So… The Avengers finally meet Hel, and Loki makes an appearance. :) There is mischief, and there is chaos. But any story with Loki in it has to have a healthy dose of that. ;D

Note #1: This is where everything FINALLY starts speeding up.

Note #2: I'm assuming that those cuffs Loki was wearing at the end of the movie had some special tech in them, whether it be some Asgardian magic or electrocution developed by our favorite inventor, but anyways. I took a liberty with those.

Note #3: After the movie, I would bet that Tony would have had a miniature SHIELD base (or at least some interrogation rooms and holding cells) installed into the lower, underground, non-public levels of his tower once it became Avenger Tower. After all, if there's an emergency in the city, SHIELD agents right there will get there faster than from somewhere outside of the city, right? So they do have a larger base outside of the city, plus the Helicarrier, but then the small essentials in the underground levels of the tower. That's where a large part of this is set.

Note #4: Certain ideas are introduced in this chapter. Some of them will not be used. So before you quit this story because it may be turning down a Mary-Sue lane or too cliché… Just wait. :)

Chapter 3: "I've never been so deep inside a shadow, I've never been so insecure of what I know" ~ Gotta Figure This Out, Erin McCarley

Well, things really did flip out after that.

Quite literally seconds after Iron Man had spoke, a big blur of red, gray, and blonde literally flew through the empty windows and full on tackled him. Hel's hair whipped in her face and she heard Bobby curse wildly.

She blinked. What the heck was that?

Iron Man and the mysterious blur had crashed in the furthest wall, completely going through it into the next room. After a few moments of stunned silence, she heard the mechanized voice of Iron Man shout, "Damnit, Thor! I wasn't going to shoot her! Now I'm going to have to replace this chest piece!"

After that, a team of people dressed like SWAT but with the SHIELD symbol filed in, guns raised and finger on the trigger. Before they could even move, the team had surrounded them. …With the guns pointed at them.

The first thing that popped into Hela's mind: What an overreaction.

Then there were cuffs being slapped on her wrists and Bobby's, and they were pulling them apart to drag them to opposite sides of the room. She barely managed to shout, "Don't tell them anything!" to her best friend as he was swallowed by the SHIELD agents.

Five hours later, Hel sat in a rather plain, stereotypical interrogation room rubbing at the tips of her fingers where the black fingerprint ink was stained. They had taken her fingerprints, done a few mug shots, and tried valiantly to try and get a sample of her DNA by offering her water bottles, coffee, and even gum. She hadn't fallen for it. She could only hope Bobby hadn't either.

In the interrogation room, there wasn't much. A metal table, metal chair (that was wielded to the floor and she was handcuffed to), and gray walls. The wall opposite of her had a big one-way mirror and in the corner of the room a security camera blinked.

It was all rather dull, she decided, even for her.

Either way, Hel was worried about Bobby. The frostbite burns looked painful. And while she had no idea what the hell had caused it, she was hoping that SHIELD was nice enough to offer him medical assistance.

If they hadn't… Well, there would be hell to pay.

"She does look like him, doesn't she?"

"Quite a bit."

"Think it could be our gal?"

"Maybe. But if so, why was she in New York? More specifically, Avengers Tower for that matter?"

"…It's too much of a coincidence."

"Exactly."

"Is Natasha going to interrogate her or are you?"

"Neither."

"Neither? Then who is?" A pause. "Surely not Thor?"

"That would be a biased interrogation. No, Stark's gonna do it."

Steve's jaw dropped. "Tony?"

"Yeah. Thor is too emotionally invested, you and Bruce aren't trained in interrogation, Tasha scares- well, everyone, and the Director says I'm too-" Clint paused, mouth curling in distaste, "emotionally involved, if this is Loki's kid. But he thinks Stark'll be able to connect better since she's just a kid." He shrugged, staring impassively through the one-way glass into the interrogation room. "Who knows? Maybe she'll be a fan and spill everything."

The captain bit his lip. "Is he even trained in interrogation?"

Clint's mask dropped and he grinned. "Nope, not a bit."

"Great."

The archer clapped him on the back. "No worries, Cap. He'll be hearing questions through an earpiece directed by Fury. Besides, she's just a teenager. It's not like she'll resist that hard."

"What about her friend?"

"We're pretty sure he's human, but from what we can tell, he isn't under a spell or anything. Tony said that his doohickey thing that picks up magic was going nuts about her, not her friend, which is how he knew she was in the lobby to begin with."

Steve frowned. "She was doing magic?"

"Cap, did you see the glass? It was all in pieces on the floor. Yeah, she was doing magic, but we don't know exactly what she was doing with it-"

"Hey, what's she doing?"

Clint turned his attention back to the window just in time to see the girl pull out what must've been a bobby pin from her sloppy bun. Her dark eyebrows furrowed as she bent over her handcuff and set to work on breaking free.

They watched in silence for a few moments before the teen rolled her eyes and threw a bent bobby pin on the table. She pulled out another and set to work again.

Steve made a move towards the door, as if to stop her, but Clint put a hand on his shoulder. "Even if she gets out of those cuffs, there's not much she can do unless she decides to use some of that magic mojo to break out. That door is reinforced."

The captain still looked uneasy, but with a small nod he sat down in one of the two chairs in the observation room. After a few more moments of watching her, the soldier said, "Does this seem a little off to you?"

The archer snorted. "Yes, every last fucking bit. I don't like it."

"I mean, when we captured Loki back in Germany, it was so easy and turned out to be part of his plan. This was too easy. What if it's the same thing?"

Clint crossed his arms, sighing a little. "I don't know, Cap. It all depends on whether or not she even knows exactly who Loki is. If what Thor said is true, then she doesn't even know she's an Asgardian."

"But she was using magic."

"I know, that's why I don't like it."

Through the glass, a look of surprise crossed the dark haired teen's face from where she was bent over the handcuffs. They watched as she pulled her hand out of the handcuff, still staring at it in surprise.

Clint huffed a laugh. "Well, damn."

At that moment the door to the observation room opened and in walked Tony, sipping from a Starbuck's coffee cup. He shot a grin to both the men and plopped down in the other chair, putting his feet on the table. "Hello, gents. Miss me?"

Steve looked at the feet that were now propped on the table before looking back to the billionaire. "Aren't you supposed to be in-" he pointed at the one-way glass, "there?"

Tony shook his head as he set his coffee on the table. "Not anymore. Phil kinda took that plan and threw it in the trash."

The archer standing behind him tensed up. "What?"

The genius shrugged and replied, "He wanted to do the interrogation himself. He was very convincing."

"What the hell is he thinking?! He's still recovering!"

Tony held his hands up. "That's what I said, but he threatened me with a taser."

Steve echoed, "A taser?"

"Don't give me that look; he's threatened me with one before."

"What look-"

Clint cut in. "Look," he said sharply, "we can't just let a wounded man interrogate a potential threat alone. Maybe we can get Tasha in there after all-"

"Sorry, no can do, Legolas," Tony said, "she's helping Bruce do damage control with Thor. The big guy keeps insisting that we release his niece. And let me tell you, he is pissed that SHIELD is holding her like a criminal."

Steve looked back to the glass. "So she really is Loki's daughter."

"Thor seems to think so."

"Regardless," the archer snapped. "I am not going to stand by and watch Coulson interrogate the daughter of the person who stabbed him and nearly killed him."

"Did kill him," Tony corrected. "Phil was dead for a total of two hours and 18 minutes. And it's too late."

Because just at that moment, Phil Coulson walked into the interrogation room looking as calm as ever.

Hel was actually surprised that she'd managed to get the handcuffs undone.

The only reason she'd tried to get them off was because she was bored and had never tried it before, so she had figured 'Why not?'. And it had actually worked.

She could mark that off her bucket list.

Hela waited for something to happen, someone to come inside and handcuff her again, this time on both hands. She waited. The security camera blinked dully. A small sigh escaped her.

With nothing to do, she stared at herself in the one-way mirror. No doubt there was someone on the other side, staring in at her, wondering just exactly what to charge her with. Probably vandalism.

It was at that moment she realized how utterly screwed she was when her foster home agent found out.

Then she thought of Bobby's parents and winced.

She huffed a sigh and slouched in the seat so that the back of her head was resting on the back of the chair and her feet were propped in the chair on the other side of the table. Not the most comfortable spot, but it would work. Her fingers began rubbing each charm on her bracelet, one by one.

They could've at least let her keep her iPod. They'd taken everything. Their phones, iPods, her laptop, their luggage, even Bobby's camera that he used for his hobby of photography. Hel knew how much that camera meant to him, she'd bought it for him one Christmas, and she was damn well sure going to get it back if it was the last thing she did.

There was the sound of the locks on the door opening and she sat up straight in her seat.

There is one thing to understand about Hel: she's not surprised very often.

Sitting on the sidelines watching can not only be entertaining but also teaching. She's not a very dramatic, emotional person, usually quiet about her own opinions and feelings. She doesn't scream when something scares her (fire, fire scares her), she doesn't bust out laughing at something funny, no matter how funny it is, and she doesn't bother keeping her opinion of other people to herself if she sees what they're doing is wrong.

And usually, when she's surprised, the most reaction she gives is her eyes widening just a bit.

But this time, her jaw actually did drop.

Because the only soul to ever walk out of Helheim just walked into the interrogation.

And, yeah, she was pretty floored by it.

Agent Phil Coulson's lips twitched just the tiniest bit in what might've been a smile and he nodded to her. "Hello."

"Uh…"

He ignored her intelligent greeting and chose to sit down in the chair her feet had currently been occupying. In his hands he held a plain tan envelope that had a SHIELD symbol stamped on the front and a ton of papers stuffed in it.

Hel continued to stare at the dead-man-walking as he settled into the seat and flipped through the giant file like he had all the time in the world. Finally he looked up again, blue eyes sparkling with what she swore was amusement. "How are you?"

She almost forgot to answer. "Um. Fine." Her eyes flicked to where the ragged hole had been in his Men In Black suit, which looked exactly like the one he was wearing now save for the fact that it didn't have a bloody gaping hole in it. "How's the, um… Wound?"

That time Agent Coulson did smile. "Very well. I'm almost recovered."

Hela nodded, suddenly feeling very out of her element. Confusion did that to her. "Good. Glad it's all…better and you're not- You know. Dead."

Just a few seconds after she spoke a cell phone started ringing. The agent sighed a little but reached in his pocket to answer it. "Yes?"

Hel jumped at the sudden shouting on the other end.

Coulson blinked, completely unfazed. The shouting went on for a few moments before he cut the person off. "All will be explained in due time, Barton. Now, if you don't mind, I have an interrogation to continue." And with that he ended the call.

Putting it on the table, the agent clasped his hands in front of him on the table. "What do you want me to call you?"

The teen caught a glimpse of herself in the one-way mirror. She looked owlish. "Same as last time, I guess. Hel."

He nodded as if he had suspected that. "Okay, Miss Hel. Do you have a last name?"

Hela watched him carefully, looking for any signs of an ulterior motive. She felt she could trust Coulson, if anything, because she'd already met him in the Underworld. There wasn't anything hostile about the man, just the same calm, balanced soul she'd returned to the living.

Then it struck her.

She'd seen his soul. Surely that counted as something, right?

So despite all the warnings she felt about handing out information to a spy organization that she already didn't like, she said, "No. I'm an orphan. I live with a foster couple."

"I see," he replied, blue eyes understanding. "May I ask what you were doing in the lobby of Stark Tower?"

The teen hesitated, before answering truthfully. "Looking for answers."

Agent Coulson raised an eyebrow and asked, "Answers to what?"

Suddenly Hel felt hot, uncomfortable embarrassment flash over her. Her gaze slid to her bracelet and she started twisting the little charms just a little harder, a little faster. Fragile trust or not, if she told them just exactly why, they'd think she was insane. She thought it was insane. But she had come here to talk to SHIELD to begin with anyways. She just hadn't expected them to lock them up.

Hela blinked. Now that she thought about it, just exactly why did they treat her like she was a threat?

Flashes of glittering glass on the floor passed through her mind, and she thought, Well, it might have something to do with the exploding windows.

Still… She had come looking for answers. She was going to find them. Even if she was locked up in an asylum.

Hel refocused on Coulson and asked with as much feeling as she could generate, "Can I trust you? Like, can you help me?"

The man tilted his head to the side a bit, but nodded. "As long as you're not threatening the security of the world, yes, I suppose you can. And as for helping you, I'll do whatever I can within my power."

The teen hesitated for a heartbeat, then, "I'm looking for Loki."

The agent didn't look surprised, or particularly like he thought she was insane. "We had figured as much."

She frowned. "What?"

Agent Coulson opened the file he had brought in and began leafing through the thick stack. He came to a section and pulled out a good portion of the papers and placed them in front of her. "We ran tests and a web analysis on your laptop to see what you've been doing lately on the web. There were several searches regarding Loki, Norse mythology, and SHIELD made in the past two months. In fact, the first one was on the very day that the attack on Manhattan was made." He pulled another section of papers out, this one only seven or eight sheets thick. "We also found this Word Document containing lengthy research into what you were searching on the Internet."

When he set them in front of her, Hela hesitantly reached out to examine the papers. They were indeed a record of her web searches and websites she'd visited along with the Word Document.

For a moment she wondered if they would try to jail her for downloading songs illegally. To come all this way and be taken down by a few hundred free songs would be something she would laugh at while in a jail cell.

Hel sighed, mostly because she didn't know what else to do. She just felt…tired. "Well, Agent Coulson, what happens now?"

He had clasped his hands in front of him again. "You tell me, Hel. Exactly why are you looking for Loki?"

"Because he has the answers to my questions."

"And what questions would those be?"

Hel looked the agent in the eye and willed him to understand. "…A little over a year ago, I met him in a dream."

"A dream?"

"Yes. The same place I met you."

Coulson nodded, his face as blank as ever. "What happened?"

Up until this point, she had kept her hands under the table in her lap. But with lingering doubt Hel pull her right hand from under the table and placed it where the agent could see. Fingering the small fire charm, she showed it him. "We talked and he gave me this before he left."

He stared at the glinting gold curiously for a few moments before his eyes flicked back to meet her own. "May I see it?"

Hela instantly tensed up at the thought of taking off the bracelet. She cursed herself for wearing shorts instead of jeans. If she took it off, everyone would be able to see the discoloring on her legs. And it was sure to make someone suspicious if they noticed that she came in with pale legs and walked out with bruised skin.

A knot of unease in her stomach, she scooted forward in the seat so her legs were hidden under the table. If Coulson gave it back before she had to get up, then no one would have to see.

So with shaking fingers she unclasped it and set it on the table.

Immediately she felt the loss of whatever covered the ugly color of her legs and tried to hold in a small, panicked breath. The agent picked up the bracelet like it was delicate while Hel gripped her hands tensely under the table.

After a few silent moments of examining each little charm on it, Agent Coulson asked, "Would you mind if I took this in to have it scanned?"

She tensed up and replied in barely a whisper, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea."

"I promise to return it to you in the condition it is now."

Hel took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. "It's not that, but…" Damn. "I just don't want to part with it. It…means a lot. To me." God, how cheesy was that?

Coulson watched her contemplatively for a few seconds before he said flatly, "I'll see what I can do."

And with that he pulled his phone out again.

"Stark, I need you in here with a scanner." Without another word he flipped it shut.

"I will not allow my niece to be held as a criminal, Director."

"Thor, we don't have any other option."

The thunderer's blue eyes flashed and there was a slight rumble outside. "The Man of Iron informed me that part of the mortal law is that you cannot hold a person without just causes. She has not wronged you or this planet. You must release her."

Director Fury's hand slammed down on the table, almost echoing in the private conference room. "Well, how exactly are we supposed to make sure she damn well doesn't turn out to be her father's daughter and start killing people, then? We can't let her back into public, that's for sure. The only place we can watch her closely is here, surrounded by SHIELD agents."

Thor's fists clenched at the words of Loki and he took a step forward, but Bruce put a placating hand on his shoulder. "Hold on just a second, Thor. He has a point. We can't just let her roam the streets."

Natasha, who had been standing off to the side silently with her arms crossed, finally spoke up. "Can't we put tails on her?"

Fury shook his head, looking grim. "It wouldn't be enough."

"Clint and I-"

"Even if you and Agent Barton were tailing her, it wouldn't be completely foolproof. This is Loki's daughter. She needs to be watched 24/7."

Suddenly Thor stood a little straighter and looked a little more determined. "Hela can stay at Avengers Tower, with us to watch over her."

Both Natasha and Fury exclaimed, "What?" while Bruce just muttered an, "Oh, Jesus", and ran a hand through his hair nervously.

The god grinned with a confidence that seemed almost a little too sure. "Under the watch of my fellow Avengers and I, we could properly assure that Hela is safe and not following the path of my brother. It would be the opportune chance to reintroduce her to her true heritage again while we search for her brothers."

Bruce bit his lip. "Thor… That probably isn't a good idea."

"It's a very bad idea," Fury insisted.

"Agreed," Natasha said flatly.

"The Avengers can barely watch themselves," the director said, "and you want them to watch a teenager that may or may not be working with her father for world domination. I think we'd have a better chance on keeping her here under the watch of properly trained SHIELD agents."

Natasha sniffed, looking elegantly offended.

Thor's grin turned to a dark glower. "I will not have my niece held by those who would wish ill fortune upon her once they learned of her parentage."

"Then what exactly could we do with her, Thor?"

"As I said, Hela can stay at Avengers Tower whilst we locate her brothers-"

"And I'll say it again: bad fuckin' idea."

Bruce cleared his throat, breaking up what was beginning to look like a physical fight between the thunderer and the director of SHIELD. "Ultimately, I'd say that decision comes down to Tony, right? I mean, it is his tower. He should be able to say if he wants her to stay there or not."

Fury practically growled out a 'damnit' and Thor grinned again. "Surely the Anthony of Stark will see the reasoning behind my proposition."

The scientist scratched the back of his head uncertainly. "Um… I'm sure he will, Thor."

Natasha snorted just the tiniest bit and sent him a look that said, 'You shouldn't have said that'.

Hel watched with some wariness and what might have been a tad defensiveness as billionaire Tony Stark had a conversation with his phone and Coulson as he scanned her bracelet. Okay, so maybe it actually wasn't his phone, but rather the AI – Jarvis? – and from what she'd seen, Siri didn't have anything on Jarvis.

"-ridiculous, if you wanted me to get an accurate scan, you should let me take this to my lab. The chance of having a correct scan using my phone to get readings is- Oh, eighty-eight percent at best. In my lab-," and on and on and on. How much could one man talk?

It was eerily like Bobby, Hela mused as she watched the inventor tapping on his phone with one hand and holding her bracelet in the other.

Then: Oh, crap, Bobby-

"Did anyone help my friend with, um, his hands?"

Coulson nodded. "His hands were attended to as soon as you were brought in. He'll be fine."

Hel swallowed as some of the tension eased out of her shoulders. "Good."

Stark suddenly stopped tapping on his phone, eyes zeroing on her. "You know, funny thing. Your buddy had frostbite all over his hands. Any idea how that got there?"

The teen felt like she shrunk under his almost accusing gaze. In a whisper she said, "No."

He held her gaze, eyes practically screaming, 'But don't you?'.

Then just as suddenly the billionaire was back on his phone, the moment completely gone. "Alrighty then. Hold still for a sec."

Next a phone was being shoved in her face, a bright blue light scanning over her. Other than blinking in surprise, she didn't move.

After a few seconds there was a beep. Stark's eyes flitted over the screen. "Okay, then. Well, this isn't weird at all."

Both Hela and Coulson looked expectantly at him to elaborate.

The genius hesitated, glancing at Hel dubiously before turning back to Coulson. "I thought you SHIELD agents were sticklers for keeping confidential findings under wraps, especially from potential suspects." He jerked a thumb in the direction of Hel and she glared at him.

The SHIELD agent sighs. After a moment's debate, Coulson said, "Hallway", and stood up stiffly, from what Hel guessed was the healing wound that she'd seen in Helheim.

She watched them walk out the interrogation room, and it wasn't until the door had closed until she realized that Stark still had her bracelet in his hand. Immediately a wave of chills broke out over her and her throat closed up.

Before the teen registers what she's doing, she's half standing. Hel nearly took the few steps to the door to get back what she thought of as her most prized possession before she stopped and actually thought.

It wasn't like they were going to take it. They weren't going to steal it. They weren't going to pawn it like that blonde bitch in school had threatened to last year because she hated Hel.

…Now she was just overreacting.

With a cross between a whine and a groan she plops back down in the seat. Was this what separation issues were like? Because this obsession with the bracelet was not-

Hela's train of thought derails and crashes when an explosion shakes the tower enough to knock her out of her seat.

Which is to say: enough.

Because that damn chair was wielded to the floor and there should have been no way in hell (heh) that she could have fallen out of it. But she did and now she's on the floor and she's hurting where she hit the floor and the lights are out and her head's ringing.

That's when she realizes that's not her head ringing, but an alarm.

Shit.

Hela groans and tries to get up, but she really did hit her head when she fell and it hurt. So she'll take her time while whatever the heck is going on outside her little interrogation room is sorted by people who know what they're doing-

Except someone doesn't give her that option.

Rough hands are grabbing her arms and dragging her up against her will before she has a chance to fight back. She has never been one to scream, but she will use force, so when they do get her up, she does kick out as hard as she can and nail some poor guy in the knee.

In response, she gets cursed at and something cold and metal shoved against her head. It's a moment before she realizes what it is.

A gun.

That completely drains the fight out of Hel, enough that she's left feeling cold on the inside and she gathers her wits about her.

The two agents dressed like SWAT agents drag her from the interrogation room to a war zone. The lights are out here too, and little red lights are flashing in time with the alarm sound. Papers were scattered everywhere like a great wind had came through and blown them away. Plainclothes agents were rushing back and forth shouting, most going down the right hallway. …Which was where the agents that had her were dragging her.

They shouted things Hel couldn't make out into their helmets as they kept an iron grip on her. People cleared paths for them as them saw them, and it scared her that most of them looked at her with fear and hate.

They turned a corner, and that's when Hel ceased being scared and started being angry and confused.

Standing there with multiple SHIELD agents pointing guns at his head was Loki. He was choking a very surprised, very pissed looking Tony Stark by the throat against the wall in one hand and in the other hand he was clutching Hel's bracelet. There were shadows and green wisps of energy dancing across his entire body, giving off the pure aura of power.

And, most of all, he looked angry. No, not just angry, but downright murderous.

That's what scared Hel. This was nothing, nothing like the man she had met a year ago.

This was a someone ready to kil-

"Loki!"

The specially trained agents don't so much as flinch at the commanding voice, but Hela does look to see a black man in a trench coat of all things with an eye patch and a pistol aimed at Loki's head move up behind the group of agents already surrounding him. His face is fierce when he says, "Put him down. Now."

The god either doesn't hear him or doesn't frankly care. If possible he leans closer to the billionaire, pale face sharp and menacing when he barely utters, "Where did you get this?" And he tilts his head towards Hel's bracelet.

Stark's eyes don't even flicker as he shoots a thin grin back at Loki. "Sorry, that's classified."

The hand pinning his throat tightened and Loki's green eyes literally flashed a bright poison green. "Where is she?"

He sounded so angry, so cold, so murderous, and all at once Hel started struggling again because if she didn't something bad was going to happen, something like Loki murdering Tony Fucking Stark right in front of her all because he had her damn bracelet-

Her elbow strikes one of the agents in the chin (probably hurting her more than him, because she was a wimp). He snaps at her, "You little bitch!", and grabs her arm to the point where circulation is probably being cut off and wrenches it behind her back again. It hurts. A lot. It makes her angry, angry enough to smash windows like earlier, but all she feels is an empty hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. No power thrumming through her body, no feeling of buzzing on her skin. It's almost strangely disappointing, in retrospect she muses, because she could really use that right now to- well, do something.

…On second thought, she can do something. And she's stupid for not realizing it earlier.

"Loki!" She shouts as loud as she can over whatever the man in the black trench coat is saying as a light brown-haired man runs up in a different SHIELD outfit than the rest, a bow drawn in his hands and a quiver of arrows on his back. "Stop! Stop hurting him!"

If she'd had the time of day Hela would've been amazed at how many heads turned to look at her with incredulous glances.

So many things happened at once it was hard to count them all. Almost.

The one eye he had left went wide as the man with the eye patch said aloud, "What the fuck is she doing out of her interrogation room-"

The man with the bow gave her a grim look that flicked between Loki, herself, and the gun the agents were holding to her head.

Loki went still as a statue and the room suddenly dropped several degrees, so much so that Hela could see her breath.

The hallway became very silent, other than the shuffling of SHIELD agents, the background noise of the alarm, and- Thunder?

"Let her go." It was a quiet, flat demand, aimed at only the two agents holding Hel.

She could practically feel the hostility and tension bristle up on the agents as they were finally addressed. That's when she understood. They'd done this under their own orders. They weren't here under orders from some higher up. They'd done this of their own volition. They'd wanted this confrontation.

But the question was why?

She didn't exactly have time to analyze it and break it down like she did the book of Shakespeare poems Bobby had bought her for her last birthday. Even if she had had the time of day, the teen doubted that she'd been able to think clearly with the cold metal of a gun pressed against her head.

Hela's breath dances in small, short puffs of fog in front of her face. No one in the crowded hallway says a thing.

Then there's two sudden intakes of breath and the agents holding her crumple screaming bloody murder.

Hel's body instantly tenses at the raw, anguished sound and the sight of the two agents that had just been seconds away from blowing her brains out on the floor clutching their heads. It takes her only a moment to figure out what's happening and her head snaps around to zero in on Loki.

The dark, satisfied look on his face scares her.

What scares her more is the possibility that he could be killing the agents right now, right in front of her, because of her.

So she does the first thing she thinks of: she launches herself at the green and leather clad man and grabs the straps on that ridiculous outfit to pull him down to her level. "Stop it!"

He looks stunned at first, then confused. "I'm sorry?"

Hel shakes him forcefully, which isn't that much because Loki's so damned tall and built more than she is, but she still shakes him as hard as she can. The sounds of the agents screaming and the other people in the hallway freaking out is echoing in her ears. "You're killing them!"

The man's grip on Tony Stark hasn't wavered this entire time, but Loki seems to forget all about everything and everyone else now. "They were threatening yo-"

The teen literally growls out loud, pulling him even closer. "Stop. Killing. Them."

The god frowns like he's debating whether or not to listen to her. He better damn well listen to her, she thinks, or she'll plant her fist in his face.

The screaming dies down to quiet whimpers, and Hel lets out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Her fists unclench from the leather straps and Loki leans back like she burned him.

"Uh," both Hel and Loki break their intense staring contest to glare at the billionaire still held in a choke hold, "Look-"

She grabs Loki's arm – and holy cow was it freezing – and forcefully tugs until he drops Stark. The inventor shoots her a grateful glance and hastily scoots away while Loki sends her a look that is so disbelieving and taken back that she's offended.

"What?!" she snaps, throwing up her arms, because last time she checked he was the one going around trying to kill people.

His fists clenched at his sides and Loki hissed, "What are you doing?"

"What am I doin-"

"Loki Laufeyson, Hela Lokidottir, hands in the air."

…Lokidottir? The hell?

They put her in a glass cage. A fucking glass cage.

Albeit a high tech glass cage with different odd looking symbols painted on the glass walls from the outside, but still.

…That was also after they snapped some heavy, unfitting handcuffs around her wrists that were too big and thrummed like they had power in them.

The glass room was just a tad bigger than her interrogation room and had a simple hard cot and fold-up chair. An adjoining room that was thankfully not glass-walled opened to a white, pristine bathroom. Past the glass walls and white painted symbols Hel could see SHIELD agents running about, looking frazzled. Soon the crowd thinned out until all she as left with was a few menacing guards by the doors who ignored her.

Hela was pissed at this point.

She didn't know what was going on. At the moment, it seemed like everyone had lost their Goddamn minds. Freaking Loki, the key to the door of all her answers, was turning out to be the wrong key for the lock and an ass about it at the same time. SHIELD had been so much help, throwing her in a cell and slapping some cuffs that didn't even fit on her. Bobby was somewhere other than here with her, which just flat out wasn't right. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they'd taken her damn bracelet, like Coulson had promised they wouldn't-

Hel stopped dead in her pacing. Shit.

Unwillingly her ice blue eyes strayed down to her legs. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the dark, ugly bruised coloring.

Feeling that old, familiar sensation of dark loathing well up inside her like an old enemy, Hela sank down on the hard cot with her eyes squeezed shut and fists clenched together in the handcuffs.

"I demand to speak to my brother."

"No."

"Then I demand to speak to my niece."

"You're not gonna 'demand' anything, Thor."

The Thunderer's eyes flashed, and a distinct rumble of thunder could be heard. Before the god could call Mjolnir and make one fried Director of SHIELD, Steve stepped up and held a hand up. "Hold on a second, Thor. He has a point. Is it really such a good idea for you to be talking to Loki?"

"I do not know what you mean." The blonde god looked like he knew exactly what they meant, guarded expression and all.

"Well…" Steve trailed off.

"You have a tendency to piss each other off and bash each others face in whenever you talk," Clint said flatly from where he was sitting on the table cleaning his bow with a tense expression.

Bruce smiled a little and muttered, "That's one way to put it."

Thor huffed. "At least let me speak with Hela. She is an innocent in all of this."

"Innocent?" Natasha and Clint echoed disbelievingly while Fury snorted.

The god sighed, blue eyes darkening. "She, along with her siblings, have paid for centuries because of my family's decisions. Now that I have a chance to…fix my family's mistakes and salvage her relationship in the Aesir family, I want to take it."

Nearly all the rooms occupants sighed. "Thor…"

Fury huffed a sigh. "We're going to interrogate her again, and I'll be handling it personally this time. Thor, you can come with me since she may respond better to you."

The thunderer's face lit up.

"But no questions until I'm done, got it?"

He sobered a bit, murmuring his assent.

"Good. We'll pick up Stark from medical so I can get a complete report from the scanning he did earlier."

Hel's torn between crying or just screaming out. Which is unusual for her, to say the least. She's usually so sure of where she's at.

Crying is awfully tempting with the reminder of her bruised legs like a neon sign right in her face. She can't stop staring. Without thinking, she pulls the rough linen sheets off the bed and into her lap, effectively covering any and all gray as the white cloth spills like a waterfall onto the floor and over her feet.

Her fists clench, and unclench. She hates this for a million reasons. Clench, unclench. Repeat. Over and over and over and over and-

There's the hiss of the fancy, no doubt bulletproof door opening and Hel flinches.

She almost doesn't look up as Tony Stark, Thor, and the man in the black trench coat walked in, each in a different manner. For a man who had just been nearly choked to death hours earlier, he walked like he was on his daily walk. Thor looked grim and determined where the last man was closed off.

Hela stares at Thor, then at the cuffs on her wrists while thinking of the glass cage around her. Did they really think she was that much of a threat, enough to bring in one of the 'heavy-hitter's' of the Avengers, as the media had put it?

Well. She couldn't decide if that was flattering or disturbing that the government was afraid of a teenage girl.

"Ahem."

…And she should really pay more attention.

All three of them were focused on her, laser-like and sharp in their own way. The man with the eye patch started off with, "Miss Hel, you are aware of who Loki Odinson is, correct?"

Stupid question. Judging from how Stark rolled his eyes, he thought so, too.

"Yes."

"Then why in God's good name would you be searching him out?"

These were basically a repeat of what Coulson had asked her. Hel liked Coulson better. "Because I need answers," she said flat out, like that would explain everything.

The man paused a beat, waiting for an answer, then said a little more forcefully, "Care to explain answers to what? Or how you know Loki has them?"

She glared at him. Coulson was definitely better. "Don't I get a lawyer? And handcuffs that actually fit?"

Stark said, "Well, those actually weren't designed for you and they're the only ones we have, so-"

Eye-Patch glared at him, cutting in. "So you claim to have had no previous encounters with Loki?"

Hela threw her hands in the air as best as she could. "How could I? All I've done is come to New York and completely screw up whatever chance I thought I had at this."

He leaned in closer, intimidating. "You seemed awfully familiar with him in that hallway earlier."

She resisted leaning back and swallowed the feeling in her throat as the lie came easy. Which, it was really a half-truth. "Yeah, well, he was killing two of your agents and Ton- Um, Mr. Stark."

"Thanks for that, by the way," Stark said to her, tilting his head to her as he crossed his arms. Uncomfortable, the teen nodded and mumbled an apology.

"They'll be paying for that," said Eye-Patch, "seeing as you weren't to be removed from your interrogation room in the first place."

"So they're okay?"

Eye-Patch stared at her like she was an alien. She was getting that a lot more lately. "Yeah, they'll be okay."

Thor, speaking up for the first time, said, "Director, I would like to speak to m- Hela alone."

Well, this could be her chance. The 'Director' cast another suspicious look at her but gave the Avenger a tight nod before stalking out of the room. As the door hissed open for him, Hel kinda wished it would hit him on the way out. Sadly, it didn't.

Surprisingly, Stark didn't leave with him, and she wasn't quite sure if she was grateful for that or not.

In her distraction Thor had taken the only chair in the room and pulled it closer to her bed. It was odd to see the giant rock of a man leaning forward in a fold-up chair and clasping his hands together somewhat nervously.

Something at the back of her mind was bothering her, whispering too faint words as she looked into the god's open blue eyes and saw something.

Something familiar.

"Hela?"

She blinked.

"Do you know who I am?"

She hesitated as the memories of mythology web pages and old paintings or carvings of God of Thunder flashed through her mind. "…Yeah, I do."

He smiled, gentle and small like the action might scare her. This whole thing scared her. "I know this may sound…strange, but do you perhaps…remember me?"

Hel frowned. She should. She knew. The thing at the back of her mind whispering told her. "No."

The – dare she say it – hopeful light in his eyes dimmed just a little and his smile grew even smaller, even sadder.

"But I should, shouldn't I?" She reached up to run a hand through her hair, brush it out of her face, something, and the action just reminded her that she was in too-large handcuffs.

Tony Stark stepped forward, smiling apologetically and reaching for the cuffs. "Sorry about that. SHIELD gets a little over-excited when it comes to restraining prisoners. It's a weird kink, if you ask me."

Hel watched him press and slide panels on the plating of the cuffs, experienced hands working fast. It was like a puzzle, one that she could never have figured out, and in seconds there was a beeping noise and the hinges on both of the cuffs snapped open making her jump a little.

"Hela," Thor continued as the inventor took the handcuffs, leaving her to rub her wrists, "I do not believe you told Director Fury the truth when you said that you had never encountered Loki before."

She bristled at first (she hated being called a liar, even if it was true), but then she saw the open look on his face. It was kind of hard to lie to that raw, open honesty.

Hel sighed, "I told Coulson already."

"Well, tell us," Stark said flatly.

"I…met him in a dream."

"That's specific."

"Tony," Thor rumbled in that thunderous tone that clearly said 'shut up'.

The billionaire held up his hands. "Sorry, just saying."

The teen continued, wondering how much she could tell them before they thought she was crazy. "Um… This is going to sound insane, but ever since I can remember, I've always had the same dream." She frowned, thinking about it. "…And yet, it's not the same dream every time."

Thor looked away. "In this dream, are you…in a fortress?"

"Yeah, I guess, if you want to call Elivdnir that."

Surprisingly, they both didn't shoot her questioning looks at the odd name. They just looked more alert.

Hel feels her gaze go a little unfocused, thinking about the marbled halls that felt so right when she there. "And in Elivdnir, I'm Queen. Of Helheim. I have a manservant named Ganglati and a maidservant named Ganglot. Each night I direct souls into different levels of Helheim, based on their sins. Each night there's different souls waiting. Each night is different."

Stark said incredulously, "And you never thought that was a little bit weird?"

She snapped back to focus and glared at him. "Yes, I thought it was weird, but there's a lot of things about me everyone considers 'weird'. If I went around telling people I had the same dream every night that I was queen of a mythological Underworld, don't you think I'd be in some asylum in a straightjacket right now?"

He shrugged. "Okay, point."

"When did you meet Loki in these dreams?" Thor interrupted.

Hela twisted her fingers into the sheets, remembering seeing Loki on the TV attacking Manhattan and trying to compare it to the same man she'd met in her dream. "A year before the attack on Manhattan."

The inventor and God of Thunder shared a look. "That'd be, what, a month or two after-," Tony started, but Thor cut him off with a curt, "Yes."

She looked between them, curiosity kindled. A month after what, she wondered.

"In this dream," the god asked, "what did he do? What did he say?"

Hela hesitated. She felt like by sharing what had happened, she was sharing something intimate. Something that had been between just herself and Loki. But still. "We went for a walk and talked. He showed me a part of Helheim I've never been in before. When it was time for him to leave, I…asked him if I'd see him again, and he said he planned on making it happen."

The teen frowned to herself. Part of her wished she could go back to that walk. Everything was so much simpler, so much more ordered then.

Shaking herself out of it, she added, "He also gave me a bracelet."

Stark reach into his pocket, pulling out said golden bracelet. "This one?"

She wanted to be mad that he had kept it for so long, but part of her still felt bad that he'd be throttled by Loki just because he had the bracelet. He was still a little disheveled from said throttling and she could see bruising around his neck. So she let her anger go for the moment and held her hand out for it. "Yeah, that one. Can I have it back now?"

He seemed more amused than anything at her irritation. "Sure thing, kid. Catch."

Hel caught the charm bracelet in the air. Immediately the cool of the metal seeped into her skin and she instantly felt better from just holding it. Wasting no time, she slipped it around her wrist and felt the familiar tingle. A weight lifted from her shoulders.

Thor was frowning at her, or more specifically the bracelet, as she pulled the sheets off her legs and was secretly relieved to see smooth pale skin. "There is magic infused in that bracelet. I can sense it. But it is not completely Loki's magic. It is…tainted."

Hel determinedly started studying the jewelry for any damage. Nope, she didn't know anything about magic. Nothing at all.

Stark said, "Yeah, about that: when I scanned her and it, I got some weird readings, Thor. The frequencies match up with both Loki's magic and the energy given off by the Cube."

A picture of a Rubik's cube popped into her head and she bit her lip to keep from smiling.

The thunderer paused, thinking that over. Then, "That is worrying."

"Something we agree on," the inventor muttered, then asked, "Hel, has anything changed since he gave you that bracelet?"

Hela wondered briefly if he'd seen her legs earlier in the hallway when Loki was attacking, but she guessed with all the action he hadn't noticed. "Like what?"

He gave her a knowing look. "Like, oh, I don't know… Exploding windows? Frostbite hands? Hiding the true color of your legs?"

Her eyes shot up to finally look him in the face. "I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.

Thor leaned forward a little to get her attention. "Hel, please. We must know if we are to help you."

When he put it like that and gave her that look… With the sense that she was making a mistake, the teen unclasped the bracelet and let it drop into her lap. The illusion on her legs faded and the gray bled into the pale skin, tainting it until it was all mottled gray bruising. She looked away so she didn't have to see their reactions.

Stark let out a low curse and Thor didn't say anything. The corners of her mouth twisted at the familiar dark emotion that arose from showing anyone the true colors of her legs.

A large, warm hand on her knee made her jump and she looked up. Thor was smiling at her, truly happy.

Hela blinked. What?

The god said with warmth, "Do not be ashamed, niece. If I harbored any doubts that you were truly who I thought you to be, they are gone now."

"Niece?" she repeated, feeling detached from her body.

He smiled wider, blue eyes twinkling. "You are my niece, Hela. Loki is your father. You are Hela Lokidottir."

She blinked. There it was again. Lokidottir.

Somewhere in the distance, she heard Tony Stark say, "…Thor, big guy, I think you broke her…"

Something gripped her head, and it was a few seconds before she realized it was her own hand.

By all rights, she should be saying, You're crazy. You're insane. My father? Bullshit.

But she wasn't. Because she'd thought the very same thing. It was what inspired this whole trip, the little crazy, insane idea that she was daughter of a mythological god who wasn't so mythological up until a few months ago.

Still. Hearing the actual words said out loud and confirmed…

It was like being sucker punched.

She took a deep breath. Lowered her hand. Said as steady as she could manage, "I want to see him."

The inventor said, "Um…", and Thor looked happier. "I had guessed that you might. He will be very happy to see you."

And there we have it, folks. Took me forever, but in my defense, I battled through writer's block, bronchitis, and a sinus infection to finish this.

NEXT CHAPTER: We finally get to the part I've been excited to write! Hel and Loki meeting in real life. But be warned, the reunion won't exactly be all hugs and tears… Also, we finally find out what the hell happened to Bobby, and where things go from here. Here's a hint: out of this world. ;)