A/N: Wheee! New chapter! Thank you everyone who has supported this story, be it through reading, reviewing, following, or favoriting. :) Also, I'm just curious to know: Did anyone guess Amrita's identity before it was revealed (by just recognizing her alternate name, I mean)? I want to know! Haha.

Also, if anyone is familiar with the mythology her character is based on...I will point out that I have used a fair amount of creative license with changing the details of the mythology. Don't hurt meeee.

As always, me no own; you no sue.

(Also just a note...there will only be four more chapters after this, according to my chapter outlines. Again...don't hurt meeee!)

Amrita was sitting on the beach, arms wrapped around herself as she stared at the waves constantly rolling in. It was rare for her to find quiet time to herself these days. Well, usually it was. She hadn't really realized just how much time she and Bruce had been spending together up until then, but it had been three days now since she had spilled her secrets to Bruce, and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since. She had even gone so far as to contact Tony earlier that day, asking him if Bruce was alright, worried that maybe he hadn't been taking proper care of himself and ended up collapsing or something of the sort, but Tony had assured her that the man was fine and was just really swamped with some work that he had given him. Amrita had gotten mad and told him to lay off the poor man, but Tony had just wished her a pleasant day and hung up in the middle of her rant. She frowned. She swore that man was the one person that could raise her blood pressure to unseen heights.

Amrita sighed, resting her head on her knees. At least Tony wasn't a complete ass all the time. After all, it was his beach she was sitting on. He'd been gracious enough to offer her use of his private beach whenever she wanted. It was nice on a day like today, she thought, when she needed to get out of the house. She felt like she was going stir-crazy without anything to do, alone at home. If she had Bruce…

She shook her head at the thought, but couldn't help but wallow in her own misery at the thought. She knew that telling Bruce about herself would result in this. He'd gotten scared, or upset at the truths he'd been told. Either way, the end result was the same. He was gone, she thought resignedly. He didn't want anything more to do with her. She just wished he'd told her straight out instead of leaving her with this tentative hope that maybe, just maybe, he was just busy looking for clues on her identity and was going to come back to her once he knew something.

Amrita closed her eyes, but tensed. She felt like something was…off. She frowned, lifting her head and looking around, not seeing anything. She felt nervous all of a sudden, though, as if she shouldn't be there. She quickly grabbed her sandals that she had taken off and shoved her feet back into them, heading back towards the bustle of the city streets. She bumped into someone, though, ending up on her butt in the sand once more.

"Greeting-sss, Garuda."

Amrita's eyes snapped up to the newcomer at the name, studying them. They appeared female, tall and lithe, but she wasn't sure they were human. Their skin was ashen and scaly, as though they had some sort of illness or condition. She had a feeling it wasn't just a skin defect though. Their dark brown hair had an almost greenish tinge to it, and their eyes were yellow, with slit pupils.

Like a snake, she thought to herself.

"Oh, how envious my brethren will be to know that I was the first to find the mighty Garuda…trapped away in a human body," the woman leered, stepping closer to Amrita and bending over her, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look her in the eye as her heart beat erratically with fear and adrenaline. "The mighty betrayer, oh how far you have fallen…"

"And just who do you think you are?" Amrita snapped, temper flaring at how this woman—snake—thing thought she could manhandle her and get away with it. She smacked the woman's hand away and scrambled backwards, standing up and squaring her shoulders in defiance. It didn't matter that she was several inches shorter than the scaly woman, she refused to be pushed around.

"Oh, but my dear, you have persecuted me and my brethren for so long. Surely you should be able to recognize one of my kind, even with the frivolous appearance that being in this realm lends us," the woman said, seeming as though she would start salivating if she got any more excited than she already was. "Or perhaps…you need a display of my true power as a reminder!"

The woman's form blurred, as though the air around her was rippling with heat, and she shifted into something much larger than she was before, her dark green and yellow serpentine body a sickly contrast to her still humanoid face and scraggly, dark hair.

"You are weak in this realm, Garuda," she hissed. "You have forgotten how to use your powers, and I will take advantage of that and end you and your persecution of us!"

Amrita had frozen at the appearance of the serpent's true form. A name had flitted through her head at the sight: Naga. She knew she must have encountered them before at some point, but she could not remember when. Perhaps it had been before she arrived on earth, then, from how the naga spoke about her. It made it sound as though she had come from a different realm; perhaps the same one the naga had come from. It would explain this one's familiarity with her. It made it sound as though she and the naga were old archnemeses, but she could not remember what qualm she might have with them.

The one thing she knew, however, was that her veins turned to fire at the sight of the serpent.

It was as though rage burned her to the very core at the idea of the naga's very existence. They should not live, she thought. After all they have done, they do not deserve to live.

She felt the change without fully acknowledging it. The wings sprouted from her shoulders, caressing her arms. Her bones seemed to become thinner but denser, stretching out as she grew taller, to almost the same height as the naga. She could feel the bones of her face change, her features becoming sharper, more intense. Her hair became feathers; her body covered in molten gold, like an armor light enough to keep her movement free and fast.

The naga's eyes widened.

"No," she breathed. "How are you able to use your powers still? You have been trapped here for thousands of years!" The naga shrieked. "Never mind—I will end you and bring glory to my brethren!"

The naga charged at her, its writhing motion seemingly unpredictable, but a pattern formed in her mind as she watched, waiting for it to come to her rather than meeting it halfway. The moment the naga reached her, its head rushing forth to latch its vicious fangs into her flesh, she launched herself to the side, sweeping in behind its head and reaching her long, taloned fingers to grasp the naga by the hair, holding its head still as she plunged her other hand into its skull with practiced ease, the naga's shriek cutting short as its body gave one final spasm and it fell limp on her hand. Amrita came back to herself as she realized what she had just done, and that her hand was currently squelching in the being's brain matter. She jerked her hand back, wiping it hastily in the sand as she scrambled away from the macabre scene. She felt herself change back into her human form, staring shell-shocked at what she'd done.

Amrita was not unfamiliar with the sight of death, even violent death. In her past life, she had been an army doctor, and had seen such sights as soldiers with blasted-off limbs, bodies mangled by barbed wire or torture devices; she had seen more than she wanted to ever see again. But seeing what had happened by someone else's hand, and having done something so atrocious with her own… They were completely different things.

Amrita felt the panicked tears streaming down her cheeks as she began to hiccup loudly. She needed to get out of there. She needed to tell someone what had happened. She had just killed someone. Who cared if they weren't human? She had killed someone. And the scariest part was, if she'd been given the chance to relive what had just happened…she knew she would have done it again.

Amrita ran. She didn't even think about where she was going until she found herself staring up at the large, towering building that was Stark Tower. She reached out to press the intercom button, when she realized her right hand still had blood on it. She clenched her shaking hand and pressed the button with her elbow instead.

"How may I help you, Miss Mehrotra?" The voice of Tony's artificial intelligence system came over the intercom. Jeeves? Jarvis? Something like that, she thought dimly.

"Hi. Is Bruce in?" she said, her voice cracking. She paused, thinking better of asking for Bruce. "Sorry, no. Scratch that. Is Pepper in?"

"Miss Potts is currently away on business. Mister Banner, however, is currently in. Shall I let him know you're here?"

"Please," she said, leaning against the glass double doors before sliding down them, burying her head in her hands. She sat there, shuddering, faintly aware of the fact that it was raining, the cold drops stinging her usually warm skin. She didn't want to raise her temperature back up, though. She wanted to feel miserable. She deserved to feel miserable. That woman hadn't deserved to die. She had attacked Amrita though, and that had triggered a transformation and some sort of frightening bloodlust that she wasn't even aware she had in her. She was scared, and she didn't want to be alone right now. She needed help. And of course, despite that Bruce had been avoiding her the past couple days, he was the first person she'd thought of when she realized that.

The glass door shifted behind her, and she scrambled forward, lurching up on her feet.

"Amrita?" Bruce asked, concerned. "What are you doing here? What's wrong?" His eyes dipped down to her bloody hand, and he looked alarmed. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head, her eyes sore from all the crying as hot tears still leaked from her eyes.

"I'm fine," she croaked unconvincingly. "Bruce. I need your help."

"Okay, well come inside. It's freezing out here," he said, ushering her into the building and sitting her down in the kitchen, grabbing her a large, fluffy towel from the linen closet and placing it around her shoulders. She mumbled her thanks, thankful it was a black towel as she vigorously scrubbed her bloody hand clean on it.

"What happened to you?" Bruce asked, sitting next to her at the island counter. When she just continued scrubbing her hand on the towel, he grabbed her hand, gripping it tight so she couldn't continue rubbing it raw, seeing how red she'd made it already. He frowned at her bloodshot eyes and the tear tracks on her cheeks. She was a mess. "Amrita, I want to help you, but you have to talk to me before I can do that."

Amrita bit her lip before the words came pouring from her mouth; about the naga, about her transformation for the second time, about the rage…about how she had killed the naga. Her tears came again hot and fresh, and the hiccupping sobs wracked her body as Bruce stepped towards her, tentatively wrapping her in a comforting embrace. She clung to him as though he were a lifeline, and he let her soak his shirt with tears and snot, not uttering a complaint despite his fleeting grimace at the sensation. When her sobs quieted, he carefully pried himself from her grip, grabbing a box of tissues and handing them to her. She thanked him hoarsely. He studied her for a moment, letting the new, but not altogether unreasonable (given what he had discovered three nights ago), information he had just been handed.

"Amrita," he said, one arm crossed tightly over his chest and his other hand propping his chin up. He sighed when she looked up at him with her red eyes. He wasn't sure if he could handle it if she started crying again. He wasn't good with crying people to begin with, but it was worse with her because of how he felt about her. He was loathe to admit that being away from her while he was trying to sort out how to deal with the new revelations about her existence had only made him want to be with her more.

Damn the consequences, he thought. She deserves to know.

"I found some information about you over the past couple days," he said.

He hated the hopeful look she gave him when he told her that. Hated it because he knew what he had to tell her wasn't nearly enough, nor was it the kind of thing she'd want to hear.

"And?" she said eagerly, desperately latching onto the change of topic. She needed to forget about what had just happened on the beach, and this, she thought, would help her do so.

"How familiar are you with Hindu mythology?" Bruce asked, hoping he wouldn't have to explain it all.

Amrita blinked, confused as to where the conversation was going. "Well, there's Brahma the Creator, who created the universe; there's Vishnu the Preserver, who upholds the cosmic order; there's Shiva…"

"…That's okay, that's good," he interrupted, not wanting her to go on forever. "All you really need to know about is Vishnu."

Amrita raised her eyebrows. "Why Vishnu? What's so special about him?" she asked, but she had a niggling feeling that he was very special. Not just in the mythological sense, either.

"Because," Bruce said, sighing tiredly and running a hand over his face. "The lore says that he had a divine mount called Garuda…which, according to the abilities you have and what the texts describe Garuda as being…aside from the fact that the texts say Garuda is male, you pretty much match it to a 'T'."

Amrita sat silently, staring at him for a long, drawn-out moment. When she snapped out of it, though, he watched with a sinking heart as her face shut down, all the emotion draining from it as she adapted the sort of stoic façade that he usually only saw on SHIELD agents like Natasha and Clint.

"Amrita," he said, but she was already standing up, placing her towel over the back of the chair she'd been sitting in and heading for the door.

"I should go," she said without stopping.

"Amrita, wait!" He said, reaching out towards her but not moving to stop her as she stepped out. His hand hovered for a moment before he clenched his fist, bringing it back to his side with a grimace. He turned and kicked the chair, letting a bit of his anger go with the action.

"Damn it," he cursed under his breath, running his hands through his hair in frustration.

This was why he never let himself get romantically involved. It just ended in complication. The only difference was, this time, it was her life that was causing the complications.

Amrita strode quickly down the sidewalk away from Stark Tower. She didn't know how Bruce expected her to believe him. I mean, come on. Her? A divine being from mythology? It just didn't make sense!

But, no. That was what scared her. Because it actually did make sense.

Too much sense, she thought with a sinking feeling in her stomach. It was like a slow building sense of dread that she had discovered the truth.

A hand caught her wrist, jerking her out of her thoughts. She reacted violently, sending a burst of heat to the area where her wrist was being held. She heard her attacker hiss in pain as they hastily dropped the offending limb, and she whirled around, aiming a punch at her attacker. They threw up an 'x' block with their arms, efficiently stopping the assault and making Amrita pause long enough to see just who it was that had grabbed her.

"Natasha?" she said, confused at the redhead's presence, and yet knowing it had something to do with SHIELD. They must still be tracking her, she thought, and when she realized just what Natasha must be here to confront her about, she felt like she was going to be sick. They knew she had just killed someone. She was a murderer now. SHIELD was going to take her prisoner, her mind jumped to the conclusion. She grimaced, holding her wrists out to the redhead.

Natasha looked at her hands before looking back up at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Is there a reason you're holding out your hands, doc?" she asked. "Because SHIELD doesn't pay its employees unless they're actually on the clock."

Amrita stared at her dumbly.

"I thought you were here about the beach…incident," she said delicately, not wanting to call it what it really was. She felt cowardly about it, but she couldn't bring herself to face what she'd done just yet. She needed time to cope with it.

Natasha inclined her head.

"Somewhat," she said. "But moreso, I'm here about what I heard you and Dr. Banner discussing at Stark Tower."

Amrita bristled. She wasn't ready to face that, yet, either.

"Ah, right," she said with a tight smile. "SHIELD is always listening, and all that jazz. Privacy is a thing of the past, it would seem."

"SHIELD monitors potential threats to public safety," Natasha deadpanned. "Currently they're trying to figure out whether you are or aren't one, and they can't afford to leave you unmonitored while they figure that out."

Amrita gave her a bitter smile. "Well, I guess you've got your answer now," she said. "You don't have to worry about me trying to run off while you take me in for questioning. I've had enough incidents in the past that I know not to do that."

Natasha's eyebrow twitched as though she were going to raise it, but she didn't.

"SHIELD doesn't want to detain you, doc," she said. "They want to help you. That thing you killed on the beach, we tracked it here from an interdimensional rift in northern Somalia; and from what I saw, I'd say it was a lot more of a threat than you are."

Amrita swallowed thickly, feeling the build-up of moisture at the corners of her eyes, blinking back the tears.

"How can you say that?" she whispered. "I killed it. I didn't even think twice about it. How am I not a threat?"

Natasha reached out and smacked her. Not hard, but enough to make the woman's hand shoot up to hold her cheek as she gave the assassin a stunned, bewildered look.

"Stop wallowing," the redhead told her, jutting her chin out in disapproval. "You acted in self-defense. I saw what happened, that thing would've killed you if you hadn't done it first. I know you're a doctor, so you're supposed to do no harm, but in that kind of situation you don't have a choice. You do or you die, and you did the right thing. We don't know that that thing wouldn't have gone on to a killing spree of civilians. It was dangerous, and you took it down." The assassin's eyes softened slightly, and she squeezed Amrita's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "For what it's worth, I prefer you alive to the alternative, doc."

Amrita tried to smile at the unexpected sense of camaraderie she received from the notorious Black Widow, but couldn't quite seem to. She settled for patting the woman's hand before she removed it.

"Thanks, Natasha," she said, before wistfully saying, "You're going to report all this to Fury now, aren't you."

The assassin nodded.

"It's my job," she said. "You understand that, right?"

Amrita shrugged, not looking the other woman in the eye.

"Not like it makes any difference," she mumbled, turning on her heel and heading back to her house. "He's not the only one that knows more about what's going on in my life than I do at the moment…"