Gaaaaaah you guys are so awesome. Just as awesome as the Avengers is. (By the way, my mom had her Loki action figure I gave her for mothers day feed her milk duds and she cheered loudly every time he was on screen. We recieved strange looks.)

amrawo: Weeeee thank you!

Itsgoose2u: Thank you very much!

Vorazlov28: as';ewfjwe (that was me banging my head on the keyboard because I love your review and I have no real words to describe how awesome it was.)

LittleMissMia123: Hahaha thank you!

Chapter Seven

"Please help me!"

Thor had heard the screaming and pleas as he was running to where Loki was kept to check on the prisoner. But this was not Loki's voice. And this worried Thor.

So when Thor finally reached the chamber in which Loki had been chained, the god muttered a few Asgardian swear words at what he found.

Loki was not in the stone room. Instead, it was a man with black hair tied into a ponytail. His face was more circular than Loki's and he was wearing a black suit. There was dried blood on his clothes and in his hair.

The strange man looked up at Thor. "Please, who are you?"

"I am Thor, god of thunder, son of Odin," answered Thor with his deep voice. "And who are you?"

"I am Agent Alexander Maxwell," said the man nervously. "I need to get out of here!"

"How did you arrive here, mortal?" inquired Thor.

"I don't know!" exclaimed the man named Alexander. "I just woke up here! I believe I was kidnapped by a man in a green cape! I couldn't speak! It's been such a long time since I came here!"

Thor felt furious. Loki wasn't in Asgard and hadn't been for a long time. Had the mortals made an alliance with him? It seemed unlikely, but Thor did not let the idea slip away. He decided it was time to get back to Midgard.

But of course, now he had this mortal named Alexander to deal with. The man was scared and hurt, so it was more than likely he'd have to be treated in Asgard before he could return to the rest of the mortals.

"I will send a healer to you," Thor told Alexander. "You will remain here until you are well enough to travel."

The man still looked frightened, but thankful. "Thank you."

Thor released the man of his bindings and the man stretched out his arms and fingers. Thor turned and left the cell to find his father.

He did not have to travel far.

"Father," said Thor as he approached the All-Father. "Loki is not here."

Odin's face turned to that of shock. "What are you saying?"

"Loki is not here, Father. I believe he disgused a mortal and sent him in his place."

The old man looked like he could kill someone right then and there.

"Do you believe Loki has returned to Midgard?" asked Odin.

"Yes, Father," replied Thor. "I wish to travel there to find him and bring him back."

"Of course. And I assume he has the tesseract?"

"I believe so, Father."

Odin scowled.

"The mortal needs a healer," added Thor. "I will leave after he gets one."

"So be it, my son," answered Odin grimly. "But once Loki has returned, I will not be as forgiving as last time."

It was Agent Maxwell. That's who Clint had been seeing all these times.

Clint couldn't help but feel stupid. This SHIELD agent had been doing things behind the backs of everyone. What was he even doing with the tesseract anyway? And the main thing was, how did he even get it?

The archer had so many questions running through his mind. Even though he wanted to run after Agent Maxwell and bring him in to be punished, he waited outside the door for the agent to come out.

Except it wasn't Agent Maxwell that exited the door.

Clint felt his heart drop as Loki of Asgard came out the door in his weird hat and cape, clutching the tesseract in his hand. And he had that stupid smile on his face the whole time.

Unfortunately, Clint did not have his bow and arrows with him. This left him defenselss except for hand-to-hand combat. But Clint had silence on his side and leapt out from his hiding place in an attempt to attack Loki.

But Loki seemed to had been expecting this. So instead of Clint knocking Loki over, the god of mischief smacked Clint in the head with his godly strength and sent him flying backwards into a wall.

And then Loki disappeared, leaving Clint on the floor unconscious.

Not once in her life did Gwen fall asleep with a smile on her face. It was hard to believe that she had actually told Steve her childhood story. Granted that wasn't everything that had happened. She hadn't told him what her therapy had been like, but telling him about her childhood was enough. And he had understood. That was the best part of it all. He didn't try to make her feel better about her life, he didn't ask questions. He went with it.

And Gwen was thankful for that.

However, Gwen was rudely awoken from her slumber when a loud and obnoxious alarm started buzzing. Still half asleep, Gwen assumed her phone was the culprit and reached over to grab it and turn it off. But she soon realized that it was not her phone. There was an alarm going off in the helicarrier.

In a panic, Gwen changed into some jeans and threw on a jacket after pulling her messy blonde hair back into a ponytail. She exited her living quarters and found that all the others were doing the same. She joined the crowd that was heading for the command center only to be jerked aside.

Gwen let herself be pulled into a different and empty hallway. She turned to scold whoever yanked her away only to find it was Steve, who was wearing his button down shirt and khakis.

"Steve!" she exclaimed. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," he answered. He grabbed her hand, blushed, and moved his grasp to her wrist. "Fury told me to get you and bring you to the conference room."

Gwen nodded and remained silent.

They continued down the hallway and took a right and then entered the first room on the left. Inside was a large circular table with many chairs around it. Bruce was already inside and quickly got up out of his chair when he saw them.

"Do you two know what happened?" he asked with panic in his voice.

Gwen and Steve both shook their heads. Bruce sat back down, but the duo remained standing. It was a short amount of time when Fury entered the room followed by Natasha who was supporting Clint.

"Clint?" asked Gwen worriedly. "What happened?"

Before he could speak, Fury interrupted. "We will not speak of what happened until Stark arrives, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," they all said together.

It was very quiet and Gwen noticed that Steve still had a grib on her wrist. It wasn't uncomfotable and Gwen couldn't stop the butterfly attack that erupted in her stomach.

It seemed Steve realized this as well and blushed, letting her go. They both took seats at the table where Clint and Natasha had sat down while Fury paced the room.

The silence seemed almost deadly, that is until a certain genius arrived.

"What asshole tries to take over the world at three in the morning?"

"Hey Tony," Gwen called when he came through the door with his head thrown back in frustration and his hands rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"Don't villains sleep?" he groaned. "I mean come on."

"Stop your whining Stark," said Fury irritably. "Barton, you may now relay what happened."

Clint stood up slowly and cleared his throat. "I was patrolling the helicarrier when I saw Agent Maxwell go through a door." Clint gave Gwen a look to tell her it was that door. "I watched to see what he was doing, but it wasn't him that came out. It was Loki. And he had the tesseract."

There was a collective gasp from everyone but Clint, Natasha, and Fury, who seemed to have been already told what happened.

"I tried to attack him," continued Clint, "but he knocked me out."

"That's when I found him," said Natasha. "I saw Loki, but he disappeared. We then went and found Fury."

There was a stunned silence that followed and Gwen felt sick to her stomach.

How long had Loki been impersonating Agent Maxwell? It had to have started somewhere between his defeat earlier in the year and the current moment. And in this time had been the accident. It was Loki who had provoked her into it and he knew what she could do. He knew everything about her.

Gwen thought she was going to throw up.

And now Loki could be anywhere. And with the tesseract, he could do anything.

"Then what happened to Agent Maxwell?" asked Bruce. "The real one?"

"We don't know," answered Fury, rubbing the back of his bald head. "We will have to send a message to Asgard about this situation."

"Doesn't it seem a bit fishy to you?" asked Tony. "I mean, Loki could've been here for a long time, yet no one in Asgard knew."

Fury sighed as he watched Tony start thinking things through. Tony got up out of his seat and started walking around the room.

"They had Loki and the tesseract. What if-" Tony placed his hands on the table "-they sent them here?"

"That's insane," replied Steve.

"It's just a thought."'

"We're going to have to look for him," said Fury. "I've already got Agent Hill working in the command center."

"It can't be too hard," said Tony. "Last time he wanted an audience. It seems the same thing this time."

"What?" asked Gwen.

"I'm saying that he knew man-Katniss had been following him. He planned to reveal himself tonight and made sure he was known."

"Then what's his plan?" asked Natasha. "Is he just going to try to take over the world again?"

"It failed last time," said Bruce. "Why would he try it again?"

"Vengence, perhaps?" suggested Tony.

"Vengence?" repeated Steve.

"We ruined his plan," explained Tony. "Maybe he wants to get back at us."

"So that's it? He just wants to attack us?"

"It has to be more than that," argued Clint. "He could've been planning this for months."

That's what made Gwen's stomach flip. He had been with her all those months. He had tried asking her questions, learning about her. He was definitely planning something and she was worried it involved her.

"When we're ready, we'll call you all in to suit up," said Fury. "You're dismissed."

"I had to wake up for that?" asked Tony as he walked towards the door. "I was already suspicious of Agent Maxwell anyway..."

Tony left the room first followed by Clint, Natasha, and Bruce.

"Agent Powers?" asked Fury. "I'd like a word with you."

Gwen nodded and turned to Steve. "You should go back to sleep or something. I'll be fine."

Steve nodded a bit stifly and exited the room, leaving Gwen alone with Fury.

"Agent Powers, did you know anything about this?"

Gwen looked up at Fury. "No. I never liked Agent Maxwell, I would've never known."

Silence again.

"Powers, have you told Loki anything that could be useful to him?"

She didn't want to answer that. It wasn't like she actually told him anything seeing as he had been posing as a SHIELD agent and could easily access files. But there was something, but she didn't tell him. She had shown him. And it had been completely on accident.

So, Gwen shook her head.

Fury leaned back. "You may go, Agent Powers."

Surprised by his lack of questioning, Gwen got up and slowly made a retreat back to her room. She felt like she wasn't safe anymore. There was no doubt in her mind that Loki had been the one to push her over the edge. He knew what she was capable of and she knew that he would want to use her. And if he used her, she could become a great threat to everyone.

And Gwen didn't want to become a threat. That was one of the last things she wanted to do.

So eventually Gwen made it back to her living quarters and laid down on her bed, not bothering to change. She wasn't going to sleep anyway.

Coming to New York had been a terrible idea.