied by the hissing of pressurization. While Fury walked in, Bruce noticed that the floor around the base of the rectangle had joint lines. "It ejects?"

"It actually flies," Fury noted. "A new secure containment system. You're not the only one with interesting abilities in the world, Dr. Banner. Sometimes we have to keep people from hurting themselves and others. Good job, Stark."

The Iron Man suit's face flapped up. "Tell that to Coulson."

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Coulson is a good man, and I have faith he'll pull through this. What we need now..."

Despite receiving enough isoflurane to the face to anesthetize the New York Giants, and receiving a blast to the head with something that could melt tanks, the girl woke. She woke with a startled scream and a clumsy flailing of her wings that scratched windows that were rated to slow down even the Hulk.

She came quickly to her feet, her wings flared in a threat display almost like an eagle or a raven. She bent low; her green eyes amazingly bright even in the shadowless white light of the container. He could almost feel her gaze as she looked over them, until at last her eyes settled on Thor.

"Odinson." Her voice came through speakers, since no sound could penetrate the cell.

"Can she hear us?" Bruce asked.

"Not yet," Fury said.

"Thor, buddy, did you steal her ice cream or something?" Stark asked. "Because. Wow! She is giving you the look."

Bruce thought Tony was completely misreading the alien girl's expression. What Bruce saw in her face wasn't rage. It was the same way Banner looked at Betty Ross. Banner knew hopelessness and longing better than anyone, and recognized those feelings now in Swan's expression. Did she know Thor?

The girl spoke again. "I would speak to the Odinson. Alone."

Fury snorted, leaned over and touched a speaker panel on the side of the cell. "You are not in a position to dictate terms, young lady."

She answered by thrusting her wing through the carbon-filament reinforced glass. She did so with such ease it took Bruce a moment to even jump because he didn't realize she'd done it. She didn't look away from Thor at all. "You think you can contain me? I learn from my mistakes, mortals. If you will not let me speak to the Odinson, then I shall rip my way out and topple this flying idiocy from the sky."

"I would hear what she has to say, my friends," Thor said calmly, arms crossed at ease.

Fury silenced the speaker. "We may be giving her exactly what she wants."

"Perhaps," Thor allowed. "But consider this. If you were to put me in such a cage, I too would easily break free. I've no doubt she could as well. And yet she wishes to speak. Let us hear what she has to say."

"Can we monitor from another space?" Bruce asked.

Fury nodded. "Okay, fine. Thor, please give us a few minutes before beginning."

Thor nodded easily, and continued to stand with his arms crossed as he stared back at the winged girl. Bruce followed Fury and Stark as they left the room.

They didn't have far to go before reaching the security room. The same four techs were still on duty. "Gentlemen, we need the room," Fury said.

The techs didn't even blink as they stood and left. Fury took the same station that found the Butcher in the first place. Bruce was impressed the man was as familiar with the complex looking equipment as he was. In seconds, Fury brought up a high definition camera of the detention area from an angle just to the side and behind Thor and sent it to one of the rooms four large monitors.

"Is the sound on?" Bruce asked.

"They're just staring at each other," Stark muttered. "She's probably jealous of the cape."

Bruce fought back a startled jump when the alien girl's voice came through crystal clear on the room's speakers.

"Do you know who I am?"

The tone was completely different. Gone was the hubris and overweening confidence. All that remained was a young, uncertain voice asking a tremulous question.

If Thor was disconcerted by the changed tone, he didn't show it. "I know many call you the Butcher of Ahl-Gulla. That you serve the Mad Titan, Thanos."

The girl's wings fascinated Bruce. They twitched and moved like a bird's, despite their size and obvious strength. They twitched now as the girl stared, like a poker tell she couldn't control. Stripped of her armor and arrogance, she seemed even younger than before.

She lifted her arm and pointed to the line of densely packed symbols on the inside crease of her elbow. "Loki told me he knew what this symbol was. Do you? He lies about so much, was he lying about this? He said it was the sign of Freya of Vanaheim. Was he lying to me?"

"You don't know what your own tattoos mean?"

"NO!" Her scream made the damaged glass of her cage crack further. One of the speakers sparked over Bruce's head.

The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "No, Odinson. They're not tattoos. Ebony Maw told me they were natural or genetically engineered. He couldn't tell which. I searched our databases, but I couldn't find any match."

"And why does this concern me?"

She reached behind her neck to a spot hidden by her thick, curling black hair, and then removed a coin-sized device. "When I woke in Thanos' sanctuary, he said I was blind and broken. My wings, my bones...my eyes burned from my skull. Ebony Maw told me this chip was what allowed my eyes to grow back, but it could not recover my memories. Thanos named me Black Swan, but it was not the name I was born with. I had a life before he found me, but I don't remember it. And when I fought Vers of the Skrulls...she defeated me. She did not kill me, though. She ripped this from my head and called it a Kree behavioral modification chip."

"Holy shit," Bruce heard Fury say.

"I don't know who I am, Odinson," the alien continued. Her eyes glistened. "All I know is that when she ripped this chip out, I felt the blood I spilled on my hands. Don't you understand? He made me murder Augullex the Brave. He made me murder brave, proud beings. Their youth. Their future. And he made me happy to do it! He praised me and showered me with gifts, like I'd cured a disease or saved a world. There's blood on my hands, and I don't know what to do!"

The words came tumbling to a halt. The girl took a deep, shuddering breath. "Does this symbol say Freya?"

Thor evidently made his decision. "It is a prayer. To Freya and Freyr, and Njord their father, and all the other Vanir. My very own name is there, on your neck. To what the prayer intones, I cannot say. Your other arm prays to gods I have no knowledge of. Are there more of these symbols?"

As he spoke, the alien girl seemed almost to shrink in on herself. Tears ran down her cheeks as she clasped her hands. "They cover my body," she said. "There's a scar that won't heal on my back that covers some of the symbols. Maw said it was metaphysical."

Abruptly she spun from Thor and leaned against the far wall. Bruce worried she was going to break it when he could hear metal bending and exotic ceramics cracking. She spun around again to face Thor.

"Give me your word, Thor Odinson. Swear in your father's name. Swear that when this is over and you return to Asgard, you will take me with you and present me to Odin and Frigga. And in return, I will swear on the blood of the innocents I murdered to surrender wholly to you, and to aid you in your quest to stop your brother."

Thor considered her words for a moment. "What do you think they will do for you, child? You murdered millions. For your crimes they would see you dead or imprisoned for life."

"I don't care." The girl's voice cracked again. "I just want to know who I am. To not have to murder children again. If that means death or an age in prison, I don't care. Please. I don't even know my name."

Bruce couldn't see Thor's face, but he could see the man shift and let his arm drop. "What name do you go by now, child?"

"As I said. Thanos called me Black Swan."

"Very well, Swan. In Odin's name, I swear that I shall present you before my father's throne, so long as you surrender to me and my allies, and aid us in stopping Loki's quest."

The girl sank in on herself with relief, as if she'd lost all her strength. "Then I surrender, Odinson. On the blood I shed, I surrender. I'll help you in any way I can."

She stepped back and collapsed on the bench. "I surrender," she said again, as if to herself.