A/N: I just feel the need to say that I am overwhelmed by the positive response this story has gotten. It has not gotten a super amount of reviews, but a decent amount; mostly I am amazed at the sheer number of people who have added this story to their follows and/or favorites. This story just started as a whimsical idea for a 50k-words writing month challenge. Now that I'm almost done writing it (just over 4,000 words to go), I'm a little sad to be finishing it, but at the same time, very satisfied with the way it's turned out, and I'm glad to see that so many other people seem to be enjoying it, too. So...thank you! Enjoy this super-long chapter. :D

Me no own, you no sue.

Amrita was currently locked away in "her" room, fuming. She had been just getting off her shift at the hospital the day after the whole naga ordeal when Tony Stark had showed up at her workplace, decked out in full Iron Man armor, and physically picked her up and flown her back to Stark Tower, politely informing her (not asking her) that she would be staying there for the unforeseen future, until they had the naga issue completely sorted. Amrita had dug her heels in, but Tony had instructed Jarvis not to let her out of the tower except for work. Apparently he'd gone so far as to program her work schedule into the damn system, too, because when she'd tried to leave the tower by telling the system that she was due for a work shift, it had politely informed her that she was off work until Thursday.

Oh, was she ever going to beat that billionaire's shiny metal ass next time she saw him…

Amrita huffed and threw herself down on the bed, spreading her arms out to her sides and staring at the blank white ceiling. She briefly entertained the idea of going down to the kitchen and fixing something to eat, but she nixed the idea as soon as she realized that would run the risk of her bumping into Bruce, and she wasn't ready to do that. She didn't want to see him look at her differently with the things he now knew about her. Not only did he know she was an extra-dimensional being; he also knew she was capable of murder.

That was not something she wanted anyone to know about her—even herself.

Life had seemed a lot simpler when she hadn't known anything about her origins. She was beginning to loathe the fact that she had ever wanted to know more about herself and where she came from. She wanted to take it back—to go back to how she'd been before; clueless, but relatively content. Unfortunately, she realized, it was impossible to go back, and now she was stuck with having to deal with the consequences of her curiosity.

Amrita realized she must have fallen asleep when she was woken up by a constant, low humming sound. Groggily, she sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she looked around to try and pinpoint where the sound was coming from. She didn't notice anything at first, but on a second look, she realized something very out of place.

Her room was completely intact, but there was one point in the room, just by the far corner, where all of a sudden she saw grass and trees in the distance rather than a blank wall.

That definitely did not belong there.

And then, a tall man stepped into sight in the impossible area; as he crossed the grass towards her, she saw that he had light blue skin, long, curling black hair, and four arms, and was dressed in scarlet and gold. However, as he smiled at her and stepped out onto the ceramic tile floor of her room, his appearance seemed to shimmer momentarily before becoming something much more…normal. More human. His hair remained the same, as well as his clothes, but his two extra arms disappeared, and his skin took on a rich caramel hue. Somehow, she knew instinctively who he was. She felt as though she had known this man her entire life, even though she had no memories of him.

"Vishnu," she said, giving him a nod of acknowledgment.

The god grinned. "Garuda!" He laughed, stepping forward and scooping her off the bed, twirling her around in his arms before setting her down and wrapping her in a tight embrace. "It's been far too long, child," he said, stepping back to hold her at arm's length. His expression turned somber. "I have searched for you for such a long time. I only finally found the dimension you were in when you shifted forms not long ago. Why did you not contact me?" he asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

Amrita looked down, ashamed to admit that she had no memory of how to even do such a thing. However, Vishnu lifted her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. His expression was gentle.

"Garuda, you know I would not judge you," he said. She knew, despite not remembering him, that he spoke the truth. He was a kind god, and she trusted him.

"I don't remember anything from before earth. I don't even remember how long I've been here," she said. "I—I've been through so many regenerations, the memories have just dwindled and disappeared, I suppose. I don't even remember…you," she said, holding her hands up in a helpless gesture. She didn't want to disappoint Vishnu. He was her mentor, and her master. He was even something of a father figure to her.

Vishnu's gaze softened, though she could see the sadness in his eyes at the realization that she had no memories of him. She averted her gaze, not wanting to see that expression on him. It hurt like a punch in the gut.

"Garuda, it's alright," he said, placing his hands on either of her temples, his long fingers reaching almost all the way to the back of her skull. "Do you wish to remember?"

She hesitated momentarily, again struck with the realization of how she had never had so much trouble as she'd started having when she began to unearth the facts of her origin. But…looking at Vishnu, standing in front of her and looking so sad at the fact that she remembered nothing of him, she knew she could not continue to live in ignorance. She would only be hurting herself and the ones that cared for her if she did.

"Yes," she said. "I want to remember."

Vishnu smiled at her, relieved at her answer.

Then, her entire world was pain.

Amrita's body convulsed as though she was being electrocuted, and it felt like it, too; as though her flesh were being burned from skin to bone, and even her bones were melting. She swore she could even smell the scent of burning flesh, and it felt like an age before Vishnu's hands ripped away from her head and she collapsed to the ground, no longer feeling that constant burn but instead feeling a pain throughout her entire body. She realized as she blinked sluggishly that her skin was black and charred, and through the cracks in it there was blood seeping out onto Tony's drastically white floor. She tried to lift her head, but it felt heavy, as though someone had stuffed it full of lead. She blinked up at Vishnu from where she lay, seeing the wistful expression on his face.

"I'm sorry it had to hurt so much," he apologized. "Your memories were tampered with, it seems. It takes some very powerful magic to suppress them to quite that extent, so it needed some rather…brutal tactics to unearth them once again. I'm sorry, child," he apologized again, grimacing.

Amrita managed to shake her head as the memories that had been unlocked came rushing to the forefront of her mind. She studied them, one by one, as they flashed by, taking them in with slowly building rage.

"It's fine," she said, the dangerous edge to her voice skewed by the fact that she was slurring them, the intense pain having made her woozy. "I remember now."

"You do?" he said hopefully, crouching down and touching her arm gently, speeding up her healing process as the skin became healthy and new within moments. "Then does that mean you will come back with me to Vaikuntha? Lakshmi and I are so looking forward to having you back," he said, though his smile seemed to falter at the mention of Lakshmi.

Amrita bristled at the mention of the god's consort. Now that she knew what she did, she could not imagine going back with them until she had dealt with the very real issues at hand, especially now that the naga were looking for her in the human realm.

"I can't," she said, frowning at how Vishnu deflated at those two words, his shoulders slumping and his hopeful expression turning defeated. "Not yet, anyway." She shook her head, sitting up, accepting Vishnu's hand to steady her as she swayed slightly with the movement. "Vishnu, I did not come here of my own volition. There is a reason I am here, and…and I need to deal with that reason before I can return. I hope you understand," she said, looking at him hopefully.

Vishnu looked down, avoiding her gaze, but nodded.

"Alright," he said. "But remember this time…if you need anything…"

"Then I will call you right away," she said, smiling at him. "Thank you, Vishnu. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Not remember anything, that's what," the god joked, but sobered, picking her up and setting her back on her feet. "I hope you deal with whatever it is you need to swiftly and thoroughly. I miss my eagle," he said, wrapping her in a tight hug, which she halfheartedly returned, still not used to being lavished with attention, especially of the physical sort. She felt safe with him, though, having known him since she was only a fledgling.

Without so much as a proper goodbye, Vishnu stepped back into the trees, which disappeared as soon as he stepped through. She stared at where the trees used to be, frowning as she wondered when exactly her life had become so…odd. Her thoughts were interrupted by frantic pounding on her door.

"Amrita! Are you okay? I heard screaming!" Bruce's voice sounded shaky, as though he were trying to keep from panicking. Amrita quickly crossed the room and opened the door, about to speak when he surged forward and wrapped her in a hug.

I seem to be getting a lot of hugs today, she thought, though this one caused her face to heat up as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder blade, patting it reassuringly.

"It's okay, Bruce," she said. "I'm okay. I didn't realize I was screaming. Sorry I scared you."

Bruce sighed, stepping back from the hug. She felt a twinge of disappointment at that, but kept her face impassive. "It's okay," he breathed, looking relieved. "Just… Don't do that again."

She held up her hand with a small smile. "Promise."

Bruce frowned. "What was that all about, though?" he asked. "The screaming, that is. And…how do you not even realize you're screaming? Were you having a nightmare or something? It's a bit early to be in bed, though…"

Amrita shook her head.

"I wasn't in bed. It was…" she trailed off. "It was… Oh, this is going to take a while; get in here," she sighed, grabbing his arm and pulling him into the room, motioning for him to take a seat on the bed as there were no chairs in the room. She hopped up on the bed, too, snatching a pillow and hugging it to her chest. "You know how you told me about how it was likely I was the Garuda from Hindu legend?" She said, skipping straight to the point.

"Huh?" he said, seeming confused at the sudden jump to a different topic. "Um, yeah, of course I remember. I also remember you reacting badly to my statement," he said, studying her with a concerned look, as though he felt she might react badly again at the topic despite that she had been the one to bring it up in the first place.

"Well…it's true," she said, and proceeded to spill everything that had just happened to him, watching as his eyebrows gradually climbed towards his hairline the further she went with her explanation.

"…Wow," he said as she concluded with how he'd knocked on her door afterwards. "So…what did you remember, that you feel like you have to stay here?" he said, though she could see a flicker of emotion at that. It seemed like…disappointment? Hurt? She didn't know why he would feel that way. Maybe he thought her a closer friend than she thought. She didn't allow herself to hope it might be something more than that. That would just be a recipe for disaster.

Amrita's gaze trailed down to the dark blue comforter on the bed, and she picked at a loose thread as she spoke, her eyes glazing over as she remembered all that had happened before she'd ended up on earth...

Garuda was furious.

She had been forced to sneak into the cradle of the gods in order to fetch amrita, the source of the gods' immortality. They had expected her, though, and she had had to fight them in order to obtain the amrita. She had managed to scatter them, but did not escape with her prize unscathed. One of her wings was damaged, and she waited impatiently for it to heal, hidden in a dense forested area in case one of the gods managed to come back before she was healed and tried to find her.

"Child, why are you so keen on stealing amrita?"

Garuda jumped, scrambling back, but jostling her injured wing. She hissed in pain, glaring up at the intruder. The blue skin and four arms were a dead giveaway that it was Vishnu.

"It is not for me that I steal it," she said sharply.

Vishnu's eyes softened, and he crouched in front of her, placing a hand on her wing despite that she tried to jerk away from his touch. She closed her eyes as it mended itself beneath his touch before looking back at him, confused as to why he was helping her. Shouldn't he be trying to take the amrita back? After all, he would be affected, too, if it was taken away…

"Who is it for, then, child?"

Garuda looked down, swallowing audibly.

"It's for my mother," she admitted quietly. "The naga are holding her hostage and have asked for the amrita in exchange for her release."

Vishnu gave her a pitying look. "Child, there is no need to give in to their demands. You may make them think you have, but here is an idea of how to get your mother back without giving them the power they thirst for…" He leaned forward, whispering his plan into her ear. She listened intently, nodding as he finished. It was not perfect, but it was a better plan than simply giving in to the serpents' demands and ultimately making them stronger than the gods themselves. The cowards, she thought, did not deserve such power.

Garuda frowned at Vishnu.

"Why are you helping me?" she asked. "I stole from you the source of your immortality."

Vishnu smiled secretively. "Because I hope that someday we can be partners—perhaps even friends," he said. "And if you succeed in restoring the amrita, I believe you will be more than worthy of immortality yourself…after all, even without it, I witnessed firsthand your power against even gods."

Garuda smiled a bit at the compliment.

"Thank you, Vishnu," she said honestly, securing the satchel that held the amrita slung over her shoulder and stretching out her wings, preparing to take flight. She felt suddenly nervous about her plan. "I hope we meet again soon."

Vishnu nodded. "I have full faith that we will, Garuda."

With that, she took off, heading for the naga's hideout.

When she arrived, the naga were eagerly awaiting her hideout. She again became nervous at the sheer amount of them. There must have been thousands there. The chieftain stepped forward, his two servants bringing her mother, Vinata, forth as well. Garuda stepped forward and removed the amrita from her satchel, placing the jug of it on the ground before stepping back.

"I have fulfilled my end of the bargain. Now release my mother to me," she said, sounding more confident than she felt.

The chieftain studied the jug, ensuring it was the one that usually rested in the cradle of the gods before nodding to his servants. Vinata rushed over to Garuda, enveloping her in a tight hug.

"Oh, my daughter," she whispered. "What have you done?"

"Hush, mother," Garuda whispered back, hiding her mouth in her mother's hair so the serpents wouldn't be able to read her lips. "I have a plan. They will not gain immortality because of me."

The naga chieftain was just about to raise the jug of amrita to his lips to partake of it when Garuda addressed him.

"Chieftain, I find what you are doing very unwise," she said. "This is a sacred nectar, and you must be pure in order to drink of it. I advise that you all pray for absolution before drinking, lest you have repercussions for letting a holy drink pass your unclean lips."

The chieftain pursed his lips, displeased with her interruption, but seeing sense in her words.

"Naga!" he barked, addressing all that were present. "Come pray with me. We shall partake of the amrita after."

Vinata grew tense as the naga chieftain placed the jug down and turned, ascending the platform where his throne sat. As he knelt, so did all the others, and the closed their eyes as the naga chieftain led them in prayer. Amrita broke from her mother's embrace, silently snatching the jug back from its resting place and scurrying back to her mother, scooping her up and spreading her wings to take flight.

A cry of alarm went up, and Amrita glanced down to see one sentry, who had cracked one eye open to set a greedy gaze on the amrita, pointing up at their retreating forms in anger. The naga below scrambled for their weapons, one of them snatching up a bow and arrow, and as they shot at the two, Garuda banked—

Vinata cried out, falling limp in her arms; an arrow protruding from her stomach.

"Mother!"

Garuda dove downward, not caring that they weren't out of naga territory yet. She needed to get the arrow out of her mother and bind the wound. She landed behind a large boulder, checking her mother's pulse.

It wasn't there.

Garuda sat there, numbly, for a moment. Then the anger bloomed, building within her until it reached unspeakable heights.

"Garuda, I am so sorry," Vishnu said softly, appearing beside her. "I had no idea this would happen."

Garuda wordlessly removed the satchel, placing it in his hands.

"Garuda, don't do this. There's too many of them."

She glared at him, angry tears blurring her vision.

"They took my mother," she said, her voice barely over a whisper. "They killed her. They don't deserve any better fate than that."

Vishnu didn't say a word to stop her as she turned to head back to the swell of angry naga searching for her. There was nothing he could say, really. She was so far gone in her thoughts of murderous vengeance that there was nothing he could say to convince her not to avenge her mother's death.

Garuda attacked the naga from above, taking them momentarily by surprise as she ripped through their numbers with her vicious talons and fire. They shot arrows into her and sliced at her, but she was so mad with grief and anger and barely felt it. By the time she came back to herself, the entire naga army lay dead or too injured to stand all around her. She swayed from the blood loss she'd suffered, and carelessly stepped on bodies to make her way out of the field of carnage, pausing to slit a naga's throat if they groaned when she stepped on them. When she finally stepped over the last body and looked back at the waste she'd laid to the naga, she felt a dim sense of satisfaction, but more than that, she was overcome with the grief that she had smothered with anger until then. She collapsed to the ground, sobbing, feeling herself growing weaker as the blood spilled from her wounds. Her vision grew dark, and she was vaguely aware of her body being scooped up in a pair of strong arms.

Garuda slipped in and out of consciousness for an indeterminate amount of time, sometimes hearing people talking, sometimes just hearing birds chirping in the distance.

"You can't be serious about this, my love," she heard a female voice say once.

"I am completely serious, my dear. I do not joke about things like this," a familiar male voice said in response.

"But…this is immortality we're talking about. Such a thing should be decided by a council of the gods, should it not?"

There was a sigh. "Lakshmi, she shall be my responsibility. I believe she is more than fit for immortality. And if she is not, I shall take it away myself. This is my decision, though. She shall be my protégé." There was a moment of silence. "I feel responsible for what happened to her mother. It was my idea that got her killed, after all."

"No, it was the naga's greed that got her killed," the female scolded gently. "You should not blame yourself for others' faults."

It was silent again for a long moment, and she almost thought they'd left when the male spoke again.

"Nevertheless. If I do not grant her immortality, she shall die." He seemed to have made his decision, and he spoke firmly now. "Hold her down. I am going to start the ritual."

There was more pain, and she slipped fully back into blessed unconsciousness once more.

It had been quite some time since Vishnu had saved Garuda's life. She had helped him keep the naga in line (with vicious gladness), and had traveled to many different realms with him. One of her favorites—aside from Vishnu's home realm of Vaikuntha, of course, which was the most beautiful she had seen to date—had been the Norse gods' home, Asgard. The only thing that had put a bit of a damper on the trip had been the black-haired prince that had insisted on pulling mean pranks on her throughout the duration of their stay. She frowned at the thought of him. At least his brother had been nice, if not a bit too boisterous for her taste.

Garuda sat in the garden to the south of Vishnu's home. Vishnu himself was off at a council meeting of the gods, so it was quiet. Garuda liked the quiet, though. It gave her time to reflect. She sighed, leaning her head back against the tree she was sitting under. She raised it again when she heard the cracking of a branch under foot, looking around to try and pinpoint the source of the sound.

"Vishnu?" she called out, though she was not expecting him back for at least a couple more hours. "Lakshmi?" she tried, though the consort had gone to visit relatives a couple weeks ago and had yet to return.

A large hand suddenly closed around her throat, and she scrabbled at it, trying to pry it off. It just gripped her tighter, and she looked up to see Lakshmi's face, a cold expression on it.

"L-Lakshmi?" she managed to choke out. "What are you—doing?"

"Oh, good," the consort said with a serene smile. "I was afraid the disguise might not be convincing enough."

The consort's eyes turned slitted, and Garuda was overcome with anger.

"Naga!" she spat.

"O-ho-ho, give the bird a prize! Well, maybe not, I don't really like you that much," the naga said. "In fact, I loathe you. You're not exactly popular with my brethren, you know, after all the persecution you've given us."

"You deserve every bit I give you," she said, though she could see the spots starting to dance in front of her eyes from lack of oxygen.

The naga rolled her eyes, loosening her grip a bit and letting Garuda take a few rasping breaths.

"You can't kill me, you know," Garuda taunted, her talons itching to claw out the naga's hideous eyes.

"Oh yes, I know," the naga said with a sickly-sweet grin. "That's why I'm not going to kill you…yet."

The naga began chanting, and Garuda screamed out in pain. Whatever dark magic the naga was performing was causing her to transform. Her talons became fingers, blunt and useless in battle. She could feel her feathers molting away to reveal skin, and if it were the same as her fingers, it was a dark brown color, her hair that replaced her head feathers falling in her eyes a deep reddish-brown. Her golden armor fell away, and she felt incredibly vulnerable as she sat naked before the naga's condescending gaze. She curled in on herself, ashamed at her weakness.

The naga, finished her spell, smiled wickedly.

"Ah, see now I will finish you," she said. "Now that you are weak and unable to fight back. You see, I am not as foolish as some of my brethren, to take you on when you are in full fighting form." The naga raised her claws, preparing to strike.

"Garuda? Are you here?" Came Vishnu's voice. Never had Garuda been more glad to hear his voice.

The naga hissed, claws still poised as she tried to hurriedly calculate whether she could kill the eagle with enough time to run away and act like she'd just arrived.

Garuda didn't give her the chance, though. She reached out with what power she could still tap into and created an interdimensional rift next to her to the first place that came to mind, biting the naga's hand and causing her to curse and let go, letting Garuda fall away into another realm. The naga flung a curse at her as she fell, though, and Garuda was struck by it. She didn't feel anything different from it, though, which was confusing. Her mind quickly turned to the fact that she was falling instead.

Garuda miscalculated her landing. She shrieked as she realized she was falling through the air above a rocky landscape, with no means of slowing her descent. She tried to reach for her winged form, but to no avail. She couldn't even feel its presence deep within her. She was stuck in a disgustingly human body and was falling to her death. The ground rushed up beneath her, and the last thing she felt was her head bashing against a rock before everything went black.

"Miss, are you alright?"

The woman groaned, stirring. She slowly blinked open her eyes to find herself staring in the face of a concerned, middle-aged woman. She looked back at her, confused.

"Who are you?" she asked, pausing as she looked around, noticing they were seated around a campfire. A wagon and two large horses sat a little ways back from the fire, and aside from the woman watching over her, there was a man about her age, an elderly couple, and a small girl that looked about three years old, staring at her shyly from beneath the middle-aged man's legs. She presumed he must be her father, and the woman watching over her, her mother.

"I am Anis, and this is Emaus, my husband," she said, gesturing to the man. "We found you lying naked alongside the road and figured you must have passed out due to heat stroke. What were you doing, lying naked out there?" she said, seeming very worried for the woman's well-being.

The woman tried to remember ever lying outside in the sun, naked. She couldn't remember anything up until waking up at that campfire. She tried to remember her name, but she couldn't think of anything. Her mind was a complete blank.

"…I don't…I don't know," she said numbly, the startling fact of not being able to remember anything up until that point not really feeling real to her at that point.

"No?" Anis asked, eyes wide. "Well…do you know your name, at least?"

The woman shook her head, not meeting Anis' eyes, feeling ashamed that she couldn't remember anything for some reason. As though she was damaged goods.

"Well, we need something to call you," Anis said gently. "What about…Ahmose? Or Priya?"

The two names apart did not strike anything within the woman, but together, they sounded like something familiar.

"Amrita," she stated firmly. "You can call me Amrita."