Yay, more Avengers.

It wasn't often the Director of a secret organisation was speechless, or any of the other barely formed Avengers. Thor was oblivious as he confirmed her words.

"Silfr Freki is a legend among the Asgardians, I am honoured to have been in her care as a child." Thor declared. Stark was the first to react, eyeing Max up.

"Just how old did you say you were?" Max just rolled her eyes.

"Is this a reference?" asked Rogers looking at them.

"Let's get back on topic. Loki is planning something and we need to find out what." Fury said, trying to get the meeting back on course.

"That man has a brain full of cats. You can smell crazy on him." This was actually amusing to watch, who ever thought this collection of people was a good idea was seriously mental. Max was seriously considering breaking out the popcorn.

"Have care of how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in 2 days."

"And you haven't?" That definitely hit a nerve with the redhead who looked like she sorely wanted to strangle the ninja who had finally contributed to the conversation.

There was a cold silence as the two female assassins sized each other up.

Sensing there could be blood shed soon without intervention Fury spoke up. "Agent Romanov, talk to our guest, find out what he's planning. Miss Hakie, you are to stay away from Loki unless escorted." Max felt her hackles rising, Fury was playing a dangerous game, trying to make them dance to his tune.

No one had warned him against it. He would have to learn the hard way it seemed. Max sent a few clones to map out the helicarrier, one would make contact with Itachi and another would check on Loki. Max wasn't the only one who didn't trust Fury as one of her clones spotted Captain America breaking into a room. No doubt Stark had already planted something to gain access to the ship's mainframe.

With a vague attempt to look like she was behaving Max found herself back in the lab watching Stark and Banner work. She didn't like the glow of the sceptre, its colour unnerved her. It pulsed with no solid rhythm, like it was reacting to something and that was never a good sign.

One of her clones pinged her for attention, she settled in a corner out of the way and focused on seeing what her clone saw. Fury was visiting Loki, obviously Romanov hadn't go there yet and Fury was taunting the god.

"How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki was saying, his confidence back even as he was imprisoned.

"You threaten my world with war. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"You haven't even noticed one of your people is not who they seem" Loki sneered, Max sighed, he'd noticed she had a henge, but hadn't seen past it? Or he was referring to someone else. "I have my advantage, where's yours?"

"Be assured you do not want to meet my advantage." Loki only smirked at that. His eyes moved from the director to look directly at Max's clone.

"I believe I already have." Max sharply dispelled her clone fearing it would be seen, she didn't want Fury to start seeing her as a threat no matter how much she antagonised him or his people.

Back in the lab Stark was waving a hand in front of her face having notice her spacing out.

"Nice trip?" He asked and offered a blueberry.

"Slightly worrying actually, I don't trust Loki's presence here." There was something really bugging Max, he instincts were going crazy about something and it needed to click.

"No one does, that's why Fury brought in your partner. What's the deal with him, is he like you?" Stark inquired fixing Max with an analysing look, as if trying to figure out what she could do.

It was at that moment Max's heart sunk to the bottom of her gut. On the helicopter ride over she'd read the SitRep and seen about the compromised agents. In the entire time she'd been here Itachi hadn't once tried to make contact. Either he was blanking her or Loki had gotten to him. It made sense, Loki had taken some of the compromised agents with him, but why wouldn't he leave some as sleeper agents.

"What's up, you look like someone's punched you in the gut."

"We are so screwed if I'm right. Loki is more in control of this play than Fury knows."

"I don't know about that," Fury said as he walked in.

"You've never dealt with Shinobi before. You're beyond screwed mate."

"I thought you were supposed to have Agent Rider with you at all times." Max clenched her fists and supressed an aggravated scream. Fury was so involved in controlling his assets he was missing the big picture.

"Do you really think Loki doesn't have inside help, he took some of the compromised agents, who's to say he didn't leave some behind?"

There was silence in the room as the thought hit home.

"You seem to know a lot about the insights of Loki."

"I babysat him as well as Thor. Of course I know what's going on inside that bag of cats. The only reason he's inside that cell is because he's taunting you. His plan's in action, it doesn't need him to be there anymore which frustrates you because you have nothing to bargain with. Even if you let him go he wouldn't even need to go to where his finale takes place and we'll be in the same position as we are now. Fricking clueless. He's playing with you and you're too busy focusing your eye on the people you want to help you."

"I think you underestimate the interrogation skills of Agent Romanov."

"She's going to tell you Loki is going to manipulate the gentle doctor here into unleashing the Hulk."

"How do you know this?" Screw not looking like a threat, Max had met wizards who could see these plots better. Hell, if Hermione was here she would have hexed everyone for their short-sightedness.

"It's what I would do. This isn't my first rodeo and you've been treating me like someone told you to include their little sister in your little boyband," Max hissed.

Just then over a message filtered through Fury's earpiece. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk." Max's hearing picked up the assassin's voice and she smirked. Fury glared at her but his attention quickly switched to Doctor Banner.

"I would check on your partner Silfr Freki." Loki's voice filtered through the intercom followed by a small chuckle. "I get bored very quickly." Max's vision blurred as red crept to the edges of her sight. "When I get bored of my toys I dispose of them."

Everyone's eyes were on Max as the tension built up in the room. Thor recognised the look on her face and started to back away. Last time she had been like that she had threatened to destroy Asgard. Stark also recognised that look from Monaco.

The room shuddered as something exploded on the helicarrier Max had already darted out of the room. Loki had threatened her partner, a small part of her questioned if this was just another manipulation but the emotional part of her squashed it down.

Max burst out of the door to the runways, her chakra automatically kicking in to help her breathing at that altitude and stick her to the floor of the unstable helicarrier, she knew if one more engine stopped this thing would start dropping out of the sky. Loki also knew this which is why she was sure it was going to happen.

Scanning the deck she could see Itachi standing by the edge looking over one of the huge propellers still working. "I do wish you'd stop getting mind controlled," Max muttered.

The rest of the flight deck was deserted of people, as it had been since that had taken to the skies. Max shushined over to her partner.

"I told Loki you would come if he threatened my life. You've always been predictable Max." Itachi turned to face her, sharingan blazing, but it was wrong, the red was not there, replaced by a sea blue, the same blue reported as being on the compromised agents. Max couldn't supress the twisting feeling in her gut, why hadn't she realised this earlier. She swallowed thickly and glared at him.

"I was always told an Uchiha bows to no one. Maybe I was lied to." This would be so much easier with Sasuke, his ego was so much more fragile and this would work so much better.

"I thought you were better than that Max. That was a poor attempt at appealing to my ego. Maybe your skills are getting rusty." That hurt, even if it was a bad attempt. Max was struggling with her emotions, not even sure what she should be doing. "Aren't you going to run away, like you normally do when you feel helpless? You know you can't do anything and it terrifies you."

"Every time I turn my back something bad happens and you're always on the other side." Max choked out, her eyes downcast. Her heart still held scars from those experiences, her flesh holding physical wounds from their clashes on opposite sides of the battlefield. Each felt like it had been freshly inflicted. Itachi was still smirking at her not realising her eyes were full of barely controlled rage. "Every time it happens we end up almost destroying each other."

"You can't bring yourself to finish the job though. You always had a soft spot for me. It was bound to get you into trouble at some point."

"Of course I have a soft spot for you. I love you, and that will never change." It was a shame the first time Max said that to Itachi he was under someone's control. She could see red bleeding into his eyes fighting with the blue. Max placed a hand gently on his shoulder willing him to fight it harder and throw of the mind control. Looking into his eyes she watched the internal battle, she knew it was dangerous, if he lost then she doubted she would be able to look away in time. Max was vaguely aware of one of the engines stopping and the carrier started to plummet.

"Help…" Itachi pleaded clutching his head in pain, his eyes swirled with the two colours. His Sharingan was mutating trying to get to the mangekyo form but being forced back. Max squeezed his shoulder in encouragement. "You need to knock me out, put me completely out of action," he gasped out falling to his knees.

"Itachi?" Max crouched down and forced his head up, the red was fading.

"Please?" The last of the red bleed out of his eyes replaced by the blue, the mangekyo spun menacingly. Max looked away, fishing out her headband and tying it over her eyes. She took a few steps back as Itachi stood up and dived at her. Twisting to the side Max had already started blocking Itachi's follow up. She and Itachi had danced this number before, they both knew the steps no matter how much they tried to deviate.

Things shifted slightly when one of the engines started working again, they no longer had to account for the carrier falling into their moves. Max was pulling some of her punches, Itachi had no need to do that and as such Max was sporting more injuries. In all fairness the carrier wasn't fairing much better from their clash.

As usual with the two all it took was a tiny misstep for one of them to gain the upper hand. Itachi had left an opening and Max went for it rushing through a forced sleep jutsu as she thrust her hands towards him.

It never connected, Max's body jerked on instinct as she pivoted, aborting her jutsu and diverting the blade of the sceptre about to impale her. Her FA had picked up on the god's attack and made her respond before she'd even noticed it. She blocked the next attack that Itachi threw at her while she had left herself open and continued to defend as Loki looked upon them.

"Disappointing for a so called legend Silfr Freki," Loki sneered, "You're no doubt disappointed in me too. Maybe you wouldn't be if you know what I was."

Ah, he'd found out about that. Max pinned Itachi, knowing it wouldn't last long like this but she needed to tell Loki what he needed to know, maybe he'd listen to her.

"I was there when Odin took you as his own child Loki, it wasn't out of malice or anything but love. You had been left to die Loki, by your own father. Odin couldn't let you die. He brought you up as his own. You're lucky, not everyone has loving parents or parents still around. I would give almost anything to see Yuri again." Just as the last sentence tumbled out Max grunted in pain, Itachi had slipped free and used her speech as a new opening, slicing at her torso. Max rolled them over a few times to disorientate him and gain a better position, trying to ignore the blood seeping out.

"I know you weren't always treated fairly but that's how life goes. I know everything seems against you, you're angry at everything I understand. But this is not how you deal with your problems." Max took off her headband to look at Loki properly and appeal to him face to face.

Then she noticed something. "Damn." That was not his natural eye colour, or even his disguised form's eye colour. That was the same colour as Itachi's eyes.

Still one more Avengers chapter left, then more crossovers.