Please review and tell me what you think about it!

Once again, a big thanks to the marvelous Darksidefan5 for beta-reading my story ^^

Disclaimer: I do not own neither Gakuen Alice, which belongs to Tachibana Higuchi, nor Avengers, which belongs to Marvel and even less Harry Potter, which is the work of the wonderful J.K.R :) But I do own the plot and my OC characters of course.

Chapter 4: Of Worries, Investigations and Trickery:

Luca Nogi was absolutely, drastically, and utterly annoyed. Of course, he always enjoyed when his family was all together reunited... the only sour note was that Hotaru and his mother were enjoying this way too much. He had quickly accepted that he was Hotaru's favorite subject of intrigue and blackmail. He had also thought that after fifteen years she might get bored, but he had been so wrong. In fact, it had only increased, especially after Hotaru had meet his mother, who had naturally become her best customer. The worst was that Hotaru enjoyed the teasing and blackmail so much that him so much that she 'worked' for free with his mother. For free! Don't get him wrong still, Luca was truly found of Hotaru, even though their relation was only platonic: they had for a long time accepted each other as family…

Hotaru had been the most affected one by Mikan's and Natsume's death, she had been on the edge of the depression. Indeed, Mikan and Hotaru were so close that he even wondered if his friendship with Natsume had been as deep as theirs. But the emotional breakdown happened after her parents' death in a car crash. Subaru, who was also inside the car, had mysteriously disappeared ever since… It had been horrid, she had stopped talking to others, stopped eating, even stopped crafting new inventions and even her notorious blackmail. He had never been as worried for someone as he had been for her back then. He knew that she wasn't the suicide-type, but after losing his best friend and Mikan, the only thought of losing Hotaru was simply unbearable. He was the one who brought her back to life. It had been hard, and he had to very patient with her, but they eventually achieved to overcome the pain together. Since then, Luca had become very protective of Hotaru, who had finally opened herself to him.

Luca and Hotaru lived now together, after graduating from the Academy. They had bought a house with a farm near Tokyo. The house was big enough, so it could contain Hotaru's impressive laboratory and a rich library. They were also frequently visited by his mother and father once or twice a month, and between two visits, Hotaru always found numerous of ways to foul him, naturally

Hotaru had grown into a very beautiful woman, after all she already was when she was younger... Her clever violet eyes were still shining mischievously the same way they did when he first met her, her black hair now reached the middle of her back, she was slim and quite tall, even though he was still three heads taller than her. Indeed, Luca was now 190cm tall, thanks to his French origins' pack. He wasn't the kind of guy to pull himself into fights, but he was muscular; fact that, in many cases, helped him to better take care of his animal friends…

The two of them always got into small fights, which were often one-sided since Hotaru didn't care, or rather wasn't impressed by his annoyed outbursts. Just as this very instant.

"For God's sake Hotaru! Where the hell did you get this one?!"

"Lulu dear, language." his mother scolded him.

"Mother, I'll behave myself the day both of you will stop tricking me."

The blonde woman, who didn't seem to have aged in the last eighteen years, smiled innocently at him and beamed at Hotaru, whose lips turned up into a small smirk. Annoyed, Luca headed to his farm. Even his animal friends, the traitors, he had quickly found out, helped the Blackmail Queen.

He stayed in the farm until his mother finally left the house. "When those two are together, they are just so unbearable…". He kissed her goodbye and opened the door to be greeted by the serious eyes of Hotaru, who, slightly frowning, had been waiting for him.

"Is there anything wrong?" he asked quite worried, since Hotaru wasn't the type to show her unease.

"I've been waiting for us to be alone to show you this." she only responded.

Luca followed her as they headed silently to her laboratory. Once they entered it, Luca couldn't help, as always, to feel proud of his adopted sister's work. Between the sight of the creative inventions still in construction or finished, and the impressive computers board, he was once again hit by Hotaru's intelligence, which allowed her to make the most efficient use of her Invention Alice.

Hotaru, went straight to the computers board and began to explain:

"As you already know, Shiki asked me two years ago to create a fake Data-Base for the Academy. One that could be cracked. For cases just like these.

As I've putted in it a virus that can't be spotted, it allows me to know who are the ones who try or achieve to crack that Data-Base, to redraw their traces on it and what they could have been looking for, and finally to hack their network of computers back.

Yesterday, no one else than the S.H.I.E.L.D itself, an international organization created to protect the world, tried and achieved to get through it." she stated, frowning.

"What were they looking for?" asked Luca, nonplussed. "The world has always trusted the Academy to apprehend wayward Alices."

"That's where it becomes weird… Two days ago, someone with an incredible amount of Alices had been captured by the S.H.I.E.L.D. That same person faked a Chitauri invasion. They hacked that false base to get information about that Alice. Or it just happens that she calls herself Mikan Sakura Yukihira." she declared, her voice trembling at the end.

Luca was thankful of the chair beside him, as he felt his knees turn to jelly.

Inside her capsule, Mikan sighed, her mind awash. She'd spent the night in tears thanks to Loki's own turbulent emotions. They were frightening as well as pitiful, but the power she felt - that was terrifying.

Mikan was too much of a coward to activate her Mind-Reading Alice to initiate her quest. If she did from her cell, she would have to expend it to the entire ship, which was a rather daunting endeavor.

The cameras and all her environment forgotten, Mikan was obvious to her awful physical state. Her eyes were red from crying and ark bags had formed underneath. She was practically pulling out her hair in despair and the detached hair seemed to gain a life of its own as it always did when she was truly upset.

The Alice was not to associate herself with Loki, it was now clear to her that it would be the most stupid and careless decision ever. The only reason why she did even accept to consider it was the fact that she had been standing only a few inches away from him and that Loki was a very persuasive person. She couldn't be more aware of it after this experience… Such a persuasive man that even Mikan, who could see through his very soul by sensing his aura and analyzing his feelings, had been very close to be fooled by him! Loki was undeniably the most dangerous being she had ever been in contact with, and she had underestimated him. After all, not everyone was given the ability to convince her that she had to flee across the Universe with him, just to find his way out of the confinement capsule that held him, and maybe to some Infinity Stones too...

Loki had killed thousands of people (directly and indirectly) and had to be punished for that. If it meant that he had to spend the rest of his eternity in a cell, then she was OK with it. The only problem was that Loki should have been held and guarded by the Asgardians: his presence on the Earth just meant one more danger for its inhabitants.

It was now urgent and necessary to move Loki out of the Earth. And all the Stones on it too. But how was she supposed to manage to do this? After all, it was as important to get rid of the Gauntlet, and of the Necklace of Black Pearls too. The Infinity Gauntlet was her priority since it was an Artefact that allowed its owner to hold the six Stones. With that said though, the Gauntlet could be destroyed, as it was one of Allice's creations. She could use her Alices to inhibit its power and annihilate it.

The Necklace in the other hand was a very dangerous Magical Object, which contained a very dark Spirit. The same Spirit that killed Natsume's and possessed his body after the war. The only thought of it sent shivers through her spine. Unlike the Gauntlet, she didn't find any references of it in any of her investigations. She still didn't know how she was to destroy it, but she now knew where she could find information about it. In fact, as she had been analyzing Ms. Weasley thoughts, she had seen something quite similar: she was thinking of it as Mikan and Loki were, to her, threats even more dangerous than a certain Vol of Mort or something like that... Maybe she could find her way to her or to the Wizarding Society and ask for help? But before that, she had to take it with her. She doubted that after destroying one of the S.H.I.E.L.D's most precious guarded secrets, it would be as easy as it had been now to break their defenses.

Mikan knew that the two Artefacts weren't guarded in the Helicarrier. She was also aware that it wasn't the kind of information that were findable by hacking a data-base. All of them were well kept inside Fury's head. This meant that she had to sneak out of the cell and find him. This wouldn't be a difficult task. She did that kind of thing a million times through the past years, she mastered the art of being very discreet when she needed to.

The Alice had tied her long hair and had prepared herself mentally to get into the battle. She still didn't feel ready to face this, but, as always, it didn't matter. Mikan had to do it, and she would, because if she didn't, no one else would. She had let a clone in her cell and had easily achieved to sneak out of her confinement capsule. She had activated the Invisibility and Technology-Mastering Alices, so she would not be easily spotted. Even though she could have sworn that Loki's eyes had followed her all the way long. Maybe his magical abilities could affect her, or at least make him able to sense her, just as well as she was able to sense him.

Through her other discovery, Mikan had learned that the Universe was full of Magic. Indeed, every being had some running through their veins. But some more than the others. The being able to catalyze their own could use freely without having to take from their surroundings, on the contrary of the ones who didn't. The Asgardians were a very clever Kind. Their Sorcerer learned to use both kind of Magics, which made them the most powerful ones: Allice could not be a better example of it, his only achievements were frightening (In fact, if she had to blame someone for the situation she was in, he would be her best choice!) Right after the Asgardians Sorcerers, came the Masters of the Mystic Arts: since Mikan had stayed for a while in Kamar-Taj, she had witnessed the Ancient One and Stephen exploits. But it was the first time she heard of a Wizarding Community that need an object to catalyze its magic. From what she had read in Hermione Weasley's thoughts, it was just as if her society came out of one legend book, the wands, the hats, even the flying brooms and even a crystal ball!

'Since Alices Stones had been crafted from Asgardians Magic, maybe Alices did have both Earthian/Midgardian and Asgardian Magic running into them?'

Mikan shook her head and brought her attention back to the present moment. She wanted to make it quickly, so she could get rid of at least one of her problems. She kept walking through the infrastructures of the Helicarrier. She had spotted Thor and kept following him. If she did find the Avengers, Fury would certainly be not too far.

Natasha, Bruce, Steve and Tony were intently observing the footage on the screen below. They were all grouped around the computers board. It happened in an instant. Mikan who had been sleeping peacefully was up, awake, and practically (literally) pulling the hair out of her head.

"She's playing with us," Agent Romanoff hissed.

"She is able to lift Thor's Hammer" pointed out Steve, "I think that we can trust her, especially when even us aren't able to do the same."

This earned him an eye roll from Tony, even though Bruce nodded his agreement with Steve. His Hulk instincts told him that the woman was trustable.

"Then why is she hiding things from us? It is evident that she isn't a real prisoner and it's really starting to piss me off! It feels the same as it did with Loki last month! I don't think that the Hammer choice should influence us too much. As long as we are not aware of her plans, we have to be cautious."

"Tony is right. We still don't know how much influence she had over us, we have no idea of all the abilities she has, and we aren't even completely certain she isn't working for someone else either. She can heal herself even when she is unconscious, which make her a very resistant opponent. She is also able to take anyone's appearance and is also able to create very realistic illusions, abilities which make her even harder to be caught. Her clones are very powerful… Hell! She is even able to counter Granger's magic! How do you want us to trust her?" Natasha fought.

Thor chose that instant to enter in the room, all heads turned to him. Natasha frowned waiting for him to explain himself for leaving them without any warning the previous day. Thor looked at them a bit sheepishly before to shrug it off. Mikan, who was also there, tried to be as discreet as it was humanly possible.

"What is going on? What have I missed?"

"Well we just have discovered that our new prisoner has been playing with us since the beginning." Natasha stated coolly.

Thor froze. This woman, Mikan Sakura, reminded him way too much of Loki to his own liking, but Heimdall had been very clear about it, they had nothing to fear from her.

Mikan cringed and kicked herself mentally. How could she have been so stupid! She hadn't realized the scale of her mistake. It would be now very difficult for her to gain back their trust, if trust there had ever been... She would have to not drawn in even more attention that she had already had. She didn't want to make them her enemies.

"Lady Sakura is not an enemy. I went to Heimdall, he comforted me about her. In fact, he said that he had been keeping an eye on her for a long time. We do not have to worry about her." Thor nodded as he made his point clear.

The Alice looked at him with wide eyes. She should have guessed it sooner! Of course, Thor would not snub her! As an Asgardian himself, he knew very well the danger of the Stones and from what she had read about the Norse Gods, Heimdall was one of the wisest being in the Universe. He was an all-seeing and all-hearing man, who was able to sense anyone's soul from his Observatory. As wise as the book described him, he advised Thor to trust her. Mikan could feel a wave of gratitude run through her. She looked up to the ceiling and gave one of her brightest smile, hoping it would reach Heimdall, and mouthed him a silent 'thank you.' - Unknown to her, the near omniscient Asgardian smiled back at her. - It was all she needed, to have at least one person who trusted her. Mikan kept herself from crying again. 'Yes, I can do it and I will. For Natsume, Hotaru, Luca and anyone else. I was burdened with this task. As the owner of the Two Alices it is my duty to accomplish it. Failure is not an option!'

Natasha, who didn't seem to be very convinced by it, just sighed and let it go. Thor gave a blind trust to this man. Now that he had told him to do so, there was no way that Thor would interfere if Mikan Sakura was to do something. Bruce and Steve didn't seem to want to ask for more too, and already trusted the girl... And as for Tony, he would remain a bit vigilant but nothing more.

Steve's azure eyes met the red-head brown ones. He was trying to see the situation from her point of view. It was well known that he had the tendency of following his heart, when his friend was more pragmatic. He understood why Natacha had a hard time trusting Mikan Sakura. They had recognized in this child (yes, to him, she was still a child), both the stature of a soldier and a spy. She didn't seem to pay attention to her own stance, but it was so evident… She held her chin always up, her chest out, shoulders back and her stomach in. Mikan presented also a muscular body, she walked without making any sounds and had that feline grace and elegance that only women like herself or Natasha possessed... Natasha didn't like to speak a lot about it, but like Mikan Sakura certainly did have, she had been trained to kill at a young age. Steve was very aware of it. As a very skilled spy herself, the S.H.I.E.L.D agent was constantly very attentive to her environment, and remained always alert. In other words, it wasn't easy to earn her trust. Steve understood this perfectly as it was this behavior that allowed her to survive all these years. Yet, she had learned to trust her friends with her life. Steve couldn't help a proud little smile. The Avengers had progressively grown to friends, and if not more, a family. Steve had no doubt that they were to go through this, especially if Mikan Sakura wasn't the kind of threat they had feared she was.

"What are we supposed to do then?" The Captain asked quietly.

"Just let her be. She has a mission to fulfil and believe me, Lady Sakura doesn't need our help for it."

The latter find herself nodding in agreement but stopped as she realized how stupid she was acting. 'Focus!' She had to find Fury. It would be easy to get her responses by reading their minds but Mikan could no more bring herself to do it, not after she had witnessed Captain America, Doctor Banner and Thor's choice to trust her. She was too sentimental for her own good… Mikan smiled nostalgically; Hotaru and Natsume did always use to remind her of it.

Mikan shook it off again and simply listened to the Avengers talk as the topic devolved into less important matters. But the banter didn't last long - Fury entered the room with Hawkeye on his heels. It was time to get down to business.

In Hotaru's laboratory, Luca was nervously pacing. Hotaru had easily managed to crack S.H.I.E.L.D's security systems, giving them open access to their entire database, including the video archives. It wasn't long before they were watching footage from the presumed second attack on New York as well as the current live-stream out of the Helicarrier.

It had been twelve years since either of them had seen her, but there was not a single doubt between them that this was Mikan. She had grown into a very beautiful woman, just as Luca had always knew she would. He closed his eyes. Her hazel ones had seemed empty… so less full of life and her past cheerfulness seemed to have vanished…

From her interrogation they had understood that if Mikan was still alive, it wasn't the same for Kuonji or Natsume…They had been very disappointed of course, especially Luca. But since the very start Luca knew that it would not be very probable that he would have survived twelve years with his suffering body. What hurt him the most was to know that his friend died at only fourteen, in a mission, just as he always thought he would.

Luca sighed and studied Hotaru. If she seemed to calmly handle the situation, he knew that it wasn't the case: her hands were trembling, and her eyes were dilated, fixing Mikan on the screen. The latter was calmly seated in the bed of her cell, observing distractedly her hands. Luca was truly puzzled by Mikan's behavior. It was clear that she didn't try to kill or hurt anyone. But then why did she fake a Chitauri invasion?

Hotaru and him had guessed that she wanted to infilter the S.H.I.E.L.D. In fact, as Alices, it had been easy for them to be aware of all the new and impressive assets of Mikan. If she still had, and they were already sure of it, her Teleportation Alice, no prison, cage or capsule would be enough to arrest her.

In fact, observing the tapes had been a task full of surprises. For example, they weren't alone in the Universe. Norse gods and mythology, weren't just tales. They also discovered that a secret society of Wizards was located in Scotland; Magic existed, and was pretty real? They find out about the existence of those Infinity Stones… It was very frightening to know that one of them had been in the possession of a crazy intergalactic criminal. In fact, it was just frightening to know that the man himself was only two cells away from their friend. The tapes also allowed Luca and Hotaru to observe everything that had happened in her capsule. Everything. So, they had, of course, witnessed her horrifying scars, remaining traces of Mikan's experience of cruel and inhuman torture. At this sight, all Hotaru's color had been drained of her face, and Luca had struggled very hard to not scream. What could have possibly happened in twelve years to bring Mikan to such a state? Where the hell had she been all these years? Why didn't she try to contact them? Was she in the obligation to do so? Was she in danger? And what did she possibly want that the S.H.I.E.L.D possessed?

Luca stopped pacing.

"We had to see things by ourselves" he finally declared. "We can't possibly ignore the fact that Mikan is still alive, nor that she may be in danger, and even less that she might be one to the others. It had been twelve years, we can't possibly forget this."

Hotaru frowned at the last part, she didn't want to consider this option. Not after these twelve years of total blank. Mikan had been the most special person that ever entered her life, they may have been still children back then, but she would never forget her and Mikan would always held a special place in her heart. Of course, they had to do something about this situation. And of course, they weren't to go get her without taking any precautions. Cracking that S.H.I.E.L.D system, was like child play to her, and she had remarked that she was far from being the only one who achieved it. She was just one of the two who didn't get caught. She and Tony Stark. Still it wasn't sufficient, as even that international spying organization hadn't been to get any valuable information about Mikan. This meant that they would have to make their own researches.

"In the first place, I think that we should look for more information about Mikan. She was and surely still is a sentimental one: she would have probably put things or at least visited her grandfather a few times. Don't cut me Luca." she stopped him before that he could even open his mouth: "I already know that he is dead, I don't have to remind you that we both attended his funerals. But after it no one dared to go there, and we are the first that could be blamed for that… Mikan may have let few of her affaires there. We have to check and maybe we could understand what is going on with her, and what had she been doing all these years. I hope that she has a good excuse to give us for that!"

Luca smiled at this. He was just as upset and angry at Mikan as Hotaru was. It had been cruel from her to not come back to them, and to keep her sorrow to herself. He really was curious to know what could have stopped her to do so.

"I believe her when she did say that she had dismounted all the organizations who endangered the security of the Alices. Hotaru, I think that we should keep this between us. As long as we have not cleared the situation, I don't want to risk anything like to give false hope to our friends."

She didn't respond, and returned her attention to the computers, closing the discussion. Luca understood that Hotaru was OK with it. He posed himself on a chair near his friend, waiting patiently for her to finish what she was working on. It didn't take more than eight minutes for her to collect and pack all her results before to go straight to her room. As she reached the door, she turned her head and looked at his azure eyes:

"Pack quickly your things Luca, you have an hour before we leave."

He sighed and went to do as he had been told to.

Loki had watched the Midgardian woman pace nervously inside her cell. Just like any flower and no matter how rare she was, this young prey would be easily crushable. Indeed, in only one evening he had managed to insert both doubts and fears inside her weak mind. Manipulating her wouldn't be a hard task.

The Trickster felt a wave of disgust rise through his body. He didn't destroy the young Midgardian, but he had seriously bruised her, tackled her painfully to the floor, and pressed too strongly her delicate wrists, letting his marks on her. The god of Lies and Mischiefs still reminded the feeling of his fingers lingering around her fragile throat, her dilated hazel slanted eyes were still engraved in his memory, just as the shivers he had sensed running through her warm and petite body imprisoned under his tall and cold one. He could still see her white and bright skin pale when she had understood that there was no way for her to escape from his strong grasp… Loki closed his eyes and leaned the back of his head against the glass of the capsule. Yes, he didn't need to use his Magic to be able to kill her, even though he had no intention to do so. Mikan Sakura had accused him to 'enjoy destroying the most beautiful things', she had been wrong: he knew how to appreciate the value of what was under his eyes and this woman had too much potential in her to be simply wasted by killing her. He may have hurt her, but he was fully aware that killing her would be useless and, according to his own situation, a stupid and thoughtless move.

The Trickster was also conscious that the special flower he had found was also able to protect herself with her cunning, scathing thorns. If he wanted to gather her, he would have to be careful, so he wouldn't cut himself too. 'After all, I have already done that mistake the previous evening'. Her hazel eyes had neither shown fear to him, nor bravery: they had been full of empathy and accusations. Loki could still feel the bitter taste of every truths she had thrown to his face. He opened his icy green eyes and put his right hand on where his heart was supposed to be...the same place the young Midgardian had dared to touch both physically and spiritually. This weak organ, a traitor that was the only part of him that could still betray him, weaken him or threaten his plans. Each one of the painful beats of his heart was reminding him of his failures, his pains and his loneliness and Mikan Sakura was dangerous in that very aspect: she had access to his weakness. She could make her way too easily to it, confront it and expose all of its content... The Midgardian woman had been the first to see the man in pain inside him, the same man that he had tried to hide from everyone, even from himself. She also had to be the last. What an interesting person she was, his Little One.

The Little One would find the courage to face him again. She was from that kind of people who wasn't stopped by their fears; and that what exactly what he needed and expected from her. Loki still did have the memory of their encounters freshly engraved in his mind. Yes, she wasn't afraid of him, rather of what being close to him would mean for her. She felt guilty of being still alive and being with him was a risk to become guiltier. Yet, the Little One wasn't one to be tainted by the dirt encircling her...

The secret agent and the inventor had wanted to know more about the accusations she had made to Fury and they had been able to retrace what had happened to her ten years ago: at the age of fourteen his Little One had been known introduced to S.H.I.E.L.D under the name of the Red Lotus and had to bring to Fury an Horcrux, reason why she had been in the obligation to kill her partner…

The Red Lotus. Names could be really powerful and that one of her seemed to resonate with her very soul. Whoever had decided to give it to her was either a sadistic person or a genius. In the Asgardian and Egyptian civilizations, the Lotus Flower is known to be associated with purity, spiritual awakening and faithfulness. 'All characteristics that seem to apply perfectly to the young flower I have meet' This flower is considered pure as it is able to emerge from murky waters in the morning and be perfectly clean. Therefore, in some mythologies and in Asgard the lotus is seen as a sign of rebirth but additionally it is associated with purity. The Red Lotus, in particular, is related to the heart. Flower that is associated with the meaning of love and compassion for all things… 'The breaking of the surface every morning is suggestive of desire: and hers is to be loved, protected and surely accepted for what she is. Pretty common. Tricking her heart will not be hard: she is attired by danger, even though she tries to flee it, darkness and damaged people. She will not resist me. Her ability to sense other feelings and emotions will be her loss. It is necessary if I want to be soon out of this damned cell.'

The Midgardian's unique ability to read his feelings wasn't that different from Heimdall's one to sense souls. He could easily trick her the way he had tricked the all-seeing and all-hearing Asgardian. His most precious possessions, Allice's books had allowed him to learn how to hide a soul's signature with Magic. The Little One may have been able to counter a Midgardian wizard's Magic, but his own was far more powerful. Loki even doubted that her barriers could truly contain him. Still, it didn't mean that he didn't have to be careful around her or Heimdall. As a matter of fact, lying to any of them would mean lying to himself, or Loki was an expert in that area. He was not A but The Trickster, which meant that he also knew how to trick his own heart, how to use his own feelings to manipulate the others. It had already worked with the young woman as she believed, now, that Thanos' arrival on Midgard was imminent and inexorable. What a fool! She had been as gullible as his br… as Thor would have been. They had still two or three years before to really worry about the Mad Titan. In fact, Thanos was now only in the possession of a small fragment of the Soul Stone, his army, the Chitauri, had been seriously damaged and he wouldn't try to collect the Stones before to either be in the possession of the Infinity Gauntlet or to gain the support of Death. Both were most unlikely to happen, at least right now...

Loki didn't really worry about himself for now, even though it had been for the best to make the young Midgardian think so. If he was honest with himself, Loki did have to admit that he was rather lucky to have encountered her, especially when she had come to him by herself. Indeed, Loki wasn't stupid. The Little One possessed some Asgardian Magic, surely enough to even be noticed by Thor. Furthermore, her community was called Alice, which sounded too much like Allice to only be a coincidence. It was also without counting on her very impressive knowledge of the Norse Mythology and all what concerned the Stones for a Midgardian. Plus, her power could be catalyzed into gems, from what he had understood, or Allice was known for his impressive works and researches on the Infinity Stones but also for having a special affection for the Midgardians. Therefore, he was pretty sure that there was a link or another between her and Allice. Loki's knowledge in Allice's soft spot for Midgardians was more of a guess than a proven fact, but it was only logical. Or, at least, it was for Loki since Allice was the son of Hönir. Hönir, brother of Odin and son of Bor. Allice's particular fondness for humans was exactly the reason why Loki had been interested in conquering Midgard. In fact, he had been sure that the two books missing from his collection were well guarded somewhere on it, and he had been right, since he had already found one of them.

Loki stood up and reached for the three books posed on his table: The Theory of the Seven Universes, written by Allice himself, The Tales of Beedle the Bard and The History of the Nine Realms. Each of them was priceless since they all have been in the Sorcerer's possession: after Allice's death, his goods and works had been declared as lost, all had mysteriously disappeared and the only notes Asgardians erudite did found were encrypted. Loki had already found four of his belongings, which made him the only person alive, to this day, who possessed so many of them. Alas, they weren't magically encrypted, which was the reason why he still hadn't achieved to decrypt them. With The Theory of the Seven Universes and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Loki had managed to guess that two other books were missing from his collection and to know that they were on Midgard. He had already found one of them: 'The History of the Nine Realms'. Indeed, Iridium wasn't the only thing that he had bring alongside with him from Germany. The precious book was well hidden in the Wiblingen Monastery Library in Ulm. Even Loki had to admit that the library, completed in the 11th Century, was a masterpiece. The book had been placed in a vault only accessible with the help of Magic. One book remained, and he was certain that either it or his Little One, may be the key to decrypt the books he already had in his possession.

Loki took The Theory of the Seven Universes between his hands; the first book he had found. It had been a lucky discovery that he made one decade ago. It was stored somewhere between some belongings of Frigga, the woman he had believed to be his mother all these years... Even after this disillusion, calling her by her name, and not Mother, as he still sometimes did, was both odd and painful.

Loki's cold and sharp green eyes scrutinized each letter and each symbol of the precious grimoire, chasing away these weakening thoughts; he would rather let sentimentality to Thor and his precious Midgardians... Thor. Thor, his naive and unintelligent adopted brother. Even though Loki had proved himself untrustworthy, Thor never learned and repeated the same mistake repeatedly: he trusted him, or rather he hoped that one day he would miraculously change for the better and give up on his ambitions. The best proof of his br… of Thor's gullibility was that he had allowed Loki the access to some books of his private library. This could also be described as stupidity. After two thousand years being constantly tricked, Thor, like the fool he was, still hadn't learned anything from it… Which could only make Loki's humiliation more cunning when it was obvious that Thor would always and undeniably stay Odin's favorite. How could he favor Thor to him? It was easy to guess: he was his real son. His blood ran through his veins… All this years of training, all his studies, every single effort he had done to get to the Throne or simply to earn the approbation of Odin had never counted… Yet Loki wasn't one to complain about his brother credibility as it had allowed him the access to his most precious belongings.

The Theory of the Seven Universes, book who seemingly related the theory of a universe containing six others. Technically, to any being, it would be physically impossible to travel from one of these universe to another for the simple and existential reason that the six other ones were contained in the Infinity Stones. Loki's opinion on the subject was that this book rather related on the several possible emplacements of the Infinity Stones and their creators, the four firsts beings in the Universe, who were Death, Entropy, Eternity and Infinity. It had, indeed, in its own ways, helped him found some of the relics he had been and still was looking for.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard contained the Tale of the Three Brothers and the Tale of The Warlock's Hairy Heart. The first one was particularly interesting since the Peverells' story related of a real encounter with Death herself. The book in his possession was the original and was full of the annotations of both its author and Allice.

Concerning the second tale, it discussed the story of a man who had removed his heart of his body. An image used to describe a man splitting his soul. The Trickster smirked haughtily. The soul was the very essence of every living being. It was an impressive, singular and exceptional source of spiritual and magical energy. Only people out of their right mind would make such an irreparable damage to themselves. He knew that the practice, if not very common, had been tried and achieved by an impressive amount of Midgardian wizards. What was very enthralling with this book was rather the explications and notes of Allice on the subject. They explained that the Soul Stone mirrored the most important spiritual properties of every being souls. This was the reason why the Soul Stone could be splitted in so many parts, had so much power over a being's soul making it able to manipulate or change them, alive or dead.

The last book, The History of the Nine Realms contained a hidden copy of The Book of Cagliostro, which focused on the dark side of mysticism. This copy was more precious than the original, since it contained some of Allice's, Nicholas Flamel's, and a certain Doctor Who's notes.

Loki had serious reasons to believe in these books' content, just as a few Asgardians physicians. In fact, little was the number of living being who were conscious of Allice discoveries, and the ones who knew some of his secrets were even fewer. Loki had the chance to belong to these two luckiest categories. He did find out that Allice had been the previous owner of the Soul Stone. He also knew that he tried to steal the Tesseract from the care of Odin, which resulted in him being banned from Asgard and that he had been momently in the possession of the Power Stone. This made him the only being who had been the most in the contact of the Stones, which was one more reason to believe his work trustworthy.

Loki had good reasons to believe that the two remaining books were hidden on Midgard. This would have been both a logic and symbolic choice for Allice to do, since his father, Hönir, had given himself Intelligence to the firsts humans. In his opinion, their Wizarding Societies and the Community of Master of Mystic Arts were the only ones which could really be considered as developed since the only Midgardians who could have been considered successful had been helped in their works by peoples coming from other realms. As for the Avengers, they didn't even count to him. They were only marginals to the others of their kind who convinced themselves that they could use their differences to protect their world.

He still hadn't observed enough the Little One to completely judge her. She was more of a challenge than her semblable, or rather unique in her own ways. Her body and mind may be weak, but her powers and knowledge made her strong enough to interest him. She was of that kind of people who thought with their heart rather than with their brain.

All Loki needed was patience. 'What better than to beat your enemies and make them think they won? Just like when Natasha Romanoff had thought that she had played me!', he internally smirked. He had the upper hand in a game way bigger than everyone thought it was. To think that a simple cage would arrest him had been the S.H.I.E.L.D's biggest mistake. And even if they truly had been able to imprison him, 'no prison is unbreakable'. He only did have to wait for the best moment to make his leave. Indeed, he didn't want anyone to guess the reason why he had been so interested in conquering Midgard.

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A.N:

So here we are X)

I really hope that you have enjoyed this chapter!

In fact, I wanted to show you how much influence Loki could have on a person. Logically, Mikan could as well and should rely on Thor more than on his brother as he could nearly provide her all the help Loki could give to her. I also think that binding souls with Loki could have been Mikan biggest mistake. Indeed, the fact that he can't betray her doesn't prevent him on achieving to manipulate her, so he could get his ways to freedom and power again…