"I… isn't there something you could do, or…?"

"I'm afraid there isn't."

"Great. Lovely week. Just got so much better." Krish leaned back in her chair and chewed on the end of the pen she was holding. It started out that she was just twirling it with her fingers, but as she became progressively more distraught, the pen found its way to her teeth.

"Is your host…" Thor started simply, hoping to ease the obvious stress she was feeling for just a moment. "Is she alright?"

"Oh, Luk? Yeah, she's fine. She hasn't bothered me for a while." Krish's eyes went unfocused and she continued to chew on the pen. So much for stress relief. "I guess she understands the importance of all this jazz."

"Either that, or you've mentally beaten her into submission."

"Well, yes, there's that too."

"Is there any way you would be able to possess someone else… perhaps someone more willing? I could take you to Loki that way." Thor suggested eagerly. Krish sighed and set the pen down on the small table between them.

"No, when I see Loki again, I want to confront him as myself. Whether in spirit or in body. Tell me," Krish scratched at a little piece of paint flaking away from the table. But her picking at it turned it into a bigger problem, and she eventually left it alone, "why exactly is it that I can't enter the realm Loki is imprisoned in just as a spirit?"

Thor suddenly seemed less willing to discuss the topic. Maybe it was because he was sensitive over his brother's exile. Or maybe he wasn't supposed to be talking about any of this at all – especially not to a person who had been banished from Asgard. But despite his apparent discomfort, Thor still answered Krish voluntarily. No torture yet.

"The realm Loki has been sent to is dark and very close to Hel. Dark souls that died on Asgard have a tendency to find themselves trapped in that realm, unable to escape."

"And I'm a dark soul that died on Asgard." Krish said dully. "So you're saying that if I went in without a body, I wouldn't be coming back out?"

"Exactly. And let me just say," Thor said, almost humorously. "Hela would LOVE to have claim on a soul like yours."

"Well that's just wonderful." The sarcasm leadening KrishnaLan's voice was heavy enough to make her lean forward and rub her eyes. "Wonderful."

"Uh, Krish, if this isn't an uncomfortable question for you…"

"There's no such thing as uncomfortable when it comes to me." Krish sighed and looked up at Thor. "Shoot."

"What DID happen to your body?"

Krish shrugged and rubbed the back of her neck. Luk had a lot of tense muscles. Luk needed a massage sometime. "Beats me. I don't know where it was taken when I killed myself. But I have a feeling its probably occupied by someone else."

"You can't take it back? It is your body, after all. Can't you find it?"

"I don't think my body's new resident is going to be very happy to give up residency." Krish shook her head. "I don't think it's anything permanent, but I feel like it's some sort of sick plan for something. You know? I feel my body is the bait; I just hope I don't walk right into the tripwire."

"This is complicated."

"Welcome to my life."

The two of them turned into three when Doctor Banner set two thermoses down on the table for them. He looked at Thor when he said, "I got that tea you asked for." And he looked at Luk when he said, "Is there anything I can help with? You two seem kinda distressed over here."

"We're fine." Thor answered.

"Are you sure this conversation is confidential?" Krish asked, eyeing Bruce Banner with a little more than a teaspoon of skepticism.

"Yeah. It's just Thor and you, with me in the background." Doctor Banner said simply, wiping something off of his button-up blue shirt. He was a clean-looking man with a wide jawline. Krish wondered how someone like him ever got caught up in something like the Hulk. "Too many nerdy things to take in all at once, I suppose."

"And Doctor Banner doesn't care much to pry into other people's business." Thor added, after seeing that Krish's skepticism hadn't quite been resolved.

"Yeah," Bruce set down some stirring spoons for the tea. "I don't have room to judge anyone else."

"Neither do I…" Krish said softly, taking the thermos of tea and looking it over carefully. She pulled off the lid, and steam rose up to greet her face She instinctively narrowed Luk's already thin eyes. "Is this Indian tea?"

"Uh, yes, actually." Doctor Banner replied. "I spent quite some time over in India and - "

"I don't want it." Krish put the thermos back into Bruce's hands. "Nothing personal. Just too many bad memories."

For the first few seconds, Bruce seemed confused and hurt, but his non-judgmental stature kicked back in and he took the thermos away. "Could I get you something else, then?" He asked politely. "Green tea or black tea? I have herbal, too. Chamomile, rose…"

"Chamomile actually sounds nice, thank you." Krish said kindly, feeling guilty after being so blunt about the Indian tea. "She covered her eyes with her hand and dragged her fingers down her face in exasperation. She felt burdened with everything going on. And as if Thor could feel her anxiety -

"Krish, I know we'll figure something out." Thor tried his hand at comfort. And, surprisingly, Krish felt comforted. Maybe there was something about his demeanor, or the genuine expression in his eyes. He wasn't hiding anything – he never did. Thor was brash and idiotic, but he was also heroic and loving. Krish still couldn't understand why he was willing to help her. But she was grateful for it.

"When do you go back to Asgard?"

"On the morrow."

"When are you coming back to earth?"

"I have some business to settle, and then I shall be back within about a month's time."

"Then I'll find my body before then, get it back, and wait for you." Krish's voice was resolute, but it held a decent amount of fatigue in it. "How hard can it be, right?"

"Are you sure you want to go about it alone?"

"My whole existence I've been alone. It'll be better that way."

Thor didn't seem to like that statement. He looked like he was about to negate Krish warmly, tell her that she was very not-alone, no matter if she felt like she was or not. He took in a breath, and was about to say something, but he stopped himself and nodded. Perhaps Krish's judgment was better than his own. This was the first moment of real silence between everyone. Krish was focused on where she was going to find her body, Thor was combating the terrible feelings he had about the situation, and Bruce was contently fixing a cup of chamomile and lemon tea.

"I wish I had something I could give you to take with you or…" Thor said sadly.

"I wouldn't be able to take it anyway. There's a disadvantage to being a floating personage without a body: you don't really have pockets."

And then three became four when Tony Stark poked his well-styled hair into the room with a grimace on his face. "Thor, can I talk to you for a second, or are you too busy having your cute little tea party?"" Bruce gave a defensive little, 'hey!' in the background.

"If you will excuse me for a moment. I'm going to throw Anthony out the window. I'll be right back." Thor got up, shoved Tony out of the lab by his face, followed after him, and shut the door behind them.

The silence between KrishnaLan and Bruce wasn't very awkward. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was rather warm, but Krish couldn't get the feeling like it was a peace on the edge of war. She was nervous about what she would be diving into. Krish, however, had something that she wanted to talk to Bruce about. And for that reason, she broke the comfortable silence.

"How do you do it?" She asked, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. Bruce gave her a confused look and she continued. "How do you live with yourself knowing what's inside you?"

"Oh, I don't know." Bruce caught on right away, but that wasn't the answer that Krish wanted. "I guess one day I just realized that the big guy was a part of me and I had to accept it, you know?"

"But, I mean…" Krish paused. There were so many ways she could phrase the next question. The different options drifted by through her head, but she had a difficult time reaching out and choosing one. "How can you move on when you know that the creature inside you has done so many terrible things?"

"The accident that caused the Hulk to be a part of me in the first place actually was my fault. But that doesn't mean that I let him, or any of the things he's done, define who I am as a person." Bruce poured the hot water into a mug, and steam tendrils rose up from it. "I try my best to put everything I have to good use, even though there's a moderate amount of evil that will never leave me."

"How… how do you do that?" Krish asked timidly, wringing her hands together, but keeping her eyes locked on Doctor Banner. He continued to make tea for her casually.

"You recognize what you've done, you forgive yourself, and you move forward. Because if you keep beating yourself up over things that have already happened, you're never going to enjoy the great things that are yet to happen."

"How does someone go about forgiving themselves?"

"You know the quote 'once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic'?"

Krish nodded.

"Well, I don't believe that for a second. Leopards don't change their spots, no. But men aren't leopards, and men change all the time. I guess to forgive yourself, you have to look forward to what you can change, and embrace what you can't change."

"That's pretty deep." Krish chuckled. And though she made light of his words, they were sinking slowly into her heart.

"Being deep and psychological is what I do best." He said happily, setting the tea in front of Krish for the second time. Krish thanked him. "I just don't get to do it that often, because I'm surrounded by idiots like Tony Stark."

Krish chucked lightly, accepting the tea from Doctor Banner.

"And… and can I add something else?" Bruce asked politely; it was a politeness abstract to Krish, and she couldn't say that she didn't like it. Krish gave a nod, and Bruce continued on. "I know that I wouldn't have been able to go about accepting myself if I was alone. You've got to have people in your life who will love you even when you despise yourself." Bruce said, "And I don't care where that love comes from – anywhere, really – but you have to find it. Humans are just SET UP to lean on each other. And, I mean, I don't know much about who you are and where you come from, and I don't want to make you think that I understand you – but I think that kind of logic works the same for Gods, devils, and humans alike."

"For devils too, huh?" There was a hint of skepticism in her voice. "I don't know if I would be too sure about that.

"I AM sure about that." Banner replied. "The way I see it, a fallen devil is simply an angel."

Suddenly, the door to the lab slammed open viciously, and Bruce scrambled to catch a delicate sculpture before it was shaken to its doom. Nick Fury stormed in and gave Bruce and Luk/Krish the most terrifyingly single-eyed glare ever. He turned his attention particularly to Krish, and she shrunk down a little. She was never more happy to be in a proxy body than in that moment.

"I'm going to excuse the fact that you aren't working, agent," Fury was practically bubbling with rage. "Only because I am so royally pissed right now. You two haven't seen a particular golden haired god, have you?"

Krish definitely wasn't willing to talk (since she was afraid of accidentally saying something sarcastic and having her head cut clean off) so Bruce took the dangerous lead.

"Why? What happened?"

"That hammer-wielding asshat threw our residential egotist from a six-story window."

Krish snorted.

Fury turned to her.

If looks could kill…