Ash had never been to Germany. It had always been a dream of hers to make it to Europe one day, but as a little girl, when she had been sitting in classrooms being shown pictures of London and Paris and Berlin, she had hardly thought her first visit would be like this.

Agent Hill had given her a pair of black slacks and a white blouse to wear instead of the dirtied jeans and t-shirt she had been wearing. Deep brown curls were coiled back into a low bun, and she could easily pass for one of the servers at the event. Stuttgart was beautiful, especially at night, and she took in a slow breath as her eyes roamed across the scene before her. People from all walks of life were outside the great white building, eating dinner at a local cafe that was in the same roundabout as the party's location as the sound of a band drifted out to the chilled night air.

Ash took in a deep breath, sliding into the party with relative ease. The cold bite to the air had left the energy of her powers on edge. Static clung to her arms and legs. Something was close, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

It was in the next moment that Ash collided with an incoming partygoer. A muffled apology came from her lips in the next second as her head snapped up to make eye contact. She didn't pay attention to the shock that rocketed through the contact, like the static that came from touching a car on a cold day, or after rubbing a balloon on carpet. The man was clad in the suit and tie that seemed to be the dress code for the event, a kind twinkle in his eye as he excused himself in german. The woman at his arm was beautiful, even in her aging years. That was really all Ashley could make out before she turned back to look at him. He seemed severely taken aback as he studied her. Then he spoke.

"Laura."

Brow furrowed, Ashley looked back to the woman and to the man again. "I'm sorry?"

The man was staring at Ashley intently now, but he seemed to snap out of it a heartbeat later. "Es tut mir leid," he began. Then he turned to his wife to say something else. All Ash could make out in the stream of german was the name Laura, pronounced several times as the wife looked back at her and nodded in agreement of whatever the man was saying.

Ash's blood ran cold, and her heart thundered in her ears. Laura. That was a name she knew well, but one she had long since associated with negative things. It was the name of a woman that had left her and her father, the woman that had been unreachable after her father died. It was the name of her mother.

Ash interjected at that, resisting the urge to reach out and stop the gentleman in his tracks. "Sir. I'm… American. I don't speak…"

The man smiled and shook his head at her explanation. "Of course you are. You must be Laura's daughter. Forgive me, you simply took my wife and I off guard. We had no idea Laura had a child. You are Dr. Wilson's daughter, no? The resemblance is just… uncanny."

Ash opened and closed her mouth, wanting to answer but finding herself speechless. Her mother, the woman she hadn't seen since she was three… There was very little want in Ash's heart to reunite with the woman that had all but abandoned her. Call it selfish, but she really wasn't one to push where she clearly wasn't wanted.

That didn't cease the somewhat childish desire to know more about her parent.

"Did she… work with you?" Ashley asked.

The elder man nodded. "One of the greatest minds in the discovery and classification of Iridium, dear," he replied. He cast blue eyes upward, nodding to the staircase that led to the upper levels of the party. "Her portrait is just upstairs. Along with the entire team's, if you're interested. Tell me, how is she as of late? We missed her when she retired."

Ash furrowed her brow, swallowing thickly. "She um… She's fine." It was a lie that fell relatively easily. How often had Ash pretended to have a mother while she was growing up? She had long since found that when she could trick herself, she was far closer to convincingly tricking other people. Pointing to the staircase, she reiterated. "You said it's upstairs?"

The couple nodded kindly. "A genius, your mother," the woman replied warmly. Ash nodded after a moment, licking her lips. Her mother had worked with Iridium. The same compound needed to amplify The Tesseract's power… A power that Ash seemed to be thoroughly intwined with.

"Thank you," she said with a slight bow of her head. She made no mention of passing on the couple's regards.

Spinning on her heel, she took off for the staircase, uncaring of the looks being sent her way. Attention was the opposite of what she needed right now. As soon as she made it to the upper level, she was thoroughly out of sight. She would wait here, she decided, get what information she could until Captain Rogers could capture Loki.

Moving along down the white hallway, she couldn't help but notice the static field clinging to her body once more. It made the hairs on her arms stand up. But that quickly left her thoughts as her eyes landed on the line of portraits at the far end of the hallway. There were two women and three men, all in studious poses within the modest sized pictures. Ash's mouth fell open as she brought a hand up to the image of a woman with dark hair and darker eyes, round spectacles perched on her nose as she peered into the camera with a cool gaze. The plaque below the little picture read 'Dr. Laura Wilson: Associate Chemist.'

The image next to Laura's was that of the man that Ash had just run into downstairs. Doctor Heinrich Schafer was his name, and he had been the lead chemist on the discovery. So many questions bubbled forth, and Ash scoured the little blurb about the element that was plastered in flowing script next to the portraits. The whole thing looked like something out of a museum. It was uncanny to see someone that looked so much like herself looking back at her from a display like this… The words on the wall didn't tell her much. But surely SHIELD could help uncover more information now that Ash knew her mother had been here. The trick would be figuring out how to explain the gravity of her discovery to them.

The static that had been building in her frame reached a whole new level as her heart rate escalated rather suddenly. The medical doctor in her quickly diagnosed it as panic driven by the new information, but the part of her that was linked so primally to her abilities knew better.

Biting down on her lower lip, she put a hand out to brace herself against the wall.

"Wilson? You're awful quiet. You alright?" That was Agent Hill's voice through the communicator in her ear. Ash's head tilted to the side as her eyes closed. Blue light emitted from her brown gaze when her eyes fluttered open, and she brought a hand to her ear to hear Hill's transmission better.

"Iridium," she mumbled. "You need to tell Fury. It's the Iridium."

A strong hand came down on Ash's shoulder before she could say anything else. But just like with the old man downstairs, a static shock rocketed through the offending touch— only this time, it was multiplied tenfold… Ash whirled around, arms swinging blindly at the offending form that had retreated with the shock.

Her dark eyes met pale green ones, and Ash let a soft gasp fall as she registered who she had come face to face with.

Right. Great idea coming down here, Ash. Really stellar.

Steve was sitting at the back of the jet, eyes focused on his gloved hands as he waited on Fury to give the order to drop. Even with Loki back on their radar, SHIELD was still taking the extended precautions to scout the perimeter. He had a communicator in his own ear, and he had been listening to the exchanges between the agents on the ground and Agent Hill. Of course, there had been one voice he had singled out among the others. Doctor Wilson had been extremely quiet, obviously still unsure of how to conduct herself in this sort of situation.

Steve hadn't been too keen on the idea of Fury letting her go down there, but he was a soldier, and it wasn't his job to question orders.

"Rogers, you got the go ahead to drop in T minus five." That was Romanoff. Steve could make out the back of her head of red curls from where he sat, but she barely spared him a glance from her place in the driver's seat as she called back to him.

Steve took in a deep breath as he echoed confirmation that he had heard the spy back to her. This was nothing new, really. Just another mission, just another day's work.

Only now they had him going against an alien life form. Rogers remembered a time when the threats to Earth were strictly of man's own design. Forget alien mad men, the human bad guys Steve had fought had been bad enough. He just had to remember he hadn't won all of those battles either.

The thought of Bucky flickered through the Captain's head, and he set his jaw. Buck, the man he had been unable to save. The one that had mattered the most…

No, he wouldn't think about that. Not while there was so much at stake. Loki would make his play, and Steve would counter attack it. He always did.

And, unlike that day with Bucky on the train, Steve would win. He might have let one man down, but he would be damned before he failed the whole of mankind.

Ash's breaths came in gasps as Loki backed off from the shock her powers had sent through his system. It had clearly done little more than tickle him though, because the spark of madness in his eyes soon returned with a smirk.

"I thought SHIELD would send someone with a little more… training under their belt. I daresay I'm a little offended." Ash's pulse hammered in her ears. He had no idea who was really coming for him, but he had heard enough of what she said to Agent Hill to know who she was here for. All she could do was stare at the god as he approached her once more. A long pale finger was extended, pointing to the writing on the wall behind her. "Doing a little research?"

Ash looked back at the photo of her mother, and then the writing on the wall before she dared to look back at Loki. "Little bit," she managed to pipe up. Her eyes landed on the scepter in his left hand, and she bit down on her lower lip as she felt a surge of energy come from the glowing orb at the end of it. "What's it to you?"

Loki's dark head cocked to the side as he studied her closely. Then, recognition sparked in his eyes, and he answered her question with a question. "You're no field agent, are you?"

Ash hated the lack of control she felt over her body just then. Her legs had turned to lead, and her heart was in her throat as she stared back at Loki. He seemed to calculate what her next move was going to be before she had even thought it through though, and as she attempted to push past his dominating form, a hand came around her upper arm to push her back against the wall.

"I'll scream," she warned.

"No. You won't." Ash's mouth went dry as the tip of Loki's scepter found its way to her chest— just like what had happened to Agent Barton and Dr. Selvig back at the research facility.

White hot heat spiraled from the site of the scepter as whatever power it held spread through Ash's system. Agent Hill's voice in the communicator in her ear was cut off as the energy of the scepter short circuited the device. Ashley could feel the energy struggling to take over the very inner workings of her mind. But in the midst of it all, the tiny spark of her own electrical field pushed back.

She could feel Loki's voice in her head, fighting for control over her.

And yet… she didn't give in. And when Loki seemed to figure that out, she was met with excruciating pain as he manipulated her thoughts to believe someone was hurting her. However, the physical pain was nothing compared to what was going on in her head. Memories were bubbling forth, the power of the scepter unlocking even the darkest recesses of her mind. She could see the prone form of her father in the wet grass of their front lawn, feel the hollowness the shock and grief had left in her… And the only thing that went through her head, despite the fact that there was a god trying to take control over her body, was the single fact that she should have been able to save her dad.

That was when anger took over. Anger at herself, anger at the entire situation… and anger at her mother for never being there.

The grief and anger were overpowering, and as they built up, she knew they had to go somewhere or she would explode.

And they did.

Her powers rolled off of her in a wave, pushing Loki out as her grief consumed her.

The god of mischief was not prepared for the wave of energy that rolled off of the human girl. As soon as his scepter met her chest and her mind linked with his, Loki remembered seeing her in the bunker, remembered delivering a blast that would have killed most mortals.

For a man that was so inept at dealing with his own weaknesses, Loki was startlingly gifted at finding them in others. It was what made the sway of the scepter so powerful. The scientist man, Selvig, had always been in search of truth. It had been easy to manipulate his thought patterns to believe that working for Loki to expand his view of the Tesseract was right.

But with this girl, her own weakness was far different. The thirst for knowledge was there, oh yes. But as Loki peeled back the layers of her innermost self, he saw the need for something so much greater.

He saw the need for control that governed her every move— if only to save herself the pain of being unable to save those she loved. He saw her need to be a hero even without the powers of one.

But that last statement wasn't precisely true, was it?

After all, the static that clung to her form was what had allowed her to resist the pull of the scepter in the first place, and the near explosion of electrical energy that pulsed from her like the throb of a heart was enough to keep him at bay. It did not harm him, but it did surprise him to feel a power so similar to The Tesseract coming from the girl. Stumbling back, Loki did not mask the slight confusion that swept over his features. After a moment, his face slowly morphed into a sadistic smirk once more, and he turned his head as the music of the party ended to allow for a speaker to take the attention of the crowd.

That was his cue.

"We will meet again, I am certain, Doctor," he said smoothly from where he stood, cold eyes watching as she slid down against the wall. Slight disgust rocketed through him. Even with such power, she was still so weak.

No, she was not the one SHIELD would send to bring him in. He had been right in his assumptions. She was nothing. A medical doctor that had simply been caught up in a force that even she did not understand.

But Loki did. He held no sympathy for her plight, her noble attempts to conquer death. But he understood the gravity of a biological link to The Tesseract. It was only a matter of time, of playing the game a little further out, before he would see precisely what her role in all of this was.

In the end, SHIELD would fall, and with it, this world. With that vow, Loki turned away, sweeping down the hallway once more to gain the information Agent Barton needed.

Ash let out a sharp cry as she slid to the ground. She wasn't a soldier, or a spy, or anything like what she had just tried to be. If that hadn't been clear before, it was crystal clear now, and as she realized how close she had come to becoming one of the people Loki had ensnared or worse, she felt her panic soar. Part of her knew it was the memories as well, the images of a past she had tried so hard to repress coming back in one surge of power. The god had seen them too through that connection, and the cruel smile that had formed on his face to see how tortured she was over them wouldn't go away.

He got off on other people's pain.

Ash's face crumpled into a sob as she hugged her arms around her frame, one hand coming to rest over her mouth. Maybe that was why he had left her alive— because it was so much worse than dying to relive past horrors, wasn't it? She could hear the speaker of the party stop in his dialogue abruptly, and the screams of the crowd below were enough to send her into a brand new panic.

Where was Captain Rogers?

This got way longer than I anticipated, but I'm actually kinda pleased with it? I rewatched The Avengers last night after a really long time, and the muse for this story just caught fire again. There will be a /lot/ of Ash and Cap next chapter. I'm still in the stage of setting up the parallels in their characters, and it's finally going to converge in the next couple of updates.

-Sirius