It had been a few hours since the drama occurred within the group. Jennie and Delilah had eventually returned to the bunker after cooling off, but they noticed that neither Christie nor Renesme were anywhere to be seen. So Delilah decided to start cooking, as that was all she knew to do when feeling a little lost, scared or anxious - whilst Jennie chose to lounge lazily on the sofa and staring up at the ceiling. "Jen, are you telling me you're not the slightest bit concerned about where Christie and Renesme are?" Delilah had to ask as she continued to stir the canned soup.

"No, I am not," Jennie answered haughtily. Delilah clenched her jaw but carried on.

"If you insist. But I must say, Jen, after thinking about it - we really must let Christie do whatever she deems necessary for the sake of her own healing process," Delilah sighed tiredly, glancing over at her friend to see her reaction. Jennie just rolled her eyes and turned her head away to avoid her eye contact.

"That's exactly what we're doing, is it not? Neither one of us are physically stopping her attempt to try and discover whether or not that slimy madman is alive and well or not," she muttered bitterly. But as soon as the words tumbled out of her mouth, Christie and Renesme happened to burst back into the room, both their chests heaving heavily from all the running they had just done.

"Oh! Ladies! We were worried about you - find anything interesting?" Delilah asked them as casually as possible in a poor attempt to cover up Jennie's blatant negative attitude.

"I can officially state that I do believe The Tesseract is spiking due to mass activity on another end," Renesme announced proudly, looking extremely pleased with herself as she did so. Her cheeks were a sweet rosy pink and there was absolutely no wiping the beaming smile from her face.

"Congratulations!" Jennie grumbled sarcastically, without even glancing over at them. Christie glared at her before throwing her head back, completely sick to the brim of her little mini tantrums.

"Jen, I swear to god I'm this close- you know what? I don't even wanna be near you right now. Your attitude is draining the sh*t out of me," she spat in disgust before leaving the room before she hurt Jennie in a way she couldn't fix.

"Wait, so you actually went to do extra research on this thing?" Coulson frowned to Christie a few minutes later, cocking his head to the side. She had just showed him the fact files she and Renesme had drawn up depicting all that they had discovered about the Tesseract.

"Yup. You know me, always up for a bit of 'extra research' after all," she confirmed quietly as she watched him flick through it. She shuffled from foot to food uncomfortably, sensing something off in the atmosphere- and then she knew exactly why. "Alright, where's Barton? I can just feel him staring down at me from…somewhere."

"Eh, you know how he gets. He's up in his nest somewhere," Coulson waved his hand in the vague direction of the stands lining the top of the room. Christie rolled her eyes and shuddered.

"I used to hate when he did that." She turned her attention to the Tesseract - and was surprised to see it sparking and shivering completely unprovoked in front of Selvig. She'd never seen it do that before. "Um, Coulson? Is the cube supposed to be-"

And then - chaos. And it all happened so fast.

There was an immense explosion, violently knocking everyone in the room off their feet. Christie was the first to shakily lift her head up from where she was in a crumpled heap with laboured breathing. Her vision was slightly blurred and everyone around her was panting and wheezing in shock. She put all her energy into trying to strain her eyesight so that she could focus on the mysterious figure in black crouching down a few steps away from her. Then a bright blue light blasted from whatever it was holding, and the figure jumped up extraordinarily high into the air, soaring over the guards as their machine guns blasted off dramatically in it's direction. Christie gave a chesty cough as she watched Barton spring into action, in an attempt to stop him. Everything was still a dizzy haze and she could barely place any of the muffled noises around her. She genuinely had no idea what was happening, until she heard the six words that would change her life forever.

"Please don't. I still need that."

Christie could pick that voice out if there were thousands around her. Her heartbeat sped up so quickly that she had to put a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from emptying her stomach onto the cool metal floor beneath her. She finally managed to focus her vision on the figure to see that it was indeed Loki himself.

Luckily for her, she was well hidden in the shadows. He couldn't spot her if he tried….not like he'd recognise her right now anyway - he was that far gone.

"Holy f*cking sh*t," she whispered hollowly as her entire body began to tremble at the sight of her lover who she'd believed to be dead. All the gaslighting and disbelief from the girls no longer mattered because here he was. She desperately wanted to do run over to him, but common sense managed to fight its way forward and rebuke the idea before she could so much as get up. She just took in as much of Loki as she could. His hair was slightly longer and greasier than usual, and he looked incredibly pale, drawn out and thinner - but everything else about him appeared to be somewhat normal. Even his eyes had gone that odd, dull colour of green; the same one that Jennie had observed the day they left Asgard.

She waited a few moments before easily slipping out of the room and running down the wide corridors till she safely got to her bunker, and burst the door open to see the others eating in an awkward silence.

"Loki, is, alive," she panted hoarsely as they looked up.

"Well would you look at that?" Renesme hummed casually as she continued to sip her soup in boredom.

"Christie, are you sure?" Delilah clarified, putting her bowl down.

"AM I SURE?! I literally just saw him downstairs? He's after the Tesseract and I couldn't even bring myself to stay and confront him like the little b*tch I am," Christie groaned as she clutched her stomach, the wheel of emotions in her heart finally settling on fear. Jennie's spoon clung onto the floor as a result of her dropping it in shock.

"Oh may the gods show divine favour and mercy on our helpless souls," Delilah quickly prayed under her breath with her head held in her hands.

"Guys, we need to get moving - I mean now," Christie told them all briskly. "I can't let him…whichever him it is…see me. Not until I know what he wants."

"Well, what kind of state is he in now?" Renesme frowned, finally being serious again..

"He looks like himself, give or take some weight loss, but you can tell that he's completely out of it. I hate it and I don't get how he's changed so much in such a short space if time," Christie sniffed, grabbing her jacket in a hurry and shoving it on.

"Well that's because the concept of time changes depending on where you are in the universe-" Renesme began to explain - when suddenly, there was a rapid and panicked knock at their door. It was Coulson. Worry was smothering his usually calm face and Christie knew exactly what that meant.

"Girls, come on, let's move out," he snapped, clicking his fingers to hurry them up.

"Coulson, I understand the severity of the situation but please, don't ever click at me again," Christie muttered shortly, zipping her jacket up and securing her weapon belt. "I'm not a dog."

"Christie, the building is LITERALLY coming down on top of us because your boyfriend turned up on some weird villainous stuff," Coulson squinted his eyes in confusion whilst his voice raised louder by the second. "So please excuse me if I'm, you know - TRYING TO GET YOU OUT ALIVE!"

"We appreciate your words of warning, Son of Coul, we shall leave immediately as you will it so," Delilah assured him, jumping to her feet and grabbing the girls' new assigned S.H.I.E.L.D bomber jackets. Renesme took her trusty cloth bag and packed her homemade blanket that she brought from Asgard with the Asgardian book, whilst Jennie just grabbed her shawl and followed Coulson and Christie out of the door without much protest - until she thought of something else.

"Son of Coul, out of interest, where is Sir Clint Barton?" she called out curiously as they all ran down the dark corridor, the lights flickering as they ran.

"Barton? He's been compromised," Coulson panted back without glancing behind him. Christie swallowed down the gasp bubbling in her throat and continued to run ahead.

"What…what does that mean?" Jennie gasped with worry lingering in her voice.

"I'll explain later. Oh, not sure if I mentioned this earlier but Christie, are you aware that Loki is downstairs? That he's the genesis of our problems right now? Currently mind controlling a bunch of our agents? This is YOUR loverboy?" Coulson hissed, leading them all through the stiff metal doors that spat them out straight into the helicopter that was already ready for departure.

"Hello? What does 'compromised' mean?!" Jennie stressed once more, her voice straining.

"Oh Jen it's hardly the time is it?" Delilah tiredly dismissed her panic, slipping into the flying transportation and slamming herself down on one of the benches.

"WHY MUST WE TAKE THIS METAL DEMON ALL OVER AGAIN?" Renesme wailed, climbing into the helicopter as well. Delilah and Christie got in together and Coulson got in last before finally slamming the door shut and flying away from the destruction that Loki had caused.

As the journey commenced, Jennie, Delilah and Renesme silently watched Coulson communicate with Fury over his talkback system as they flew across the skies. He might as well have been talking in riddles - all of the codenames and jargon had them completely confusion. "Ohhhh I do hate this thing," Renesme muttered to herself, wringing her hands together. Her usually rosy face was ghostly pale, and she was squeezing her eyes shut.

"Yes sir. I copy," Coulson muttered into the walkie talkie. He shut it off, shoved it back into his pocket and gave a deep sigh. "Well ladies, looks like we could need your help after all. S.H.I.E.L.D's in a tight spot. This is, by the way, my idea of hell."

"If it means we're moving into Phase 1 and getting the whole team in - then yeah, it's mine too," Christie whispered hollowly.

"What's happening, sir?" Delilah asked quickly, tucking a strand of her short black hair behind her ear and eagerly leaning forward. She was already finding a love in the thrill of this, and she never expected that she would.

"Well, as Christie just mentioned - we need to start Phase 1," Coulson cleared his throat before turning to Christie to deliver the next line, as only she would understand it. "As of now, we're at war." Christie took a shaky breath in and licked her bleeding lips, narrowly avoiding his eye contact. She never thought this day would ever come - and she certainly never thought it would be because of Loki that S.H.E.I.L.D would be forced to activate it.

"Christie? Are you okay?" Renesme murmured to her softly, placing a worried hand on her knee.

"Loki's alive," Christie mumbled back in disbelief as she slammed her hands over her burning face. "He's alive and he's evil. My friend is under his spell. S.H.I.E.L.D is down and literally all his fault-"

"So ow can we help?" Jennie interrupted Christie's grief by asking loudly, clearly still irritated. Christie clenched her fists and shot Jennie a look of death - but Jennie continued to keep her cool. She didn't want to appear intimidated in front of her new boss, after all.

"Well you all implied that you had skills - what can you guys offer us?" Coulson asked them, eyes darting between each person.

"Um, I can sense when someone I know or care for is in danger - I have to be quite close to them, though," Jennie offered will a small proud smile, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them.

"Uh huh. I guess that can be of use," Coulson hummed.

"I can heal people. In fact, I was extensively trained in it - the Asgardian way, of course," Renesme beamed, flicking her hair back.

"Yes. She's a witch," Jennie interrupted under her breath. "As is her darling sister Lore-"

"Bite me," Renesme muttered back through gritted teeth.

"Witch or not, healing powers is also helpful," Coulson hummed again.

"I'm trained in weaponry," Delilah held up a slender hand. "Not as well as Christie here, but you know - it's all I have." That was more than enough for Coulson.

"Wonderful - then…welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D. And Christie…I'm sorry that there's been no rest period but obviously we'll need you back in. And it looks like you're gonna have a bit of a family reunion with Stark," he told her apologetically. Christie looked up at him with a risen brow.

Now that should be interested.

…

"I like it in this…Helicarrier a thousand times more than the other place," Renesme yawned as she stretched her long slender legs out on one of the beds in their new headquarters.

"What are we going to do about Christie?" Delilah asked quietly whilst snuggling into the covers of her own bed. Christie had decided to take her room elsewhere alone, unable to handle Jennie's catty remarks and Delilah's unreliable on-the-fence behaviour. She was dealing with enough as it was, and the very last thing she needed was for the two of them to drive her to complete insanity.

"Why ask? It's not like either of you two care about what she wants," Renesme spat bitterly, shooting her evils from across the room. Delilah rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to diffuse the situation - but to her dismay, Jennie got there before she could try.

"Oh Renesme, don't even start with that nonsense," she tutted, fixing her long mousey brown hair into a messy bun so that she could lie down comfortably. "There a reason I told her to leave that alone and you know there was."

"So what if Christie left it or not?! Would that have stopped Loki from turning up on Midgard? No! We'd be in the exact same position you bastard - in fact, it would've been the preparation she needed to accept it better! You think you're so smart, when you barely use your damned brain on a regular basis!" Renesme snapped, feeling many of years worth of pent up aggression with Jennie bubble up in her chest. "And thank you for the witch comment, by the way. I'm sure Lorelei will be thrilled to hear how you think of her should we ever return to Asgard!"

"OHHHH I'M GOING TO BED!" Jennie shouted, flicking off the light.

"YES WELL…SO AM I!" Renesme yelled back, slamming her face straight into her pillow. Delilah sat there by herself, rolling her eyes in the darkness.

"It's fine girls, I was tired anyway!" she announced loudly. Once she received no reply, she slumped lower into her armchair. "Odin help us," she muttered.

...

a belated merry christmas to you all! plopped a little agents of s.h.i.e.l.d reference for those who care(!) see you next weeeeek (perhaps twice...) x