"One test. You couldn't even get through one test before you demolished the lab?!" Fury demanded.
It had been three hours since the disastrous first attempt to study Fenrir. The tests had begun well enough at first. Thor had resisted his desire to carry his nephew out of the building and Fenrir had made a valiant effort not to scream at all of the people touching him. Then the machines had started to malfunction and it was determined that Thor was the reason.
Fenrir began to panic at the mere mention of his uncle being asked to leave and, when the doctors pushed the matter, Thor had ripped open the X-ray machine that Fenrir had been in. Then, over the protests of the doctors, Thor had marched out of the room dragging Fenrir behind him. It had taken half the team to convince Thor not to leave, and the other half to keep the doctors from fleeing the building or calling the WSC.
Since then the Avengers had been sitting, mostly silent, as Fury and Thor went back and forth about what was going to happen next.
Thor began to explain again what had happened in the labs but his tale fell on deaf ears. "S.H.I.E.L.D. might not have been accommodating so far, but this is what you agreed to. I can't have you throwing a fit and electrocuting someone every time someone is rude to your nephew."
"It wasn't his behavior toward Fenrir that I found to be intolerable," Thor said. "It was his insistence that I leave." Thor turned to glare at the doctor Fury had brought in to study Fenrir.
"He's throwing off electrical interference and it's affecting our machines," Dr. Monroe explained. "As much as I'd love to study the science behind it, that's not the job I was brought here to do."
Thor turned back to Fury. "Our deal was that I could be present when you performed the tests."
"We can't do the tests if you're there," Dr. Monroe insisted.
"Then you will not do the tests," Thor said.
"The tests are the deal," Fury said. "I'm sure that we can make some arrangement that will work."
"I'm not sure we can," Dr. Monroe said. "I was uncomfortable with the arrangement before but now that I've seen it in action I don't think he can be allowed to be anywhere near the subject."
"Doctor, you might want to rethink your choice of words." Natasha warned.
"Even if the machines do work, with him around, we could never be sure if we're getting a genuine reading. It would make this entire project useless." He insisted, glaring back at Thor. "Besides which, I'm not sure I could get my team to come back if he's going to be there. Especially if he's going to begin smashing equipment every time the boy gets scared."
"He has a point, Thor." Maria Hill said. "When you get close to the machines their readings are inaccurate. We'll try and work something out that you're comfortable with, but I don't see a way that this can be done with you in the room."
"I don't trust these people enough to leave them alone with him." Thor said. It looked like they'd all reached a stand still when Bruce stepped in.
"What if I did the tests?" Bruce said.
"It might make Thor calmer, but as long as he's there then we wouldn't be able to trust the results." Maria said.
"Thor wouldn't be there." Bruce said. Thor started to protest. "I know this isn't a perfect solution but you know how I feel about people being used as experiments and you know that there's a line I won't cross. We've worked together long enough that I think you could trust me to be alone with your nephew."
"It's a generous offer Dr. Banner, but this type of medicine isn't exactly your specialty." Dr. Monroe said. "You wouldn't know the first thing to do with half of the information that you receive."
"I'd just be running the tests. I'd send the results to your team and they can do whatever they want with them and send me instructions." Bruce said.
"Do you think you could handle that?" Natasha asked and, reluctantly, Thor nodded his approval. Dr. Monroe wasn't so easily satisfied.
"He's not qualified for this." He insisted.
"Doctor, either get on board or we'll find someone else who will." Fury stated. For a moment Dr. Monroe was silent. This was the biggest opportunity he'd ever have and he was being forced to watch as it was handed to someone else.
"You record everything." He ordered and, with one last resentful look toward Thor, he left the room.
The next morning Bruce began to wish that he'd put a little more thought into his offer before presenting it to Thor and Fury. At the time all he'd been able to think about was helping his teammate but now, as he approached the lab, the reality of the situation was starting to hit him.
Bruce had never been alone with Fenrir. As far as he knew no one on the team had been except for Thor. In fact, aside from a yelp made during the exam the day before, Bruce had never even heard Fenrir speak. Add to all this the fact that, although he might not be able to use magic, he'd demonstrated in New Mexico that he was still a very strong man and could probably do a lot of damage if he wanted to. And now Bruce was going to be trapping himself, alone, in a room with him. As he walked to the exam room he'd set up the night before, he tried to think if there was any way he could convince Tony to do the tests. He had robots for everything else, why not a Med Bot?
This line of thought was stopped short when Bruce got to the room and found Thor and Fenrir already outside waiting for him. No going back now.
Thor smiled when he saw his teammate coming down the hall. "Bruce, I'm glad that you are here. I was just telling Fenrir about you." Fenrir, who's seemed to instinctively take a step toward Thor when he saw someone coming, made a brief effort to look up at Bruce.
"It's nice to meet you." Fenrir said quietly, before dropping his eyes back to the floor.
"I've explained that even though I cannot be there he will be completely safe with you." Thor said, putting an arm around his nephew.
"Well." Bruce said, feeling more awkward than he'd felt since Tony had tried to use him as a therapist. "You ready to get started?"
After a quick glance toward Thor, Fenrir nodded his head. Thor assured him that he would be back to pick him up, and then turned and left. Fenrir seemed ready to run after him but stood his ground. Bruce held open the door and the two of them went inside.
"Sit up here." Bruce said, patting an exam table. "I figured we could start with a basic physical today, just keep things simple to start with."
"Do I need to get undressed again?" Fenrir asked, remembering the day before. Bruce was surprised at how deep Fenrir's voice was and almost forgot to answer the question.
"No, not right now anyway." Bruce said. Bruce began the physical and was relieved at how cooperative Fenrir was. Pretty soon he was able to stop worrying about his safety and simply marvel at the similarities and differences between races. While Fenrir's reflexes were clearly advanced, Bruce hadn't found anything drastically different from a human. Until he pulled out a stethoscope to listen to Fenrir's heart.
"Fenrir." Bruce said. "If I asked you to put your hand over your heart, where would you put it?" Fenrir looked at Bruce in confusion for a moment before moving his hand. Just as Bruce thought, Fenrir put it on his left side at the bottom of his rib cage. "That's what I thought."
"Is that wrong?" Fenrir asked nervously.
"Not wrong, more like a scientists dream." Bruce noticed the confused look Fenrir was giving him and realized that he'd need to explain. "It's different from humans." Bruce moved to put his hand over his own heart. "Ours is up here. Thor's is too, so this is interesting." Bruce explained, pulling up the back of Fenrir's shirt to get a better listen. Fenrir flinched and Bruce remembered what he was doing. "I want to listen to your heart and your shirt is muffling the sound. This will only take a second." Fenrir was tense, but did nothing to stop Bruce so he continued.
Bruce listened to the area where Fenrir's heart was and marveled at the sound. Then on an impulse he decided to try again from higher up on his back. He didn't get very far. Fenrir's back looked like a patchwork quilt. Scars cut across from every angle and Bruce couldn't even begin to guess what kind of weapon had been used to cause this much damage. He had an unpleasant feeling that if he were to ask he would get a pretty long list. He pulled Fenrir's shirt back down and stepped away from the table to write down what he'd learned.
"It lets you hear my heart?" Fenrir said, breaking the silence. When Bruce turned to look at him he gestured to the stethoscope. "That, it lets you hear my heart?"
"It makes it louder." Bruce explained, offering the headset to Fenrir. After staring at if for a few seconds Fenrir took the earpiece and put it on. Bruce moved the bell over Fenrir's chest. Fenrir jolted at the first sound and then smiled.
"That's-" Fenrir started to say before reaching across to listen to Bruce's heart. Fenrir continued smiling at his new discovery until he looked up at Bruce and realized what he was doing. Immediately the smile disappeared as he ripped the headset off and handed it back. "I'm sorry, I didn't, I'm sorry."
"Not a problem. I think everyone does that the first time they try one on." Bruce watched as Fenrir visibly relaxed.
"I think we've done enough for today." Bruce said. "If you can wait a minute I can walk you back to Thor's room.
"That's all?" Fenrir asked.
"For today; Thor did tell you that you'd have to come back tomorrow, right?"
"Yes, he explained it to me."
"We have time. We don't need to do everything in the first day." Bruce explained, holding open the door.
Once he'd taken Fenrir back to Thor, Bruce returned to the exam room to go over his notes. He couldn't decide if he should mention the scars or not. They weren't exactly a medical discovery but they wouldn't leave his head. Thor had told them that Fenrir had been tortured, but up until now, Bruce hadn't really thought too much about the fact. He wondered what other injuries he would find as he continued working with Fenrir and he began to feel sick. It was becoming abundantly clear now why Fenrir didn't like anyone but Thor touching him.
"So did you hear about Junior's first trip to the doctor?" Clint asked, slamming down into his chair. "According to Bruce he's been a perfect patient." Steve watched as Natasha took her seat on the couch and waited to hear what it was they wanted to tell him. Normally he was more than happy to have a meeting with his teammates; but when two of them dragged him off alone, five minutes after he'd gotten back from a night of patrolling, it tended to make him uneasy.
"What did he do?" Steve asked.
"Nothing." Natasha said. "It's been two weeks and there hasn't been a single problem."
"Alright, well if everything's going fine then why did the two of you want to talk to me?" Steve said, not wanting to move from his place in the doorway.
"We have some concerns." Natasha said.
"And since everyone else has decided to join Team Jacob, you were the only one to go to." Clint said.
"Who's Jacob?" Steve asked feeling confused.
"You don't want to know." Natasha groaned. "I'm frankly a little worried that he knows. He's talking about Fenrir."
"You just said that he hasn't done anything." Steve said.
"It's not about what he's doing. It's about what we should be dealing with and aren't. " Steve waited wondering what else Natasha was about to add to his list of things to deal with. "Fenrir's been on earth for about two weeks, and Thor's had him for even longer-"
"So where the hell is Loki?" Clint interrupted. "It's been over two months since the big 'not dead reveal' and there's still no sign of him. Even if Thor is wrong about Loki being a great dad, he'd still want to come and stake his claim. If only on principle."
"He has to know about what's going on by now. As much as I'd like to think the delay's because he's gotten himself killed somewhere; I don't think we're that lucky." Natasha said.
"Well what do you think? As far as I can tell we just having the same discussion we've been having since he got here." Steve said. "I know that Loki is an issue but until he shows up there's nothing we can do. As for Fenrir… unless he does something then there's nothing we can do about him either." Steve looked at Clint and Natasha and realized that they weren't done. "What else?"
"Now that Fenrir's back Thor's increased all of his efforts to find his brother. He's even put in a request to Dr. Strange to try and locate him. And since the chance of him causing problems is more of a threat, S.H.I.E.L.D. has increased searches for him too. And, if Thor's stories of his mother are anything to go by, I'd bet that Frigga is searching too." Natasha finished, glancing over to Clint.
"And?" Steve asked.
"We think that Thor finding him the way he did might not have been an accident." Natasha said, turning back to Steve.
"You think that Loki arranged it?" Steve asked.
"No. We can debate the motives but Loki wouldn't have left his son in prison for a day. Let alone a lifetime." Clint admitted.
"Loki has a lot of enemies and for over a year he's been a ghost. Now he's going to have to show up."
"You think Fenrir's a lure." Steve muttered to himself.
"That king did give him up pretty easily; considering the fact that he's kept him there since he was a kid."
"There's another problem." Natasha added. "If someone went to the trouble of bringing Thor to Svartalfheim to find Fenrir, it's unlikely that they'd just leave everything to chance after that."
"So if this was arranged somehow, then whoever did it is probably keeping a close watch." Steve finally gave up and collapsed into a chair next to Natasha's. As if worrying about what Fenrir might be capable of, and Loki's inevitable arrival, weren't enough to deal with.
"Is there a reason that you two didn't want to tell the rest of the team about all of this?" Steve asked.
"Clint has another theory." Natasha said.
"Let's say we're right that someone planned for Thor to find his nephew. He's already gone through a lot of effort and, until Loki shows up, nothing to show for it. But he does have someone inside the tower." Clint looked up at Steve as he finished speaking.
"No." Steve said, quickly. "We've been through this before. He can barely be within five feet of someone without hiding behind Thor. I've seen trauma victims before and, believe me, he's not faking that. He's not a mole."
"Not yet, but if someone were to take him back how long do you think he could hold out before he tells every detail of what he's seen in here?" Clint asked. "And if he were taken how far do you think Thor would go to get him back?"
"What Thor would do seems more like a reason for someone to stay as far away from Fenrir as possible." Steve said.
"Thor isn't untouchable." Clint said flatly. "None of us are. Not when it comes to the people we care about."
"When Loki attacked Manhattan Thor stood by us and he always has." Natasha continued. "But Loki has always been an aggressor, a threat. Fenrir isn't, he is completely dependent on Thor. Right now, if Thor had to choose…I think he's already made it clear where his loyalties lie.
A week of exams later and Bruce now knew that, with the exception of his face and hands, there was barely a square inch of Fenrir that wasn't scarred or mangled in some way. Bruce had been doing his best to keep their time completely professional, after all the goal of all these sessions was to learn more about the anatomy of Asgardians. While Dr. Monroe might have wanted to know the extent that Fenrir's body could handle damage, Bruce had already decided he wasn't going to go down that road until he was made to. As far as he was concerned the details of how Fenrir had been tortured were Fenrir's to tell or not.
Even so it was becoming more and more difficult for Bruce to see that much damage day after day and not say something. The final straw came when he finally got around to X-raying Fenrir.
"How did this not kill you?" Bruce said, holding up the x-ray. Fenrir had no idea what he was being shown and just stared at it in confusion. "There is scar tissue on your heart that matches up with this enormous scar." Bruce said, indicating the scar he meant. "You were stabbed and, even with what Thor's told us about how quickly you can heal, an attack like that should have killed you."
"Oh, I remember that one; they were pretty upset about it." Fenrir said looking at the x-ray with a new understanding.
"Who was upset?"
"The council." Fenrir explained. "There were rules for the people who came into my cell. Everyone knew that you weren't supposed do anything that could kill me. That was the rule but… one man got carried away. I had to spend a week with healers. No one was happy about that."
"Did that kind of thing happen often?"
"No. Like I said, there was a rule not to kill me." Fenrir looked up to meet Bruce's gaze. "They could hurt me as much as they wanted, just so long as they didn't spoil it for everyone else."
"That's why they left your hands alone." Bruce realized.
"I had to be able to take care of myself." Fenrir said simply.
Bruce had ended their session soon after that. He'd been feeling uncomfortably Hulk like after listening to Fenrir and decided that it would be best for everyone if he spent the next hour or so in a panic room.
That they'd gone so long without realizing that it might be an issue was a true testament to how slow things had been lately. Still, the day finally came when a call came in for the team to assemble. Tony was the first to say it.
"How have we never thought of this until now?" No one else had to ask what it was he was talking about.
"We can't just leave him alone here." Natasha insisted.
"So what do we do, draw straws and loser stays here to babysit?" Clint asked.
"Not a terrible idea. So what do you say, Clint? I'll give you ten dollars an hour and money for pizza." Tony offered. Clint glared back and refused to answer. "I guess that means no. Can't we just leave Thor with him?"
"We need the air support on this one." Steve said.
"Who can we spare?" Natasha asked.
"I guess Clint could-"
"No." Clint said, before Steve could even finish his sentence.
"Then it'll have to be Bruce." He said after another moment and before Bruce could respond Thor came in.
"Jarvis has informed me that I am needed for battle. Which foe has dared challenge us this time?" Thor asked, coming to stand beside Tony.
"Some new villain team, calling themselves the Punishers, I'll give you the details on the way." Tony said as he slammed down his faceplate. They were all out the door when Thor stopped and turned around. "Banner, won't you be coming with us into battle?"
"I'm sitting this one out." Bruce said.
"I am glad to hear it. I had worried that Fenrir might not enjoy being in the tower by himself."
"Yeah, Thor." Clint muttered as he passed. "Wouldn't want your nephew to get lonely."
"You know that you're allowed out of your room, don't you?" Bruce asked Fenrir later that day. Since he'd been told to stay behind Bruce had decided he may as well get the next round of tests out of the way.
"I'm fine in there." Fenrir insisted from where he was lying stretched out on the exam table. During tests a few days before Bruce had noticed that Fenrir seemed to be letting of some kind of energy. Bruce knew from experience that Thor always had a mild electrical field around him, but what he was getting off of Fenrir was something entirely different. At the moment Bruce was running a miniature spectrometer over him to see if they were dealing with gamma radiation.
The tests were simple enough but they required as little interference between Fenrir and his machines as possible. This meant that Fenrir had had to strip down before they'd begun. Realizing that this change had made Fenrir even more anxious than he usually was Bruce had been trying to keep him talking to keep his mind off of it. So far he wasn't having much luck.
"There's a lot here, training rooms and a library. Thor said that you liked to read, you should have him show you so you'll have something to do the next time he's on mission." Bruce suggested. Instead of answering him, Fenrir seemed to put more effort into staring at the same spot on the ceiling.
Bruce looked back down at the spectrometer in his hand and shook his head. Still nothing. He put it back on the table and began looking for a Geiger counter.
"Listen, I know that it probably just seems easier to stay where it's just you and Thor. We didn't exactly go out of our way to make you feel welcome here, but this is your home now. If all you do is lock yourself in your room then aren't you just trading one cage for another one?" Bruce finally found what he was looking for and turned back to Fenrir.
"Who knows, you might even enjoy-" Bruce froze. "Fenrir? Fenrir." In the minute that Bruce's back had been turned something had changed. Fenrir was still lying staring at the ceiling but his eyes had glazed over. His breathing was sharp and quick and Bruce was pretty sure that he was beginning to shake. What was going on? Bruce hurried over to the table and reached his hand around Fenrir's neck to check his pulse.
"No!" Fenrir yelled, smacking Bruce's arm away and moving to his knees on the table. "No." Fenrir repeated, looking at Bruce with a look of fear and total hatred. Bruce looked back at Fenrir and was hit with a sudden realization that whatever Fenrir was seeing right now, it wasn't him.
Bruce held his arm to his chest and took several deep breaths to calm 'the other guy' down before dealing with Fenrir.
"Fenrir, I need you to calm down. Everything's okay," Bruce barely needed to finish the sentence before he saw that it wasn't working. Bruce knew dozens of ways to calm himself down when he was on edge. Hell he had spent years on that goal alone. But how to talk someone down from, what he had a feeling was, a painful flashback hadn't been in the lessons.
Bruce tried to keep his own breathing steady. His wrist hurt and his vision kept tinting green around the edges. Fenrir looked like he was getting more worked up by the second. Bruce saw that there were about a dozen ways that this situation could end disastrously for the both of them.
He needed to get Fenrir to calm down and quick. Bruce tried to remember what had worked back when Tony had been having panic attacks but nothing came to mind. More than anything he was wishing that he'd elected to take at least one Psych course when he'd been in school. Now all he had was the memory of a pamphlet Pepper had brought for Tony once; that and a hunch.
"Fenris? Fenris, I need for you to listen to me." Bruce tried slowly. All Bruce got was a slight head tilt but at least he knew that Fenrir was hearing him.
"Alright, Fenris, I need for you to do something for me." Bruce said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. "I want you to look around the room and I want you to tell me where you think you are right now."
For a minute it seemed like Fenrir was going to stay right where he was then, slowly, he began looking around the room.
"I'm in a" Fenrir continued looking around the room and Bruce could see that reality was beginning to take hold again. "I'm in the lab. I'm on Earth." Fenrir said after a pause. Bruce was relieved to see that his breathing was already going back to normal.
"You're doing really well, Fenris." Bruce said. "Now what I want you to do is take a few breaths." Fenrir continued looking around the room like something wasn't adding up. Then, just like that, it was over.
"I'm sorry." Fenrir said, jolting back to reality. "I'm sorry, Bruce, I didn't mean to."
"Do you think you can tell me what happened?" Bruce asked, struggling to keep green from the edge of his vision. The Hulk didn't like it when Bruce got hurt and Bruce was pretty sure that his wrist was dislocated.
"I thought I was, you grabbed, I just… I don't like it when people touch my neck." Fenrir said, pulling his knees to his chest.
"Fenrir, I-" Bruce began.
"Can I go back to my room now?" Fenrir asked.
"I think we need to-" Once again Fenrir interrupted him.
"Please. Please I just really want to go back to my room." Fenrir begged.
"Alright." As soon as he got permission Fenrir grabbed his clothes and rushed out of the room. Bruce forced himself to wait and give Fenrir a head start before making his own dash to the panic room.
"He broke your wrist?" Steve asked later that night.
"He didn't break it, he just dislocated it." Bruce said. Steve gave him a look. "For what it's worth I don't think he meant to do it. I think he was just trying to get away."
"Have you told, Thor?" Steve asked.
"The moment he got back. He's with Fenrir now." Bruce said. In truth he hadn't wanted to tell anyone but Thor. The team still seemed to be waiting for Fenrir to go crazy and kill someone, and he didn't want them to feel justified because Fenrir has responded to a fear reflex. But, since Thor couldn't keep a secret, Bruce knew it would be best if he just came clean.
"Did you put it in your report?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, but I don't know if I'm going to file it."
"S.H.I.E.L.D needs to know what's going on. We all have to be working with the same information. Even if it is an accident, knowing that he reacts that way when he's panicked is important. It might even help us learn some of his triggers so we don't accidentally step on some land mines with him." Steve finished. Bruce nodded his agreement and their conversation was brought short when Tony, Clint and Natasha came into the room.
"Metal Man. Really, Metal Man?!" Tony said. "It's a conspiracy. They're trying to steal my title."
"Tony, don't take it so personally. The entire team was just a villain rip off of us. You didn't notice Captain Capitalism?" Clint said, slamming down onto his spot on the couch.
"Between him and Steel Boy, it's starting a trend. People trying to take my stuff."
"Common, Tony, Metal Man wasn't that similar." Clint offered, not being able to hide a smirk.
"His suit was painted red and gold!" Tony yelled. Tony looked to Steve for support and seemed to notice Bruce for the first time. "So how was babysitting?
It was two days before Bruce felt up to another round with Fenrir. It wasn't that he was afraid. He truly did believe that Fenrir hadn't meant to hurt him, and his wrist had been fine by the time he came back from Hulking. What had kept him away was the realization of how truly miserable these tests must be for Fenrir.
No one liked being studied like this, but it was becoming obvious to Bruce that what had happened to Fenrir on Svartalfheim was much worse than he'd ever considered. He wished that there was something he could do to help but, like he'd told Tony countless times, he wasn't that kind of doctor. As he walked down the hall he tried to figure out if there could possibly be a therapist on Earth that could understand and help.
Not surprisingly Fenrir was already waiting for him when he arrived.
"I'm sorry about your hand." Fenrir said, the moment he saw Bruce come in.
"No harm done." Bruce said, holding out his uninjured hand. Fenrir began to relax once he saw that Bruce was alright.
"So, do you think you can tell me what happened last time?" Bruce asked.
"I, I told you. I don't like when people touch my neck." Fenrir said.
"Yeah, you said that, but you seemed to be pretty upset before that happened."
"It was nothing. It won't happen again." Fenrir said.
"That's not the point." Bruce was about to continue when he heard a voice behind him.
"Director Fury needs to have a word with you." Bruce turned around and saw Maria Hill. Like always when dealing with a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Bruce hadn't heard her approach.
"About what?" Bruce asked, still trying to get over the surprise of her appearing in the room.
"I wasn't told." Maria said, sharply. "He's waiting for you in the conference room."
"I guess we'll do this later." Bruce said to Fenrir.
"I was told to keep him here while you're gone." She said. Bruce didn't like what he was hearing. He had a feeling that Fury was going to want to talk about Fenrir's outburst and, judging by the look on Fenrir's face, he'd come to the same conclusion.
Reluctantly Bruce left the room and headed down the hall to the elevator. He stood in front of the control panel and waited for the doors to open. Tony had mentioned a few weeks back that he was going to improve the elevator to make it faster, but nothing had ever come of it.
"Dr. Banner, I would advise you to return to your exam room at once." Jarvis said, just as the doors finally slid opened. "Mr. Lokison seems to be in a great deal of distress." Bruce turned around and quickly headed back the way he came.
He opened the door and saw Fenrir on the floor with Maria pinning him in a choke hold next to what remained of his exam table.
"What are you doing?!" Bruce yelled, rushing over to pull the two apart. Maria let go of Fenrir and calmly stepped away.
"There was some concern about your last report." Maria said, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her head. "Clearly he's stronger than he lets on, and there was some suspicion that his inability to use magic might have been exaggerated. We needed to know what he was capable of."
"So Fury sent you to attack him?" Bruce demanded.
"This goes beyond Fury, and yes. Specifically to choke him; your notes were very helpful on that point."
"Get out." Bruce ordered.
"You should be thanking me. I've been able to confirm that he can't use magic."
"Now!" Bruce growled. Maria recognized the gravely sound of the Hulk edging in and made her exit. Bruce took a moment to calm down 'the other guy' and then went to check on Fenrir.
With Maria gone, Fenrir seemed to have completely shut down. He had his back pressed against the wall, legs curled into his chest and his arms wrapped around his throat. Bruce went over and tried to reach out to him.
"No!" Fenrir shouted, scrambling a few feet away from Bruce, and resuming his position.
"Fenris. " Bruce said, inching a little closer and making sure to keep his hands visible. "I'm not going to hurt you." Fenrir shook his head vigorously from side to side.
"Nononono." He said to himself.
"Fenris, you need to let me see your neck." Bruce said. Fenrir looked at him with undisguised terror. "I need to see if you're hurt. Just let me look for one second and then I swear I won't touch you again." Bruce waited to see how Fenrir would respond. Fenrir just stared at him. Bruce moved a foot closer and Fenrir still didn't move. Bruce took this as permission to go and crossed the remaining distance between them.
Fenrir still had his arms crossed in front of his neck and Bruce reached out to pull them away. Fenrir immediately locked his arms tighter and pulled away. Bruce waited a minute and tried again. This time Fenrir let him pull his arms away. Bruce quickly tried to assess the damage before Fenrir closed off again. There were serious bruises, and Fenris moaned at every touch, but no serious damage had been done.
"There, I'm all done." Bruce said, sliding away from Fenrir, who instantly returned his hands to his throat. "Why don't we just sit here for a while and calm down?" Bruce said, as much for himself as for Fenrir. Maria had just embodied everything he didn't trust about S.H.I.E.L.D. They'd known what Fenrir was afraid of and they'd used that to prove something that they'd already known! It wasn't like Fenrir had shown up alone saying that he couldn't cast spells. He'd had the enchanted bracelets forced on him. Wondering if Fenrir was a danger was one thing, but there was no reason to think he was lying about the magic.
"Are you all right?" Bruce asked, once he was sure that he had the Hulk under control. Fenrir looked up at him with a blank eyed stare and said nothing. "Fenris, I'm so sorry about this." Bruce offered. "I shouldn't have left you alone with her. You didn't deserve that."
Bruce stood up and looked around at what was left of the exam table. The pieces were all over the room and he couldn't be sure if Fenrir had been trying to use the pieces to try and defend himself or if he'd just been trying to grab something. Either way it was clear that Fenrir had been fighting for his life. It was all making him feel sick.
"Come on, I'll take you back to your room." Bruce said, offering Fenrir a hand. To his surprise, Fenrir took it and pulled himself up. Bruce let go and turned toward the door and, before he knew what was happening, Fenrir grabbed him.
"And then he rode the shield down a river of molten gold to escape!" The Dwarf yelled as he finished off his drink.
"And how did the shield not melt in all that gold?" One of his companions asked.
"Obviously it was made of stronger material." The man insisted, motioning to a barmaid for another drink and being pointedly ignored.
The taverns on Nidavellir weren't renowned for their luxury or service, but the strength of the drinks was usually more than enough to keep most Dwarves happy.
"Why didn't the Dragon just burn him? He'd been throwing fire at him through rest of the chase; did he suddenly forget how?" The dwarves at the table turned to look up at the newcomer to their table. There was nothing especially strange about the dwarf. In fact his appearance was entirely unremarkable but the hooded cloak he wore, that caught notice.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I heard your tale and couldn't help but listen. You're Brokkr, aren't you?" The man asked.
"I am indeed, and who are you?" Brokkr asked, eyeing the stranger with new interest.
"A traveler." The man said. "I've come to your village in the hopes of having a few items crafted, however, that is business that can wait until the morning. For now I'd like to hear the rest of this story." Brokkr smiled at the encouragement and was about to continue his story when he was again interrupted.
"My brother's stories are full of more hot air than a forge. The name's Etri, and if you're looking to have something crafted then you'd do better talking to me than wasting your time with him." Etri said, waving the rest of their party away and motioning for the man to join them at their table.
"Yet it's the both of you that I want." The man insisted. "The famous brothers who crafted Mjolnir for the Asgardians." The two brothers smiled at each other.
"That and the spear Gungnir were our greatest accomplishments. Great as our other creations may be we've yet to create anything of their caliber." Etri said.
"It is true that nothing has ever inspired us like those weapons did." Brokkr agreed.
"I have designs for some items that I was hoping to have made. Nothing so grand as Gungnir, I'm sure, but I believe that in your hands they could be given real power." The man said, reaching into his cloak to retrieve a scroll. "Do you think you'd be interested?" He said, holding the parchment out in front of him.
"Objects like these would be costly to produce." Brokkr said after eyeing the designs.
"I assure you that I can obtain you any gold that you would require."
"How did you obtain these designs?" Etri asked, studying the stranger more closely. There was something off about this man, Etri was sure of it, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
"Scholars of Vanaheim, brilliant at imagining, but lacking the skill to bring their creations to life. This is where I hoped that the two of you could help me." The question stood unasked between them all for a minute as the brothers tried to make up their minds.
It was clear that the items they were being asked to make were intended for destruction. Then again the gold from a job like this would be more than they'd earn in a century otherwise. And it had been so long since they'd had a chance to work on anything or real value.
"We can do it." Etri said finally. "But items like this will take time."
"Time I have." He said with a smile.
"I'll have to travel to Asgard to obtain some of these materials." Brokkr said. "Maybe I'll be able to catch a glimpse of the new prince while I'm there."
"Has Odin decided to adopt again." The man said. Both brothers turned at the unexpected bitterness in the man's tone.
"No." Etri said, appraising the man again. "He meant the lost prince. The child of the second son, Loki, was recently found."
"Oh, that." The man said, sounding unimpressed. "I heard those rumors when I was on Vanaheim. There's nothing to them. Everyone knows that the prince was killed ages ago."
"No it's true." Brokkr insisted. "One of our kinsmen was recently approached by the queen to craft a gift to welcome him home."
"What?"
"It's as he says." Etri said. "The queen brought the designs to him herself." The man abruptly stood up.
"I'm sorry to cut our meeting short I must leave." He said, with a quick bow.
"Do you still want the items?" Brokkr asked the retreating figure.
"Of course." The man snapped, barely slowing his march to the door.
"And how exactly are we supposed to contact you?" Etri asked.
"Don't worry." The man said, turning from the door. "When the objects are done, I'll find you."
Once he was a good distance away from the tavern Loki waved his hand over his face and removed the last of the glamor that was making him look like a dwarf. He wasn't proud of his exit; it had been sloppy and he'd drawn more attention to himself then he'd wanted. But how could he be expected to linger with news like that?
Of course he'd heard the rumors floating around the realms that the youngest prince had been found alive. That Thor had somehow discovered him and brought him back to Asgard. He'd heard them all and dismissed every one of them.
Fenrir was dead, and he'd followed enough legends and rumors over the years to know that it was true. Loki bitterly remembered the months he'd searched for the island of Lyngvi, after hearing the human legend that said Fenrir was imprisoned there. Of course there had been nothing there. Just like there had been nothing to any of the other rumors that his son was alive.
This new 'discovery' was clearly just another ploy of Odin's. One more attempt to lure him out into the open so he could be taken out of the way. Or at least that was what Loki had thought. But Frigga; Frigga had loved Fenrir too much to insult his memory. She wouldn't craft a gift for a boy long dead just to lure him in a trap.
The timing was bad. His plans for Earth were finally coming together and a trip to Asgard now could ruin everything. But if the rumors really were true, and his son really had survived somehow. There was no way around it. He had to know for sure. It looked like he was going home.