MichelleJoy: Thank you for your review, I enjoyed it so much. I'm glad you like Darcy, I do try to make her in character, and have as much fun as I can with her. :D

JohannaErshova: Hi, thanks for your review :) Although I'm a little puzzled by what you meant by it.

.okumara: Thank you such much :D I'm glad you think it's the best chapter, I was worried about it, and that has eased my mind quite a bit. It was certainly my favorite chapter to write so far. Again, thank you, and I hope you enjoy this one. :)

VanillaSnowdrops: Wow it took a few hours to read it? I had no idea. Although I'm glad I was able to get this chapter out when you started, as I think the kissing is something which should be read to alleviate suspense. :P I have been waiting so long to write that, I'm just glad I pulled it off well. :D Haha, yeah, I had to add that for Darcy, it just seems like a thing she'd say. I think that's why she's so fabulous, because we all have that one friend... I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope to hear from you in the future. :) Let me know what you think of this one.

.Queen: Haha, I think we all want to slap Loki from time to time. That's probably why I began this whole thing with Lizzie slapping him. :P haha. Don't worry, he won't for very much longer. I'm glad you liked that addition, I believe it's a very crucial part of the story - Frigga's conversation with Loki - for him. That scene in TDW broke my heart, so I had to add it. :)

The-Mixed-Up-Girl: Yes, yes he is. It's amazing just *how* stubborn he can be. But you know the great part? That once he realizes that he's been an ass, he'll be the sweetest, most devoted partner. :) I'm so glad you liked this. I hope you like this next one as well.

Spottedivy: They are seriously screwed up aren't they? I'm sorry that you had to go through that disappointment, but I need quite a bit of breathing room before I have them commit to each other - and drama. :D Well they will wake up... but not to what they expect... read to find out. I hope to hear from you. :D

kittysayzmeow: Haha, don't worry about the caps lock, I was loving to write it and I'm so glad you enjoyed it so much. :D Yes, that is why I rushed everything last time. I was simply too excited to wait much longer, so I just had to. I'm glad it was what you were hoping for, and that you found it perfect, that does wonders to my viewing on how I work. :D thanks. Ah, I see. Well... I will tell you it's not Bella... but that your second thought is very, very close. :) I hope you like this chapter as much, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Ryuno Chu: She will, she will. And may I say thank you for *all* of your reviews? It was awesome to open up my email and find you reviewing all along. I'm sorry that you were disappointed that Lizzie has powers, and not a normal human being, but I hope you can enjoy it all the same. :) Again, thank you.

Katherine Winchester: Thank you, thank you, thank you. :D I was worried there for a while that I was either moving too fast, or too slow... but its nice to know that it's at a good pace.

Bushesobrady: I am so happy you like it so much :D I hope you enjoy this chapter as the next step in the order of things.

XxvegetafanXx: Thank you so much, I love that you love it. :D I know, I have been wanting Loki to *actually* comfort her for a while, and thought so much about it over the last few weeks. I hope you enjoy this one as much.

Guest: Thank you so much for your review :D I'm glad you found it cute, and I'm sorry for the delay in updating.

Alright, my apologies to all for being so delinquent in my updating, but I've A) been busy, and B) my brain and motivation went on vacation for a few days. So I've been a little stuck. My Beta says this is a good chapter, so I hope you find it so as well. I have to say, after the reviews for the last one, I was happy I did things the way I did. So I again give you all my thanks and gratitude. I hope you all like this one, and I send out a huge shout out to all my new followers and favoriters. I look forward to hearing from you. Again, if anything is out of place, let me know and I shall revise.

Bon appetite :)

If Nick Fury uttered another word, Tony was sure that Thor was going to hit him with Mjolnir, and quite frankly, he wouldn't blame him. They had come here after lunch, it was now dinnertime and they had yet to find out what exactly they were going to do with the new situation regarding the Chitauri. As of yet, nothing had been decided, as S.H.I.E.L.D was bickering over what they were going to do... damn diplomats. Tony had spent the last few hours on his i-pad, hacking S.H.I.E.L.D's files so as to find the identities of the Council, they needed to get replaced, as far as he was concerned.

As he attacked another firewall around the computers, his screen flipped to inside Stark Tower, and he felt his eyes widen at what exactly he saw. Loki and Lizzie were laying on her bed, his arm wrapped tightly around her middle as they slept. What surprised Tony the most was a little fact that he was sure would cause the pair to want to kill him for knowing they were in a bed together. Jarvis had sent him the video of their little kiss in the training room, and their consequent conversation – which, of course, had Tony shaking his head, wondering what the hell was wrong with their brains.

"Stark!" Nick Fury's voice boomed. Tony looked up, completely nonplussed.

"Yarr Matey?" Tony replied, making fun of the Director's eyepatch. He'd been making comments the entire day, and knew it was only a matter of time before Fury lost it.

Clint hid his smile behind his hand, knowing that if the Director saw his amusment he'd probably lose his position; Steve just shook his head, wishing he had never left his time period while the Asgardians just looked confused.

"I just got a call from I.T. about a hacker in the database – a damn good one – who has been trying to access the files on the Council Members." Fury said, looking pointedly at Tony.

"So?" Tony replied, flicking his fingers across the screen to hide his current progress on the S.H.I.E.L.D files.

"So, I come back and you are playing around on your little motherfucking toys! Turn that fucker off, or I'll have one of our agents take it away from you!" Tony suppressed his laughter, finding it amusing that the Director was treating him as if he were a six-year-old. Behind Fury, Clint was silently laughing.

With a huff, Tony turned the screen to show Fury what he was looking at – Loki and Lizzie.

"I knew you were a lot of things, Stark. I never pegged you for a Peeping Tom." Fury said, taking the pad from Tony's hands, flipping a few things on the screen before passing it back – the screen now showing Tony's progress on the firewall. "Though I always knew you were a motherfucking liar."

Tony shrugged as Fury handed the device to a nearby Agent Hill, who took it out of the room. "That's an expensive piece of equipment, I hope that's coming back." He said.

Nick turned to Tony. "Don't worry, Stark. Its just going down to I.T. with the instructions to fix their firewalls so that your little computer can't get in." he said, going back to his chair. Agent Hill returned to the room, and going to Fury's side, she bent down and whispered something in his ear. He nodded, giving her instructions before turning to the rest of the room. "So, you have yet to tell me who your guest is, Stark."

"Pardon?"

"A girl by the name of Elizabeth Donovan," Fury pulled out a file from behind the table, opening it and sorting through the papers. "Who may, or may not, be a threat to us."

"Why would Lady Elizabeth be a threat?" Thor spoke for the first time in an hour, although Fury could tell that it he was more than ready to finally hit him with his hammer.

"Her parentage." Fury replied, leaning forward over the table, his fingers steepling.

"What about her parents?" This question came from Sif, strangely enough.

"Have you ever heard of a group called 'The Brotherhood of Mutants'?" Fury inquired. Natasha and Clint nodded while Tony discreetly pulled out his phone under the table, quickly entering the groups' name in. "What do you know about them, Agent Barton?"

Clint cleared his throat, looking at Natasha one time before beginning. "Logan told us that they were a group that worked opposite of Professor Xavier. They don't like normal humans, and are led by a man named Erik Lehnsherr, who apparently – although going through World War II as a Jew – feels that everyone who isn't a mutant is a threat." he said.

"Very good." Fury replied as Tony finally got up Wikipedia. "This Erik Lehnsherr is Miss Donovan's grandfather." Tony's head snapped up, a look of shock surely across his features. Although it wouldn't surprise him that Lizzie had a mutant in her past – he had seen her drop Loki to his knees on more than one occasion, as well as watched the footage of her little training with Loki... no human moves that fast.

"So you're saying she's a threat because she's related to a threat?" Steve asked. "That doesn't make much sense to me."

"She is a mutant, Captain Rogers, anyone who knows about her little-talked-of past would put two and two together." The Director said, sliding the folder down in Steve's direction.

"But still," Bruce finally uttered. "That doesn't mean that Lizzie is a threat. She obviously doesn't believe the same things that her grandfather does."
Steve looked at the file, pieces about Lizzie clicking in his mind as he read of a young boy who nearly died because of her. "But she's not been dangerous around the Tower." He eventually replied to Fury's earlier statement. "You don't know she's a threat."

"Well if that were the only file on her I had, I wouldn't absolutely know she was a threat – it's not that which causes suspicion about her." Fury replied, pulling out a similar file. "We found this in our record room, our filing system had never seen this barcode before, but our security footage tells an interesting tale, as well as the person who left it." He slid it down to Steve, but he hadn't caught it in time and Clint wound up with the file. Natasha watched him carefully, noting his reaction as he opened the first page, concern in his blue eyes.

"What is that?" Tony asked.

"Another file for Elizabeth Donovan, codename Anesthesia." Fury replied as Clint took out a photograph, so obviously of Lizzie – yet so not. "There was some kind of hole in time, in which the file girl from a different timeline wound up here, that file still clutched in her hands. When our men found her, they thought her mentally insane until we got a look at the file. There have never been any pictures of any other Elizabeth Donovan that look quite like that, and this is one is also connected to an Alexander Shaw, son of Sebastian Shaw alias Klaus Schmidt. He was a Nazi doctor, who we have well-documented."

"So what you're saying is that Lizzie was some kind of killer?" Clint uttered, looking up at the Director. "I don't believe this."

"Why shouldn't you?" Fury asked. "Its all there in black and white – her sister has a file too, should I give you Isabella Donovan, codename Universe?"

Clint shook his head, shoving the file away from him as he stood up. "If you knew Lizzie, not just looked at her on a camera screen, you would know that she wouldn't do these kind of things. But because you have only looked at her with a cold-heart, with judgment, you view her in a light which she doesn't belong in." he said, turning away from the table. "I'm going to get a cup of coffee." And with that, he left the room.

The rest of the table was silent as Natasha took the file next, looking it over. "I have to agree with Clint, there is no way this is the same person." She said, closing the file and passing it down. Although she said that she wasn't buying this information, a nagging feeling still gnawed at her gut – what if? What if Fury was right, and Lizzie actually was a killer? Would she be any different? She would be more like herself and Clint, more broken... but that wasn't the Lizzie she knew... was it?

"So I present you with facts, and the whole lot of you believe that this girl is still innocent." Fury said with a sigh.

"Has she killed anyone here?" Hogun asked, his voice causing everyone to turn to him as they hadn't heard him speak once during their time there.

"Not that I'm aware of." Fury replied.

"Then perhaps you were mistaken in your opinion of her." the Asgardian said. "If you cannot link these two women in anything more than a few pieces of paper, then perhaps they are not the same."

"The name is the same – hell, they fucking look the same!" Fury exclaimed. "I doubt that there are two Elizabeth Laoise Donovan's running around the world! In fact-"

"I will speak with Heimdall." Thor interrupted, his voice causing Fury to stop talking. "He will tell us if Lady Elizabeth is a threat." He turned his eyes to the Director, weighing his words carefully before he spoke again. "Be wary, Director Fury. For if Heimdall tells me that these accusations have no weight, and that you have said something which would perjure Lady Elizabeth, I will inform you that Asgard will not view that kindly. She is a friend, you would do well to remember that."

Fury looked puzzled at the Prince. "You all believe she is weak. That she's incapable of defending herself if need be... but you're all wrong. She's probably stronger than the rest of you through her power of paralysis and time bending, she could knock any of you to your knees or stop your heart with just a thought." he said, looking around the table until he reached Tony. "But when the day comes when you realize what she really is, then I hope we can have a conversation."

With that, the Director moved the topic back to the Chitauri situation.

Alex smirked as he watched the situation unfold between the Director and his band of heroes. His plan had worked, creating a hole between the this universe and the one in which Elizabeth Donovan was a wanted criminal, sending a worker from the filing office of S.H.I.E.L.D to give her file to the Director in this one. It had been so easy... too easy almost. Now the seed of doubt was in the minds of all the Avengers, and his next step could now be put into action.

Lizzie woke to the sound of mumbling in her ear, a strong vice tightening around her waist as someone breathed into her hair. Her eyes flew open, at first disoriented by her situation – namely, lying with her head on someone's chest, their arm slung around her in a protective manner. Her hackles went up before she recognized the voice in her ear as Loki's, the previous few hours finally coming to the forefront of her mind. She craned her neck, raising her head off of Loki's shoulder to look at the clock, it was 6:30pm, the darkness of the room showing that the sun was beginning to set.

She tried to move out of his grasp, too uncomfortable with their current emotional situation to allow herself to stay with him. However, as she squirmed, it made him simply tighten his grip, turning over on his side toward her. She didn't move as he shifted, trying not to wake him. "Don't... touch...her..." Loki mumbled in his sleep, letting out a breath as he relaxed once more. Lizzie stayed still, her eyes darting over his face.

As he slept, Loki looked much different than when he was awake – he looked more childish, more afraid. The scowl which she had seen so much on his lips relaxed, an innocent look of slumber on his face; yet, when she tried to pull away again, he pulled her back, his brow furrowing as he mumbled again.

So, Lizzie laid there, at a complete loss about what she was going to do. On the one hand, she found herself enjoying his embrace, feeling safe for the first time since she found out her past; feeling as if, if anyone were to harm her right now, he would kill them. But on the other, she wanted to pull away more than anything, uncomfortable with how she knew her attachment was growing, and knowing he didn't care one whit. That being said, their current capacity of friendship would not make this little situation acceptable – he didn't love her, he viewed her as someone who needed his help, nothing more. For her, however, she was finding it hard to keep neutral on the matter, her previous feelings of betrayal and rejection surfacing as she continued to allow him to hold her. Those feelings made up her mind, and paralyzing his arm, she gently pulled out of his grasp.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. She wasn't supposed to be wanting to return to him, not when he had acted the way he did. Loki mumbled again, and for a moment she thought it was her name, but that was impossible. She could feel her eyes watering, the tears unbidden as she realized just how deep she was in her affection toward him, and knowing he would never think of her in the same way.

Whipping the droplets away, she left the room, contemplating how she would handle the situation without hurting herself. She went to the training room, hoping that by venting her frustration, she would be able to think.

Pepper entered the apartment, sighing in relief at the fact that she was finally home. An entire day spent shopping had left her worn out, ready to kick off her shoes to spend the rest of the evening watching soap operas with a glass of wine in her hand. The others would be back shortly, she was informed, and quickly sending a text to Tony she found out that they were wrapping up as well. Now all she needed was some dinner.

"Kevin?" she called as she entered the kitchen, the man already set about to making food. "Good evening, Kevin."

"Good evening, Miss Potts, did you have fun?" he asked in reply, adding some seasoning to whatever he was making.

"Ah, I had a blast for a while. My damn shoes caused problems though, I hate breaking them in." she replied, looking over what he was making. "Lizzie not making dinner tonight?"

"Nah, she had Jarvis call me. Apparently she went to work out, didn't want to be bothered." he replied. "Has Mr. Stark called yet?"

"He's coming home soon. What are you making?"

"German dish. Thought it might be fun to spice it up a little." he replied.

"I didn't know you specialized in German dishes." Pepper replied, taking a glance at the pot.

Kevin smirked. "I don't, per se. I know a few things to get me by, but nothing extraordinary. Miss Donovan asked for German." he said.

"Did she really?" Pepper hummed. "I thought she only made Irish dishes."

"Yeah, well, she surprised me too. Though I've been surprised by her before, she's an interesting girl, isn't she?" Kevin asked, his tone a little too personal.

Pepper tilted her head in curiosity. "I didn't know you guys talked much. Apparently you pissed her off regarding something you were going to serve to Andrew." she said, watching him carefully. Something was off.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't stop me from finding her interesting." Kevin replied. "You know what I really like? How she can make food in half the time it would take normal people. It's like she can manipulate time or something."

She watched him as he put some seasoning in the food. "Hey, you're not shaking anymore!" she said excitedly. "What happened, did you get some surgery or something to help out that bad nerve?"

Kevin looked up at her in surprise, looking down at his hand. "Uh... yeah. Finally got that taken care of. Such a nuisance, I finally just decided to get it over with."

"That's a great." Pepper replied, Tony needed to know that something was wrong with Kato. "Well, I'm going to go watch something, have Jarvis let me know when you're ready."

"Will do." Kevin replied with a smile, and she left the room.

"The God of Irritation left you to train alone?" Lizzie heard Natasha say, tilting her head in the direction of the redhead she smirked.

"I'm not training alone. I'm training with my imaginary friend, Scott." Lizzie replied snarkily taking a sip of water before sitting down. Natasha joined her on the bench. "How was the meeting?"

"Meeting?" Natasha repeated with a questioning tone.

"Yeah, the meeting, you know... Fury..." Lizzie trailed off. Natasha nodded, looking abashed.

"Oh the meeting!" she said. "It didn't compute that was the 'Meeting' you were referring to. It went well, although only Clint and I were allowed to leave."

Lizzie chuckled, taking another sip. "Poor woman, Fury must have been horrible for you to have forgotten so easily." she teased, looking around the room. "Where's Clint?"

"Somewhere high, he's furious right now." Natasha said.

"Why?"

Natasha took a deep breath, settling herself to face Elizabeth more. "Lizzie, you know that Clint and I have bad pasts, right?"
"Yeah."

"You know we were assassins, who killed people on orders, and didn't think anything of it?" she continued.

Lizzie straightened up. "Where are you going with this?" she asked, her tone slightly chilly.

"Fury brought a file today, he said you were a threat." Natasha said.

"Threat? How on earth am I a threat?" Lizzie asked, not liking the possibilities of what Fury told them. There was no way that this timeline and the other could possibly have intertwined in a way that would cause for any suspicion to be raised.

Natasha reached over to the bag she had brought, extracting a copy of the file she had obtained from the Director. "This is what he showed us, and this is why Clint is currently fuming elsewhere." She passed the file to Lizzie, allowing the brunette to look at the documents inside. "I need to know if this is true, Lizzie."

Lizzie picked up the first photograph. The image of her, dressed in her black uniform, leading a group of mutants to fight against a platoon of soldiers brought up a new memory which she didn't think she had. "Why did they think this was me?" she asked.

"The name, the face. Anesthesia was known to be the granddaughter of Magneto, and raised by Charles Xavier. The only problem is that this picture was taken a few months ago, by this stamp, and Clint and I know for sure that you were here in New York – with us – when this happened." Natasha said.

"Anything is possible when you're dealing with mutants, Tasha. We live in a world where the gods of mythology exist, and mere mortals can move mountains." Lizzie said, looking in the direction of Jarvis' cameras. "Each of us has a maggot in our pasts, which will happily devour our futures." she whispered to herself. This was her fault, if she were honest with herself, her obvious inattention to detail had caused for Alex to know of her existence outside of the world of the fire. She hadn't known that he had watched her go back, that his mind would not lose the memories of several years of her presence. She had brought this upon herself.

"What does that mean?" Natasha asked quietly.

Lizzie looked at the redhead. "Vy ne yedinstvennyy, s sekretami."

Natasha looked at Lizzie in curiosity, as Lizzie unfolded her tale... in Russian.

Loki awoke with a start, the previous nightmare he had just escaped from still fresh in his mind, still tormenting him even though he was no longer in its grasp. He had been in his cell again, the taunting of the Mad Titan still ringing in his ears as he had held Elizabeth, telling Loki that he had promised him a torture worse than pain. He remembered the Titan showing him how he would snuff out her life, in a painful, excruciating way. Loki knew he had been warned, but he had hoped Thanos would never know about the young woman who he had been spending his time with. Although, apparently, all his hidden thoughts had been for naught as Thanos knew exactly who Elizabeth was.

He looked around, Elizabeth's room seeming familiar, comforting, despite the stark-white walls she had managed to bring a bit of homeyness to the room, and that seemed to soothe Loki's terror. Elizabeth. He looked over to the other side of the bed, sudden worry overtaking him on why she was not beside him. Placing his hand on the empty space, he found it was stone-cold, meaning she had probably left some time ago.

Irritation rose up within him, wondering why she would leave him alone in her bed while she scampered off elsewhere. As if teasing him – or tormenting him, he wasn't sure – his mind brought up what Frigga had said, reminding him of Elizabeth's more fragile heart, and how his actions had probably hurt her. He sighed, standing up off the bed and crossing the room to the door, he would try to apologize, to change her mind about him. He knew he cared for her in some regard, perhaps not in the way his mot—Frigga wanted to say, but he cared nonetheless. He would hate to lose her companionship, no matter how immature it was.

"Jarvis?" he called out, wanting to know exactly where Elizabeth was. However, there was no answer. "Jarvis?"

"Loki, lad, is something going on?" he heard Kathleen's voice say from behind him, and he turned to see her standing there.

"Do you know why Jarvis is not answering?" he asked.

Kathleen shook her head. "No."

Loki's guard went up, suddenly aware that something was off with the apartment. "Do you know where Elizabeth is?" he asked Kathleen, earning a shaking of her head.

"What's wrong, Laddie?" she asked him as he gently took her arm and led her back to his room.

"Stay here, don't leave for any reason. You'll be safe." he said, reaching under his tunic to get his knife.

"Oi, Loki!" Kathleen called out to him before he left, he turned. "If someone is here, be wary. Laoise is quite dangerous when she wants to be, not knowing friend from foe. The first time one of her nightmares returned, she nearly killed Bella and I."

"I'll be careful." Loki replied, thankful that Frigga had forgotten to take the ward down from his room when she left. Heading down the hallway, he searched for Elizabeth, hoping that whoever was in the Tower wouldn't find her first.

The first warning signs that Tony had that Jarvis had been disabled was when he tried to view the footage of the apartment. The meeting was over, and Fury was finally allowing them to go home with a final decision regarding the current situation: Thor would go to Asgard for a very short period to pass the new revelations on to Odin, and then return in case the Chitauri decided to attack Earth. But now, Tony was beginning to get concerned, as all he saw was black screens.

"We need to get going," he told Steve as they prepared to leave. "I can't see into the apartment, and Jarvis isn't responding. I would say that Eyepatch disabled him on my pad, but the smaller program I put into this thing works fine... Big J isn't."

Steve's blue eyes showed how he understood. "Do you have your suit with you?" he asked, nodding to the briefcase that Tony brought. "Or is that something normal people carry?"

Tony smirked. "I'll get going, you want to tag along? Stark Express can carry one person." he offered. Steve smiled.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll make sure these guys get back safely." Steve said. "Go on, we'll join you shortly."

The billionaire gave a curt nod, and jogging to the nearest exit, he made his departure, thankful he had put a smaller backup of Jarvis in the suit as the AI spoke. "Good afternoon sir, its been a while since you flew with me."

"Yeah, I know." Tony replied as he set off. "J, I need you to call Pepper."

"Yes sir." Jarvis replied, the image of Peppers face on Tony's screen. Brown eyes looked over as the phone connected, but it wasn't Peppers voice that answered.

"Hello?"
"Who is this?" Tony asked, fear rising up.

"It's Kevin, Mr. Stark. I'm afraid Miss Potts is a bit... tied up." Kevin replied coldly, his voice suddenly changing as he continued. "To a chair in the living room that is."

"You lay one finger on her..."

"Already done, Stark, what are you going to do about it?" the man replied. "I doubt you even know who I am." The dial tone followed soon after, and Tony fought to keep his temper in check.

"Jarvis. Call Steve, tell him what happened, and try to get ahold of Reed Richards as well. We seem to have been infiltrated. Tell him to make sure he calls the other women and warn them not to be there." Tony said.

"Very good si-"

"Wait." he stopped. "Call the Tower first. See if you can get a hold of Romanoff, Barton, or Lizzie Donovan. As a last stand, call Loki. I gave him a phone last week in case we needed to get in touch."

The AI paused. "Very good, sir."

Clint had finally calmed down, his eyes still trained on the nearby skyscrapers which he could see from his vantage point on the roof. He wasn't sure what to believe anymore. He wanted to trust Lizzie entirely, believing she would never lie to him... and yet he knew that there were things she wouldn't tell him. Things which she obviously was willing to tell Loki – maybe there was something in her past, something which brought on the camaraderie which seemed to have formed between them?

His phone began buzzing in his pocket, and with a sigh he withdrew the device. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, but seeing as it may be important he answered anyway. "Hello?"

"Barton? Thank god I got ahold of you." Tony Stark's voice came over the line.

"I'm not interested in talking to you right now, Stark." Clint replied.

"I don't particularly care whether you're interested or not. Jarvis isn't working in the tower, and there's someone inside who has Pepper. Romanoff isn't answering her phone, and neither is Lizzie." Tony stated.

Clint stood up, quickly getting down from his place. "I'm going in now." he said. "I hope you're bringing backup."

"Rogers is on the way, probably sent Thor off to make sure that the other women are safe." Tony said. "I'll be there in two minutes."

"Got it." Clint said, going inside the building, senses alert, unsure of what he was going to find.

"So that's the whole spiel." Lizzie finished telling Natasha. The redhead sighed, nodding.

"I'm glad you told me." she said. "But you realize that you're going to have to tell Clint?"
Lizzie shook her head. "Clint does not need to know about this."

"But you found it acceptable to tell Loki? Lizzie, if you don't tell everyone what's going on, how do you expect them to trust you?"

"It's in the past." Lizzie retorted.

"So? I have a lot of red in my ledger as well-" Natasha started to say.

"Yeah, but your ledger isn't in a different universe. A different dimension." Lizzie replied.

Natasha stood up, walking away for a moment. "Yet, somehow it didn't stop Shaw from remembering who you were." she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I don't know how that happened. There was no way he could have seen – wait. He might have pretended to be someone else... oh, god, I wonder who else knows?" Lizzie cursed in German. The door to the room opened, and Clint stepped in.

"Hey girls." He said, a bright smile on his face. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing much." Lizzie answered simply. "Clint, I heard about what Fury showed you, and I suppose now would be a good time to tell you everything. But before I do, you should know that the girl I was isn't who I am now."

Clint smiled, his grin sending chills down her spine. "Oh, Elizabeth... I know." He turned to Natasha, and she suddenly gave out a cry, falling to the ground in pain. "Oh, I'm sorry, was I a little too harsh?"

"Clint! What the hell are you-" Lizzie froze as Clint's face shifted, his body growing taller and his eyes going from the warm kaleidoscope of colors to a pure ice blue. She stiffened, her own eyes widening in recognition. "Alex." she breathed, taking a step back as her vision began to blur. No... it wasn't possible! How could he have come here?

"Good evening, Elizabeth. Did you miss me?" he asked her before her own world turned black.

Forgive the cliffhanger, but trust me that it's necessary. I hope you all liked this, and that I'm not moving too fast with the Series of Unfortunate Events. :P Let me know what you think :) Reviews?