Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


Chapter 8

Coulson's voice spoke directly into her ear. "The hostile has been captured."

"And was the before or after he took out three dozen agents without breaking a sweat?" Dahlia smirked in amusement.

"Very funny, Griffiths," he responded dryly, "I want you to conduct the interrogation. He's in holding cell B."

"I didn't even know there was a holding cell A," she mumbled. "Alright, heading down there now."

Her boots clicking across the flooring, she made her way through the weaving corridors that had been positioned around what looked like a large metal hammer imbedded in the ground. Agents pretty much avoided her, something she had been glad of since she had arrived, and her journey to the holding cells was pretty much smooth, uninterrupted.

She swiped her card, which beeped her access, and pushed through the door. From the cell in front of her, the figure raised his head to watch her. He was huge, probably around 6"4 if he wasn't sitting down, which is daunting considering her short stature, with a mass of blond hair on his shoulders and in serious need of a shave. His hands were tied behind his back, and he seemed drowsy from the sedative. She hesitated for a moment, before she entered the cell, probably against accepted S.H.I.E.L.D procedure.

He jerked slightly as she got closer, eyes narrowing up at her. "Who are you, little human?"

"Dahlia Griffiths, I work for the government facility that you just broke into – kudos by the way, it was thoroughly entertaining," she commented, "So what are you doing here?"

"I want Mjölnir," the man stated.

"Mjölnir? That's the hammer right?" Dahlia wondered, "And it belongs to you?"

"Yes, only someone who is worthy has the ability to wield its power," his eyes lowered slightly, "unfortunately, I am not that person."

Okay, so he was barking mad. That's okay, I've done this before, she reminded herself. She tilted her head questioningly. "Why not?"

He appeared surprised. "Why am I not that person?"

"Yeah, I mean, if it's yours, you should be able to 'wield its power', right?"

"It was stripped from me by my father, because of my selfish actions," he explained.

"The best thing about mistakes is that you can always learn from them. The fact that you know what you did was wrong means that you're on your way to coming worthy," Dahlia explained softly.

He looked at her, blinking. "Thank you little human."

"You're welcome, um…"

"Thor, Son of Odin," he introduced himself.

"Of course you are," Dahlia nodded, although she wasn't entirely sure she believed him, "I'm going to tell my handler that you aren't a threat, although I doubt that will get you out of here or get you your, uh, hammer."

He nodded once. "I understand."

"Good," she turned to leave and paused, "I'll see what I can do about the cells though. You don't seem like the usual crazy that are locked away in these places, maybe they'll be lenient and you can ah, prove your worth to your father."

"Maybe…"

"Maybe," she said before the cell door slide shut behind her. Her hand rose to her comm. unit, "Coulson? I think we have a Norse God in our midst…"


"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

Dahlia kept her eyes firmly trained on the CCTV screen in front of her, absentmindedly chewing the skin around her fingernails. Agent Hill had directed her and Bruce to the conference room, where they had stopped during their initial arrival on the aircraft, and was relieved to see that Natasha and Steve had returned unharmed – and had brought home a stray Norse God.

Thor had patted her head in greeting and murmured something along the lines of, "I'm sorry we had to meet again in such a way, little human." She would have said more, probably would have had to explain how they had met, but Natasha had pointed out that the cell that Loki was being kept in had been brought up on the screen for them to listen into, and everyone had been too concerned in what was transpiring below them to question it.

Dahlia had slipped into the seat between Steve and Bruce, who stood behind his chair, alternating from pacing or gripping the top of the chair as if he needed the stability – not that she had been playing that much attention to him.

"Built for something much stronger than you,"

"Oh, I've heard. A mindless beast; makes play he's still a man."

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. It was obviously a jab at someone in this room, was made clear by the way the God of Mischief's eyes darted towards the camera pointing directly at him. But who? Through her fringe, she could see Natasha had glanced at Bruce before turning her gaze back to her own screen. Bruce, a mindless beast? One thing she was certain of, is that man could never be considered 'mindless'.

"Ooh…it burns you, to have come so close," Loki continued to taunt, "To have the Tesseract; to have power – unlimited power…and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share?" He turned his body completely towards the camera, his grin conveying malice and amusement, before returning his attention to Fury, "…And then to be reminded what real power is."

"Well let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," Fury shot back as he spun on the heel of his boots and disappeared from camera view. Loki watched him go, looking strangely at ease for a man who was now imprisoned, before dropping gracefully to sit cross legged on the ground. He managed one last glance and grin towards the camera for them all to see, before the screen flickered and went blank. Apparently, they weren't allowed to see what else would happen.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce joked weakly, breaking the tense silence that had surrounded them.

Dahlia managed a weak smile in response, her arms moving to wrap around herself as sudden goosebumps broke out across the surface of her skin.

"Loki's going to drag this out," Steve stated, assuming his role as commander, "So...Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army, called the Chitauri," the God of Thunder retold, a solemn look on his face, "They're not of Asgard, nor of any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth…in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army. From out of space," Steve summarized disbelief in his tone. Absentmindedly, Dahlia reached over to pat his shoulder sympathically.

"If this world is so unknown, they must be amazingly far away from here. How does he plan to move an entire alien fleet from one universe to the other?" she questioned.

"A portal, the Tesseract energy could be used to open a portal," Bruce answered, sounding more like he was talking to himself than to the rest of the room, "That would explain why he needed Eric Selvig."

"Selvig?" Thor stood up straighter at the familiar name.

"He's an astrophysicist," he explained helpfully.

"He's a friend," Thor clarified automatically. He glanced towards Dahlia, "How long ago was Selvig taken?"

"A few weeks, when Loki first landed on Earth and got a hold of the Tesseract," she replied.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha informed, "Along with one of ours…"

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve said after a pause, "He's not exactly able to lead an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats; you can smell crazy on him," Bruce shook his head. Dahlia snorted her amusement, folding her arms across the table and resting her chin against them.

Thor took a step forward. "Speak carefully. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

Despite the situation, and despite the man they were discussing, Dahlia couldn't help but smile. She understood the strong connection between siblings, and the need to forgive and forget whatever the situation. Vaguely, she mused whether or not she would still want to stand up and protect Calista, in the very unlikely circumstance that she would try and take over the world.

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha reported bluntly, eyebrow arched.

"…He's adopted," Thor explained sheepishly. A snicker was smothered by her arms.

"I think Steve may have a point though," Dahlia finally managed to get out, sitting up straighter. She met Thor's gaze, "You and I both know Loki well enough and I don't think he's ever allowed himself to be captured so easily. He's the god of mischief with the silver tongue for a reason. He didn't fight back or try to escape…"

"It was as if he wanted to be taken," the god finished, nodding in acknowledgment, "But what reason would he have for allowing himself to be captured?"

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Bruce repeated, pausing in his steps to rest against a back wall, one hand grasping his jaw was he thought, "He was Stuttgart for a reason – the Iridium. What does he need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent."

The new voice seemed to draw the attention of the entire room. A dark haired man in a Black Sabbath shirt and a pair of worn out jeans entered the room with Coulson by his side. Dahlia recognized the man automatically – Tony Stark. The man's face was everywhere recently, for once about his clean energy project rather than his debauched lifestyle. Not that she was one to pass judgment on a man she hadn't even met. He muttered something to Phil, her ears picking up the phase 'cellist in Portland' which made her smile, before he focused his attention back to the rest of the room, his large presence circling and surrounding the room as he moved.

"With the Iridium, the portal won't collapse in on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." He explained. "No hard feelings, Point Blank. You have a mean swing." He patted Thor's massive bicep as he passed, barely sparing him a glance. "It also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

Tony approached the helm, his hand moving so easily and confidently over the controls. He appeared confused for a moment, jerking his head between one screen and another, before covering one eye and repeating the experiment. "How does Fury see these things?"

"He turns," Natasha answered dryly, with a lot more fondness than Dahlia had ever heard in her voice before – unless she was talking about Clint, of course.

"He'd need a massive power source to open that kind of portal, right?" Dahlia questioned.

"Yeah, he'd have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the cooling barrier," Bruce reminded.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Tony pointed out, turning to rest his back against the computer panels.

"Well, if he could so that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion to any reactor on the planet."

Stark closed the distance between them with a grin. "Finally! Someone who speaks English!" He held out his hand, "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled…"

Bruce hesitated before accepting the hand.

"…And I'm also a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony finished.

"Thanks," he responded weakly.

Dahlia arched an eyebrow, her lips twitching. She was not sure whether to feel amused or just plain confused. "A huge…green…rage monster…?"

Bruce smiled weakly at her. "It's, uh, a long story."

"Apparently," She smirked.

Tony rounded towards her, eying her closely, a smirk playing on his lips. "And you must be Miss. Dahlia Griffiths. Daughter of Dr. Milton Griffiths. You should be happy to know, you look nothing like your father."

Her smile faltered slightly. "Um, thank you…I think."

"Oh, I know that look," He paused, cocking his head slightly. "Daddy not all he's cracked up to be, was he?"

"Hmm, something like that. I take it that it was the same for you too," she replied easily, "It's a bugger, isn't it?"

"If bugger means what I think it means then we're in agreement," he paused thoughtfully, "We should start a club…"

"I'm sure it'll be very popular," she nodded.

"I've also heard about your, uh, temperament issues. I'm sure you and Dr. Banner get along swimmingly," Tony added thoughtfully, knowingly.

"Miss. Griffiths is here to help Dr. Banner to track the cube," Director Fury assured, striding towards the head of the table, his coat swinging behind him, "I was hoping you might join them."

"I'd start with that stick of his," Steve suggested. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube," Fury agreed, "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor repeated, brow furrowed with his confusion. "I do not understand…"

"I do!" Steve cut in, almost jumping up with his excitement. Tony rolled his eyes and Dahlia smiled at her friend. He sunk down, embarrassed. "I-I understood that reference."

"Good job sweetie," Dahlia murmured her encouragements, leaning over to hug him from behind, "Next step, Star Wars references."

"I'm sure Captain Rogers' cinematic lessons can be picked up in the future," Fury interrupted. He gave the young British woman an incisive look, "Shouldn't you continue your search for the Tesseract, Miss Griffiths?"

Dahlia straightened up automatically, hands folding in her lap. "Of course Director Fury."