A/N: Ok first off, I'm super sorry I took so long, I hit a really big wall with this chapter. Secondly, I'm proud to introduce to you the return of Loki *cue fanfare*. We also get some perspective from the Experiments which details their behaviour a little more. There are a lot of things going on in this story so I have to address all of the plot points, which is fun. Quick warning, it escelates really quickly at the end of this chapter so watch out for that, you may have noticed but most of Phoenix's breakdowns have been from Natasha's point of view, but in this chapter we get one from her perspective which I think you guys will find interesting. Anyway that's enough from me, don't forget to read, review and enjoy.

Natasha heard the alarm and wasted no time in reacting. She grabbed a gun and ran out of her bedroom at top speed and raced into the elevator. She held the door open for Clint who had managed to get his hands on his bow, and together the two of them headed for the foyer of the Tower, where the alarm originated from.

"Hydra?" Clint asked Natasha as they descended several floors.

"No I don't think so," Natasha replied. "They don't have the manpower or the guts to attack The Avengers Tower."

"If not Hydra, then who?" Clint wondered aloud.

They had no more time to think about who their attackers were as the lift doors opened, they only had time to react, and apprehend them. Natasha surged forward, gun in hand, while Clint flanked her right side and circled around her as she directly ran towards the intruder.

A single man stood there, a man with a devious smirk on his face that made Natasha's insides crawl when she recognised the smirk, and the man that came with it. Stopped halfway through his casual but self-important strut, the man now stood still, and dropped a large golden sceptre that rose to a height taller than he. With the sceptre out of his grip, he began slowly raising his hands in surrender.

Natasha knew who it was immediately, and not from the green, black and gold plated armour that he wore, or the way he moved. It was the second she saw the glint of the devil in his eyes that she knew terrifyingly well, the man with the dark hair standing before her, was Loki.

The fact that it was him didn't stop her in her tracks as she ran, if anything she moved faster, desperate to stop whatever evil he had planned. The signs of Clint spirally into a mad attack were evident by the calm on his face, an eerie, empty calm that haunted his looks as he clenched his bow and pressed an arrow tight against its string.

The assassins reached Loki at the same time, Natasha pressing her gun to his forehead and Clint placing his arrow against the left side Loki's neck, the metal tip pressing into his bare skin. They stood in a silent stalemate for a moment, each staring at each other. Natasha and Clint glared with hidden rage, and Loki allowed himself to be held still by the two of them, with an ever growing smirk sliding across his face.

"Barton and Romanoff," Loki spoke first, looking at each of them individually. "Long time no see my friends."

"Friends?" Natasha repeated, angrily pushing her gun harder against his forehead. "Really Loki? After everything you did, you're calling us your friends?"

"An enemy of my enemy is my friend," Loki said sarcastically with a sideways look at Clint.

Natasha titled her head, and whilst keeping her face void of emotion, considered what Loki had said, and had trouble understanding what he meant. However she was unable to ask him, because at that moment, Steve, Tony and Bruce all arrived downstairs, bursting from the elevator, coming to a halt when they saw Loki.

First to break out of their catatonia was Steve who approached Natasha, standing beside her to observe their captured intruder. He looked over to Tony and then his eyes fell on the large golden sceptre that had fallen to the ground, and now lay near Loki's feet.

"Get the stick," Steve commanded Tony who did as he was told, as Steve turned to Loki to ask his question. "Why are you here?"

Loki looked as if he was prepared to give a sarcastic answer, but Clint pushing his arrow harder against the bare skin of his neck, stopped him. "The circumstances of my arrival are matters of grave importance that I wish to discuss with you, but I would like to do so somewhere a bit more private."

Natasha looked to Steve for confirmation, and after a second of consideration, he nodded. Clint grabbed Loki by the collar on his armour and began dragging him to the elevator wordlessly, while Natasha walked on the other side of him, keeping her gun pressed against his temple in case he tried anything.

Somehow, they managed to all fit into the elevator, and Loki stood in the centre of all the bodies, quite amused with the current situation, despite having two deadly weapons pointed at him. He took great delight in looking the Avengers up and down, and seeing the scowls on their faces.

His gaze settled on Clint and he grinned impishly. "Tell me Agent Barton, have you been feeling dazed in the head? Confused? Does the power of the sceptre still lay swirling in your mind, making you judge your every decision, making you question your existence?"

Clint looked Loki in the eye. "Your mind tricks aren't going to work on me," he told him flatly.

Loki turned away, while attempting to look disappointed, his true emotions of satisfaction leaked through onto his facial expression. Natasha met his eyes and gave him a threatening look, accompanied with her pointing the gun at his foot.

"One wrong move you get a bullet in your foot," she threatened.

"What if you were to miss?" he questioned her with a smirk on his face. He was loving every minute of this, and it just made Natasha want to beat the hell out of him. "What if you were to hit one of your friends instead?"

"I never miss."

The lift doors opened onto the living area and Natasha spotted Phoenix waiting for them in front of the lift doors, her hands alight with fire. Natasha saw Phoenix looking distressed, and pushed her gun into Steve's hand so she could run to Phoenix's side. As Phoenix saw her, she extinguished the flames in her hands.

Natasha noticed that Phoenix had obviously run upstairs via the stairwell, which explained why she had beads of sweat on her face and seemed to be out of breath. However she was already dressed in her training gear, despite it being around 6:30 in the morning.

"I heard the alarm and when I couldn't find any of you I though the worst," Phoenix explained hurriedly while Natasha attempted to reassure her by putting her hands on Phoenix's shoulder. Phoenix began to calm down, but as she looked past Natasha, to the people now emerging from the lift, she stopped dead. "Who is that?"

She had spotted Loki, and as Natasha watched Loki look Phoenix up and down and then grin devilishly, she began pushing Phoenix back towards the stairwell. "Leave the room, now," Natasha ordered her. "Go to your room and stay there until I collect you."

"But who is that? Is that the intruder?" she questioned as she stared at Loki, awash in confusion.

"Phoenix you need to leave now," Natasha raised her voice, and that was enough for Phoenix to nod her head in understanding and exit the room, via the stairwell.

Loki watched her go, and then turned his attention to Natasha in mock surprise. "A protégé of yours?" he asked her. "How interesting, that the woman with a heart of ice and a dead soul, has taken in a child, a child who looks up to her. It really is very sweet."

Natasha stormed over to Steve in a mad rush and swiped her gun from his hands, and then whirled it onto Loki, pushing it into the space between his eyes. Clint reacted as well, and had drawn his bow, pulling the arrow so tight against the string that if he even twitched a finger, the arrow would go straight through the side of Loki's head.

"If you even so much as think about going anywhere near her, I will put an arrow through your brain and then impale you on your own spear," Clint threatened, in a calm but furious tone.

"I'm getting really annoyed with this pointless banter Loki," Natasha told him quite flatly, and motioned towards the nearest couch with a flick of the gun in her hand. "All you're doing is stirring things up. So you're going to sit down over there, and tell us exactly why you are here, or I will dispose of you right here, and right now. Your choice, Asgardian."

Loki frowned at Natasha's usage of the word Asgardian, and he seemed to realise that the time for messing around was over. With a lot of shoving on Clint's part, Loki made his way toward the couch and was pushed into the seat, quite forcefully, by Clint.

Loki leaned back, quite comfortably in the seat, as Clint swung his bow over his shoulder and took a few steps back, retreating to the wall where he could watch from a distance and glower with his arms folded across his chest.

The other Avengers strategically placed themselves within sight of Loki, Steve and Tony sat directly across from him on the couch, while Natasha stood behind Steve, and Bruce stood to the right of Tony, far from Loki as he could manage while still being involved in the conversation.

"Start talking," Steve commanded, watching Loki's every move with a carefully trained eye. "We thought you were dead, so how are you here?"

"I'm the god of mischief, how do you think?" Loki gave a sarcastic, half-attempted answer as he paid more attention to the windows than what he was saying. "I thought you were more interested in why I'm here."

"Fine then, you can answer that question. Why are you here? I doubt you're going to try to take over Earth again after your fall from grace," Tony asked him and motioned to the large spear he had placed on the other side of the room, casually leaning against the wall. "You've got a bigger stick, but I can't see a magic glowy stone in the centre of it, so I assume it's not as powerful."

"I'm here because I'm tracking down a dangerous fugitive," Loki ignored Tony's comment, but gritted his teeth as he spoke. "I'm here to help."

"Just like you helped destroy Manhattan," Steve remarked angrily. "The only person you ever help is yourself Loki. If you're really trying to bring down this fugitive, it's only because capturing whoever it is will work in your favour."

"Her name is Hanora, and she's a rather powerful sorceress," Loki informed them. "She wields a very dangerous object, an object that if left in her hands could be used to wreak havoc on this world. I cannot tell you what it is, only that she stole it from Odin's Vault."

"Odin's Vault?" Bruce repeated, hand falling away from his face. "You mean the most secure place on all of Asgard, filled with dangerous weapons, and is quite literally an impenetrable fortress."

Loki nodded, a serious expression on his face. "I've no idea how she got in. Odin is covering the whole thing up, and has sent several of his Einherjar on a mad and pointless chase halfway across the realms. I do not believe they will find her in time to stop whatever madness she has planned."

The room fell silent as the Avengers conferred to themselves about the situation Loki had presented to them. All of them seemed equally as skeptical, but Natasha in particular was extremely untrusting of every word that came out of Loki's mouth. Natasha stepped forward, sliding around the edge of the couch, and standing next to the armrest that Steve had his left arm rested on.

For a long while she stood there in silence, baring a hard gaze into Loki. He knew this was a tactic to get him talking, so he elected to fulfil her wishes. "Hanora is no ally of mine, and I have no intention of double crossing you. It is of dire importance to the safety of the universe that we remove this object from her grasp and capture her."

Natasha did not smirk in satisfaction, instead she tightened her lips and remained completely still in the same position. "Don't dance around Loki," she shook her head, rather unamused about the situation. "You're definitely going to double cross us at some point, but that's not my primary concern. I know the only reason you've taken on the role of do-gooder is because you want that weapon for yourself."

Loki folded his hands together in front of his face, and looked to the ground with an empty smirk on his face. "You don't trust me," he stated, looking back up at Natasha, head rising slowly.

"Of course we don't trust you Loki," Steve spoke in a low voice, he seemed to ponder over what Loki was saying however, and seemed to consider the fact that there very well could be a real threat out there. However he wasn't going to risk Loki causing mayhem until he knew for sure.

With one hesitant nod in Clint's direction, Hawkeye pushed himself off the wall and strode over to Loki, grabbing him by the collar of his armour and pulling him to his feet off the couch. "Stark go with Barton and find Loki a secure place to stay," Steve ordered the two men who nodded in understanding. Steve rose to his feet, meeting Loki at eye height. "You're staying here until I decide whether or not your information is useful."

Loki was trying to keep a straight face, but there was evidence of a devilish smirk on his face as Clint shoved him towards the elevator. Natasha stood beside Steve, arms folded as she watched Loki go, lips pursed and a look on her face that carried more volume than anything she could've said.

"Remember what happened the last time we locked him up," she reminded him as the elevator doors closed.

Steve sighed and avoided Natasha's eyes. "Banner," he addressed Bruce who was still seated on the couch. "Do some research into Norse Mythology and see if you can find anything about Hanora. Loki's a compulsive liar, but we can't take the risk. If Hanora is real and she is in possession of a dangerous weapon, then we need to be prepared."

"Ok I got a new one. Would you rather, Kate Upton or Anna Kendrick?" Josh asked from his perch atop the chest of drawers. His question was posed towards the two other boys, Mark, who was seated at the edge of the bed, and Sam, who sat on the floor in front of them with his legs crossed.

Heather and Bella had taken positions opposite each other at the top of the bed, Bella clutching a pillow to her chest as she sat crossed legged, while Heather lay on her side, leaning her head on her hand. Heather was scowling at the boy's behaviour like she did with most things, and Bella, who actually found their conversation amusing, tried to hide her giggles every time one of the boys delivered a sharp one liner.

Sam scoffed. "What the hell kinda question is that? There's not even any competition there," he started laughing and leaned back, keeping himself upright with his elbows. "Kate Upton for sure."

The five of them had congregated together when they heard the alarm echoing around the tower. As each of them stepped out into the hallway, Mark hurriedly explained that there was an intruder and shoved everyone into the nearest room with an open door, which turned out to be Heather's bedroom.

Mark sucked in a breath between clenched teeth and shook his head. "I dunno man, Kendrick is pretty cute. I think there's a strong competition going there."

"Yeah but have you seen Kate Upton's," Sam made a cupping motion beneath his pecks and before continuing his sentence, caught a stern looked from Heather. "Uh, her face."

"Nice save," Josh murmured sarcastically. "I'm gonna agree with Sam though, I'd pick Kate, but it's still pretty close."

Mark tapped at his chin for a moment before coming to a decision. "I'm actually going to go with Kendrick, but only because she has a really adorable smile," the other boys didn't seem to agree with his reasoning, and shook their heads at him, so Mark rose to the defensive. "Come on, she has a really nice, genuine smile."

Heather groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Don't you have something more mature to discuss?" she groaned.

"Get off your high horse Heather, I'm sure you've spent a lot of daddy's money texting your BFF's about the cute guy who served you at the country club," as Josh spoke he picked up a candle off the drawers he was sitting on and tossed it to Sam, who in turn, caught it and tossed it back. "We're just having some fun, lighten up."

"We are stuck here with no idea what's going on," Heather's voice became louder in volume and higher in pitch as her temper was further pushed by what she perceived as ignorance from the boys. "Aren't you even a little bit concerned for our lives? Hydra could be right outside that door."

Mark sighed and sat up properly on the bed, staring ahead of him with his back towards Heather, he addressed her. "The alarm has stopped, so that means they probably caught whoever it was. Besides I don't think it's Hydra, you have to be beyond stupid to attack this place."

Heather swung her legs over the edge of the bed and rose to her feet, she shrugged stiffly and motioned an arm in the direction of the door. "Well then let's go, if they caught the intruder it should be safe."

"We don't know for sure Heather," Mark raised his hand as Heather reached for the doorknob. "We have to wait here until someone tells us that it's safe."

Heather's hand dropped and she stormed back over to the bed and threw herself down onto it, leaning against the backboard of the bed. She threw her arms up in the air, trying to relieve some of her frustration. "Well then I guess we're stuck here," she huffed and folded her arms so tight across her chest it was a miracle she didn't suffocate.

Heather fell silent, sliding downwards as she continued to leans against the bed backboard. Josh was about to continue their game, but stopped when Heather sat bolt upright without any warning, causing every eye in the room to look at her in surprise.

"Where's Phoenix?" she questioned.

"How the hell are we supposed to know," Josh sighed as he answered Heather's ridiculous question. "Believe me the last thing any of us want to be doing is spend time with Phoenix."

Mark fidgeted nervously and pulled at the hem of his shirt. Thanking every deity in existence that Heather hated using her mind reading ability, Mark wiped his sweaty hands on his pants and attempted to act natural.

"I want to know where she is because she should be here with us," Heather spat at Josh. "Why does she get to know what's going on while we're stuck here with no idea whether or not there are men with guns coming to kill us!" With every word Heather had grown more hysterical, and the end of her sentence culminated in her tossing a pillow across the room.

"Woah!" Mark exclaimed as he dived off the bed to avoid the flying cushion projectile.

"This is ridiculous," Heather hissed through gritted teeth as she bunched up the sheets on the bed in her clenched fist. "They're keeping us locked up here like prisoners."

Josh, still sat atop the chest of drawers, looked down at his feet and began nodding slowly. He jumped down from his perch and stood in front of the rest of The Experiments. "Heather's right," he looked at all of them, entirely serious. "They've taken us out of our homes without permission, that's basically kidnapping."

"It was to keep us safe," Sam said, though there was doubt in his expression, as if he only half-believed his own statement.

"We could've been safe in our own homes!" Josh cried out, catching them all by surprise. It was evident that he was becoming unhinged, fighting back tears of anger. "They stole us from our families and ruined our lives! If it weren't for Phoenix none of this would've happened!"

The temperature of the room seemed to drop 10 degrees at the mere mention of Phoenix. Mark could feel the hatred radiating from those surrounding him and his stomach twisted in guilt. He knew where this was going, where it always went. Soon they would be discussing the monstrosity they perceived her to be, and Mark felt ashamed to think that he would participate.

As Josh continued his rant and Mark watched them all nodding in agreement he thought back to what he had seen in the training room. Was Phoenix really a monster? While they all could go on about the evil things Phoenix had done for hours, Mark suddenly realised that not once have they directed the blame where it was due.

"It's not her fault," Mark spoke without realising, still trapped in his own thoughts as the words escaped him.

What Mark had said didn't so much as elicit startled shock from the other inhabitants of the room, instead they slowly turned to look at him, horrified, as if he had just spoken a forbidden evil. Mark looked back at them, stunned. He realised how deep the hole he had dug himself was.

"What did you just say?" Heather demanded, a look of disgust slowly invading her expression. "You, out of all of us, know what she has done. You were there at Navy Pier, you saw everything. How could you possibly defend her?"

"I'm not defending her!" Mark exclaimed, trying to fix his mistake, and pull himself out of the hole. "Phoenix isn't the one who put us in the situation, and she's not the one who made us what we are. All of this is because of Doctor Blake. He's the one we should be blaming."

While mentioning Phoenix sparked a loud debate, uttering the name of Doctor Blake had the opposite effect. The entire room was filled with a dead silence, as they all avoided each other's gaze, looking away in fear. It was as if saying his name would summon him into the room.

They slowly began to nod in acceptance of Mark's answer, all except for Heather, who looked him up and down. Requiring more proof of Mark's dedication to her hate campaign "Phoenix…Phoenix is a monstrosity, a murderer and a freaking nut job. She can't be excused for what she did," Mark nearly threw up as he forced himself to speak the words that sealed his fate, and ensured acceptance.

A knock on the door brought them all back to the current situation. Remembering that there was an intruder in the building, everyone stopped and stared for several seconds before moving. Sam was the one to eventually get up and start moving to the door.

He peered through the peephole in the door and stiffened, turning back to the expectant group he mouthed two words. "It's Phoenix."

"Shit!" Heather swore, trying to whisper but not succeeding.

"You don't think she heard us do you?" Bella asked hurriedly.

"Ask her what she wants," Heather ignored Bella and gave Sam the order.

Sam opened the door a crack and addressed Phoenix, who told him something in reply. Sam stepped to the side, an annoyed look on his face, as Phoenix pushed the door open so she could address all of them. "The intruder has been captured, you're all free to leave your rooms now," she told them.

They stared at her, stared like she had just committed an unspeakable crime, and in their minds she had. Phoenix stood there for a minute and Mark tried to meet her eye, but she refused his glance and gave them one last look before turning on her heels and walking out of the room.

Phoenix fled down the hallway, walking quickly in the direction of the elevator. She needed to get away, she needed to find somewhere private. Not here, she couldn't break down where they might see her. Seeking refuge in her room, Phoenix jabbed the elevator buttons repeatedly, hoping that it might work faster.

Tears threatened her by blurring her vision, but Phoenix fought them back. Clenching her jaw and pursing her lips, she tried ignoring the lump in her throat. It was a weakness. Phoenix couldn't afford a weakness, not now, not when she was trying to fix things.

She didn't mean to hear them, but walking up to the door and hearing her name, she stopped and listened. She should've learned after the last time she listened in at a door. They were right, everything that they had said was true. Phoenix knew that she was all of those things and more.

A murderer.

A psychopath.

A freak.

A monster.

A single tear fell from her eyes and ran down her cheek, and Phoenix angrily wiped it away. More began falling as the elevator door opened, and Phoenix, in her hurry to find somewhere to lock herself away, ran directly into someone's chest.

She jumped backwards and looked up to see Steve, upon realising that she was vulnerable, Phoenix attempted to run away. Steve saw her distress and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from fleeing. For the second time that day Phoenix was trapped in confrontation.

Phoenix tried keeping herself together, she tried so hard. The tears began to flow and Phoenix began sobbing. Eventually her chains of self-control broke and as she attempted to pull herself away from Steve she felt herself unravel, and her mind shatter.

"MONSTER!" Phoenix screamed as she lost control of her knees and dropped to the floor, hard, landing on her right side, she began furiously hitting the floor with her fist while she continued screaming.

Very distantly she heard Steve calling for help until more voices joined the fray and Phoenix recognised the voices of Natasha and Clint above her. It was a spectacle now, she couldn't control herself, she couldn't keep herself contained. She was weak.

The water, the knives, the white room, the pain. Oh god the pain. Images flooded into Phoenix's mind, everything. The horror on their faces, the screams, the inferno. So much death, so much terror. It was all because of her. Everything. Was. Her. Fault.

She didn't deserve what she had, she knew exactly what she deserved. Phoenix dragged herself to the nearby fall, fighting off the hands of the people who tried to pull her back. She was unworthy of help, unworthy of care. Unworthy of life.

Phoenix bashed her head against the wall. "WEAK!" She bashed her head against the wall. "MURDERER!" She bashed her head against the wall. "FREAK!" She bashed her head against the wall. "MONSTER!" She bashed her head against the wall, but this time everything went black.