A/N: review plz.
Fidelitas
A Lily By Any Other Name
Chapter Three
The hours following the incident at the square were an absolute blur. All Hannah could remember was the deafening roar of a helicopter, Iron Man, and a myriad of questions from the local police. Her answers to most of them involved the words I don't know. It was true—she didn't know the man with the staff. She didn't know Iron Man. She didn't know how she was alive after that blast of blue energy knocked her flat on her ass. All she really knew was that she was tired and confused.
Sleep should have come easily that night, but she couldn't close her eyes without seeing green and gold. For some reason, she couldn't shake away the feeling of déjà vu that washed over her when she looked at the man with that staff. She'd seen him before somewhere. Maybe he went to her university in the states, or maybe he went to high school with her, or maybe he was one of those people you just knew. But no one expects a kid from their high school to become a walking exhibit of the renaissance fair in just six short years. Or to go on a tirade about subjugation. Or to threaten people with a glowing staff that looked like a prop from Fellowship of the Ring. No. Things like that just… Didn't happen.
Loki.
Why did she have an eerie feeling that was his name? And why had he called her Sig-in, or something like that? Why had her brain short circuited when he touched her face? The same questions shed developed during the incident swirled in her mind as she tossed and turned in her bed.
Hopefully she'd have answers to them by morning.
The world was gray when she woke. Rain pattered softly against her windowpane, and the ground outside looked saturated with water. Hannah rolled out of bed with a massive headache at the sound of her alarm. She couldn't miss class today because the world stopped for nothing—not even terrorist attacks involving achingly familiar strangers. Her head throbbed, an annoying pain knocking between her temples, even as she downed a handful of Advil from her medicine cabinet. She just felt over all groggy; every single muscle in her body protested against movement, and her vision was peppered with spots.
It's all probably a side effect of that blue blast, she thought wryly to herself, maybe if it gets worse I can cut class.
But it didn't. The Advil took its toll on her, alleviating her headache and numbing the soreness in her body. She shouldered her backpack carrying her textbooks, and mentally prepared herself to be lauded as a local hero for her heroism last night. It would be nice and all—getting praised like that—but she'd only been acting on instinct.
And there's something about that man with the staff…
She shook the thought out of her head like a dog shaking water from its coat as she exited the front door of her apartment. With her keys in her hand, she turned to lock it, but before she could insert the key in the lock, a sleek black car pulled up in front of the building. Hannah watched, guarded, as a man in a dapper suit climbed out. She groaned. More authorities. Didn't they interrogate her enough last night? Something in the back of her mind, however, told her that the man in the suit wasn't just any detective. He exuded an air of mystery that reminded her of secret agents on TV shows. She froze as he neared her.
"Are you Hannah Frost?" He asked. Hannah caught her intimidated reflection in the lenses of his dark sunglasses.
"Yes." She nodded weakly. "Who are you?"
"Phil Coulson." He said, taking off his sunglasses. His eyes were a pleasant shade of blue and seemed warm. He extended his hand to her in greeting. "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Well, forget going to class.
Not even an hour later, Hannah found herself sitting with the director of S.H.I.E.L.D inside a lavish private jet. She fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat as Nick Fury stared her down with his one-eyed glare.
"I didn't do anything." She muttered, shaking her head. "Let's just clear that up. I did not cause what happened in Stuttgart. I'm not in cahoots with the man with the staff, I don't know why Iron Man showed up, and I sure as hell don't know what you people want with me."
"We know you're innocent, Miss Frost." Fury nodded. "You're more than innocent. You saved a person's life."
"Then why am I here?" Hannah pressed, but Fury's intense gaze made her shrink back in her seat. "Your agent didn't explain anything to me on the way to the airbase other than who you people are. You're like… Like the secret service of the unusual, right?"
"More or less." Fury shrugged, leaning back in his seat.
"Then I don't understand why I'm here." Hannah said. "I'm not an alien or something. And I really don't want to be involved with any, if you're here to offer me a job or whatever. Thanks but no thanks."
The director simply looked amused. Hannah clenched her jaw tightly.
"Miss Frost," He started, getting up out of his seat. "Are you familiar with the Norse gods?"
"What, like Thor?" She questioned. "The gods the Vikings worshipped? Not really. Why?"
"Because the man with the staff," He explained, pacing around the cabin, effectively making Hannah even more uncomfortable. "Is one of them. That jackass with the stupid-looking cape is Loki, the Norse god of chaos."
He said it with so much certainty that Hannah had a hard time doubting him. Perhaps it was the trench coat and eye patch that made Nick Fury so authoritative, but she would have believed his explanation nonetheless. The whole thing did seem far-fetched- a god, a Norse god, a living myth—but it all seemed to fit together like missing pieces of a puzzle. A… God. That would explain the chill she felt near him, the ethereal glow he seemed to cast. It just… Made sense.
Magic. He can do magic.
But the rational part of her mind prevented her from fully buying into it.
"You've got to be kidding me," She started, rolling her eyes. "You mean to tell me that gods are running around the planet right now? That Norse gods—gods!—aren't just myths? Look, I know S.H.I.E.L.D is all about unearthing the unusual, but that seems ridiculous even for this kind of organization. I'd sooner believe you could dig somebody out alive from an iceberg."
"Oh, but we did." Fury nodded, still looking amused at her incredulousness. "Ever heard of Captain America?"
"What?" Hannah blinked. "Captain America? Don't tell me you have files on every mythical being and urban legend in existence."
"You'll get to meet him soon, if that would help you believe what you see." The director said slyly. He took a seat in front of her again. "The point I'm trying to make here, Miss Frost, is that you're special. That's why you're here."
Hannah narrowed her eyes. "Special? I told you, I didn't have anything to do with it—"
"We know." Nick Fury cut her off with a fierce one-eyed glare. Hannah glued her mouth shut, but still regarded him with suspicion. "You'd be sitting in a S.H.I.E.L.D holding facility right now if you did. But you didn't. We know you didn't have a damn thing to do with Stuttgart. We just want to figure out how a seemingly normal girl was able to survive a blast of cosmic energy."
Oh.
She blinked.
"Let me guess," Fury said sarcastically, still fixing her with that one-eyed stare. "You don't know. The files told us the same thing. That's why you're here, Miss Frost. Had you failed to shield that old man from the blast, he would have been a pile of ashes. There's something about you that S.H.I.E.L.D has to get to the bottom of."
Hannah suddenly felt like a specimen on a slide. Nick Fury was the microscope, analyzing her from every angle and direction. She crossed her arms over her chest.
"And," Fury continued. "There's also the fact that Loki paused his little scheme at the sight of you. Now that's damn suspicious, surviving a cosmic blast and capturing the attention of the god of chaos."
"I don't know him," She repeated. "I really don't. Even if what you say is true, I think I would know if I was familiar with a god."
But I don't.
"We trust you don't." The director assured her. "Whatever it is, there's something special about you, Miss Frost. And while normally S.H.I.E.L.D would be monitoring your every move, we don't have the time to stake such a project right now. As soon as we touch down on the helicarrier, you'll be escorted to meet the team of people you'll be working with."
"Working with on what?" She asked. "For an agency based on questions, you people do a really bad job at answering my questions. I'm so confused. What is it that's so urgent—"
"Loki's planning to take over the world." Fury said bluntly. "That's pretty much what it boils down to. I'll have Coulson brief you on the technicalities later, but you've got places to be. We're coming up on the helicarrier."
What the hell am I getting myself into?
A/N: y'all already know what I'm gonna say xx.