The world had gone red around Raina, the glow from the half-buried emergency light being the only thing left that she could see. Not that it was going to matter for much longer, anyway. What little space Raina had around her had been created out of a bubble of debris that had formed around her head when the Guest House imploded around them. "HELP!" she screamed out at the top of her lungs, hoping against every rational hope that her problem was localized and someone was going to come to her rescue.

No such luck. Garrett was dead. Which meant his men were dead. She was on her own, and her escape route was surely buried under a pile of rubble that was similar to the one that was pressing down on her legs, cutting off all circulation and any semblance of hope. Which meant that if those injuries didn't killer her, surely she was going to suffocate, or die from dehydration, or starve.

She knew that going to the Guest House had been a bad idea. But the place was a medical facility, and there was no way a man as stupid as the late, not-to-be lamented John Garrett would have a clue as to what was going to be worth salvaging out of the place. So she went against her gut instincts and her better judgement and, for once in her life, came 'along for the ride'. Stupid move, Raina, she mentally berated herself. First time in your life you didn't trust your gut and now that lapse in judgement is going to prove to be your downfall...

A quick check of the area around her showed that all that surrounded her was red-lit dust and debris...with one exception. An open canister lay on its side next to her, crowding her free space in some odd attempt to survive against all odds. Like me, I guess, she thought with a weary, hopeless sigh. Let's see what's in here, then. Who knows, maybe it'll just kill me and end my misery all the faster.

When Raina pulled out the contents of the canister, though, she had to stop herself from wasting her precious remaining oxygen in laughter. "GH-325," she declared to the void, almost angry at the irony of it, "the drug that 'resurrected' Coulson." What a sick joke, she thought bitterly. Even if the drug heals my injuries, it's not like it's going to give me super-strength to clear out the debris. Or extra oxygen to breathe. Or a way out of here. The ultimate life-giving drug and when I finally get my hands on it, all that's lying in front of me is death. Oh well, she finally relented. At least it'll keep me from feeling so damn thirsty for a second or so...

The change in Raina's body was as agonizing as it was instantaneous. No longer caring about the amout of oxygen in the air around her, she screamed, venting the pain in the only way her body would allow. And yet, as much as her body was crying out in the worst of its suffering, in the deepest recesses of Raina's mind, she knew she was getting stronger. A core of energy was forming in the very center of her being, and she grabbed onto it like a lifeline, blindly holding on solely out of the instinct of pure survival.

Finally, the pain receded like the outgoing tide. Raina drew in a deep breath, marveling at how good she felt...and how useless that feeling was to her. What does it matter if I'm healthy again, she thought. All that means is that they're going to find a better conditioned corpse...if they ever find me at all. I wish that drug could have created a way for me to get out of here...

Raina disappeared less than a heartbeat later.

#

The nervous woman stopped pacing the length of the dusty warehouse space only when the entourage filed out the door to meet her. "Doctor Foster?" Fallon greeted the woman, speaking on behalf of the group behind him. "Director Mark Fallon."

Jane frowned, surprised by the name she was hearing and the size of the group in front of her. "I'm sorry," she said as she shook Fallon's hand. "I'm not even sure what I'm doing here, to be honest. I was told to look for a wizard's castle..."

Castle offered his own hand in greeting. "That would be me, actually."

Jane shook her head and Castle's hand at the same time, clearly surprised when she realized that she recognized the man standing in front of her. "You...you're Richard Castle, aren't you? The mystery author?" When Castle nodded, it only seemed to further add to Jane's confusion. "You're the castle that Thor was talking about?"

Castle nodded again. "I am."

"Then no offense Mr. Castle, but how in the world would you have met Thor? And why would he call you a wizard?"

When her surroundings changed in the blink of an eye, Jane's jaw dropped open. She turned around once in a slow circle before staring at Castle in amazement. "You're a real wizard, Mr. Castle?"

"I am," said Castle.

"That's how you two met, isn't it?"

"Thor worked with us on a case a while back, Dr. Foster," Fallon chimed in.

Jane took her attention off the people in front of her and focused her attention on the walls and high ceiling once more. "What is this place?"

"We're called the Network," replied Fallon.

"The Network, huh?" Jane quietly repeated, her face breaking out in a small smile. "Pretty generic name."

Fallon's smile matched Jane's. "Yeah, well...we're a much more practical than creative bunch, sometimes."

Jane sat down at the conference table, giving most of the rest of the group permission to sit down alongside her. "What does the Network do, exactly?"

"We investigate the cases that other agencies are unable or unwilling to investigate," Beckett explained.

It was only when Beckett spoke up that Jane turned to her. To Beckett's surprise, the other woman seemed to recognize her immediately. "Detective Beckett?"

"Yeah," said Beckett. "How did you...?"

"My intern is a huge fan of Mr. Castle's books," Jane explained. A wistful shadow crossed over her face before she continued. "Darcy...well, she would go on and on about everything connected to the books. Including you."

"What happened to Darcy?" asked Ryan.

Jane's face fell as she turned to the newest person to ask her a question. "Are you familiar with an organization called SHIELD?" Heads around the table nodded, so Jane continued. "How much do you know about them?"

"As much as you do, Dr. Foster. Maybe more."

Jane gasped and wheeled around at the sound of the very familiar voice. "Agent Coulson!" she exclaimed. "Thor told me...he told me you were dead."

Coulson blushed. "I was, Dr. Foster."

Jane opened her mouth, looking like she was about to ask for further explanation. When the shadow of pain passed across her face yet again, she tamped down her own questions and got straight to the point. "HYDRA's after me. They kidnapped me, Darcy, my mentor Dr. Selvig...they killed Ian, Darcy's boyfriend."

"How did you escape?" asked Coulson.

Jane slowly lifted her arm, wincing in pain from the movement. Her torn sleeve slipped down to reveal a silver bracelet with intricate and very foreign-looking marking on it. "Thor gave me this. A single-use, single-person portal generator. He told me that I was to use it only in the case of a desperate emergency..."

Ryan poured a peaceful, reassuring energy into the room to try and help the guilt-ridden woman in front of him. "You used the bracelet to escape from HYDRA, didn't you?"

"It was the only thing I could think of," Jane admitted quietly. Her grief finally caught up with her, though, and her voice trailed off in a quiet sob. "I abandoned my friends..."

Esposito crossed the length of the room, taking the empty seat next to Jane's. "Doctor Foster," he said, "I'd like to try something, if that's okay."

"What are you going to do?" Jane asked, wary and confused.

"Agent Esposito is clairvoyant...ish," Coulson explained. "He can use your memories of what happened to figure out what happened to Darcy and Doctor Selvig after you left."

"All...all right," agreed Jane, still not really sure of what Coulson was telling her. She then turned to Esposito, who had pulled his chair up next to hers. "What do you need me to do?"

Esposito put hand gently on top of Jane's. "Just relax," he told her. "This will only take a second." He squeezed her hand in a gesture of reassurance almost as soon as he touched it. "You have no reason to worry, Doctor Foster," Esposito declared. "Your friends are going to be just fine."

Jane was dumbstruck. "What?!" she exclaimed. "How could you possibly know that so quickly? I don't even know who you are or what you saw..."

"HYDRA wasn't after you," Esposito countered, starting his explanation as he cut off Jane's skeptical rant. "They were after Doctor Selvig."

"Eric?" asked Jane. "Why?"

Esposito turned his face away from Jane's, allowing himself to get lost in her memories. "Is Doctor Selvig some sort of expert on Asgardian culture?"

"No," Jane replied with a frown. "He knows a lot about the legends, but..."

"HYDRA thinks that Doctor Selvig is an expert on Asgardian culture," Esposito continued, taking over for Jane, "because...because Doctor Selvig has had a god in his head?"

Jane's face paled as Esposito's explanation started to inch closer and closer to her reality. "That's...that's how Eric always described it. How did you...how could you..."

Esposito ignored her. "They don't need Doctor Selvig for that, though. They're calling what they have an Asgardian relic, but..." Esposito's eyes snapped open as his focus exploded into the present. "They have Loki's 'scepter'," he announced to the group. "They know about the Tesseract from the research that SHIELD did on it, but they haven't put the pieces together completely yet. And since Doctor Selvig was SHIELD's primary expert on the Tesseract..."

"They figured he would be the one to talk to about the scepter," Jane agreed, completing Esposito's train of thought. "What about Darcy?"

"They know about Doctor Selvig's issues with mental illness since the Battle of New York," Esposito replied. "They're holding Darcy hostage to keep Doctor Selvig working."

"Wait," exclaimed Beckett, "I thought Thor and Castle banished Loki to some...moon in the middle of nowhere?"

Jane seemed to blush in response to Beckett's question. "Thor moved Loki back to Asgard at his mother's request," she explained. "He then broke Loki out of prison to help save his home planet. Loki died during that attack on London, but I wouldn't be surprised if his spear fell through the convergence."

Fallon rolled his eyes at Jane's explanation before placing his phone to his hear. "Siri, remind me to make sure that the President never signs an extradition treaty with Odin of Asgard."

"Ok, I'll remind you," the computer-generated voice agreed.

Satisfied that his mental note was made, Fallon turned to Esposito. "Do you have any idea where Doctor Foster's friends are being held?"

Esposito shook his head. "I only saw them in the underground bunker as they were being rescued. I don't have an exact location."

"Follow the line," Fallon directed, "see if you can get a better idea of where HYDRA is holding them."

"On it," Esposito agreed before heading to the bullpen to meditate.

Satisfied that they had a direction for the moment, Fallon returned his attention back to Jane. "Doctor Foster, you look exhausted, and it seems you might have injured your wrists...?"

Jane blew off the concern. "It's just some circulation problems from where the handcuffs had been. I'll be fine..."

"Nevertheless," Fallon countered, "we have people who can take care of that. Master Sìfāng, Mistress Lièrén, can you help Doctor Foster get cleaned up and settled in?"

"Of course," Castle agreed readily.

Fallon nodded his acceptance as he watched Castle and Beckett escort Jane out of the conference room before turning to Stark. "DW, Master Mùshī told me that you had developed a technology that helped to track the North Star by its energy signature?" When Stark nodded, Fallon continued, "I was also told that that tech was based on the program that you created to find the Tesseract before the Battle of New York?"

"It was..." Stark replied, unsure of where Fallon was going with this.

"Can you replicate that program?" Fallon asked pointedly. "Find the scepter's energy signature?"

"If the scepter is as far underground as the Xiānzhī says it is," Stark argued, "then the program might not be able to find it."

Fallon was undeterred by Stark's argument. "Start the scans anyway. Even if we can't detect the scepter, we'll be able to keep track of other things that match that energy signature."

That got Stark's attention. "Other things?"

Fallon nodded. "If there's one thing I've learned in this job, it's to always assume that Loki is alive, kicking, and somewhere out there causing trouble that we're eventually going to have to stop."