Susan had settled comfortably in her chair when the jet's door opened once more and revealed all four men, though Loki and Captain America had to be carried by Thor and Iron Man. The girl looked away from the group, pretending not to notice that Loki had returned. She folded her hands in her lap and decided to instead watch Thor. He was a huge fellow with long blonde hair and silver armor. He had a red cape and an irritated look on his face. He merely glanced at her before looking back to Captain America and Iron Man.
"You are both worthy opponents." He commented.
"You aren't so bad yourself." Captain America smiled.
"Yes, you were all marvelous, but perhaps save this drivel until I am not longer present as I do not wish to be annoyed with it." Loki rolled his eyes.
"Why don't you let us big boys have our conversation and you can talk with the kid, huh?" Iron Man snorted, gesturing to Susan.
She couldn't help trembling slightly or wincing every time Loki's gaze found her. Malice seemed to radiate off of him, except when he turned to her, then his eyes filled with worry. It was unnerving to see how his harsh glares and rude quips changed to soft gazes and small smiles when he looked her way. All of her life she had wanted a father who looked at her like that, and last week she had gotten exactly what she wanted when Max asked to marry her mom. Now Max was gone and some sort of monster had taken his place. A monster who shared her DNA.
"Who is this child, metal man?" Thor asked suddenly.
"I'm Susan." She answered, as if that explained everything.
"Loki is claiming that she is his daughter." Captain America added.
Thor's face changed from irritation to shock and he stared at his brother. "What is this, Loki? Is it true?"
Loki looked away from Susan, which filled her with relief. He smirked slightly at his brother. "Surprised?"
"Then she is my niece!" Thor said proudly, not even bothering to look at Susan.
"No!" Loki snapped, "We are not brothers, Thor." The two Asgardians glowered at each other for a moment and then Thor turned to Susan.
"So you are daughter of Loki, Lady Susan?" Thor smiled kindly and Susan couldn't help but smile back, "I am sorry to have not met you sooner."
"Well, there was the whole issue of not having known each other existed, so I think I can forgive you." Susan joked.
It pained Loki greatly to see that Thor could get Sigrid to smile just by looking at her and he himself had not yet managed to do anything except make her cry. Jealousy once more burned inside him, but he managed to keep it under control.
Still, it sickened him to see how easily she joked with Thor while she wouldn't even say a word to him. This would need to be remedied as soon as possible. Perhaps when they were on the flying base something could be done about it. They would no doubt put him in a cage of some kind, but surely they would let him see his daughter.
Thor smiled and nodded to something else Sigrid had said and then went back to talking to the other two "superheroes" in the plane. While they were talking amongst themselves Loki tried to catch his daughter's eye. It seemed she was purposefully avoiding looking at him. When she finally looked up at him he gave her his kindest smile.
"So, how is your mother?" He asked, ignoring the sideways stares the other occupants of the jet were giving him.
"Fine. She was happy, but I expect she'll be devastated in a little while. When she finds out about what you did." Sigrid sniffed, attempting to look down on him disdainfully.
"Yes, I suppose that would put a damper on anyone's day. Finding out your fiance was murdered by an old lover, pity that."
Sigrid stiffened. "Why did you do it? Why did you kill Max? He wasn't doing anything to provoke you, just kneeling there with the rest of them!"
"I am a creature of jealousy." He stated simply.
"You are disgusting is what you are." She shot back, crossing her arms.
"You will learn differently with time." Loki whispered softly.
"Just shut up!"
Loki felt as if a good father would take some sort of disciplinary action when spoken to in such a manner, but at the time it seemed like the best idea would be to let the matter drop.
Thor raised one eyebrow. "I take it they are not on good terms?"
"Well, would you be if your real dad just murdered your stepfather?" Iron Man quipped.
"Though I cannot relate to such a situation, nay, I do not think I would be on the friendliest of terms," Thor said solemnly, "Tis a pity."
Within an hour of awkward silence the group arrived at the flying fortress and Loki was handcuffed and escorted from the jet by a large force of armed men. He could have easily escaped the situation, but it was crucial to the plan that no one else knew that. In the eyes of the Midgardians he must appear helpless so that he could get to the beast within their ranks.
They took him to a room with a glass cell in the middle and locked him in. The man with the eyepatch, Nick Fury entered the room and gave a retaliation speech about how their roles had been reversed and Loki was now the ant beneath the boot, and how desperate he had made them. It was an admirable speech, but Loki couldn't seem to give it his whole attention. He merely smiled and chuckled menacingly at the remarks.
"You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Oooh, it burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have the power. Unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is."
"Well let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," With that he began to walk away, but for a moment he turned back and used his one eye to bore into Loki's soul, "By the way, Susan Mort has informed us that she doesn't want to talk to you. So, don't even bother asking."
Loki stepped as close as he could to the glass and angrily glared at the man before him. "You cannot keep her from me!" He shouted, losing his cool, "I am her father and you cannot keep her from me!"
"Watch me." And with that, Nick Fury left the room with a swish of his leather trench coat. Loki watched him go, cursing him behind his back and then looking back to the camera on the side of the cage. He wondered if Sigrid was watching or if they had locked her off in some cell as well. His daughter, his kin was never supposed to be dragged into this war, and yet she sat directly in the line of fire.
Susan had been shown to a medical bay and examined by a nurse or a doctor or an agent, whatever the man was. He had curly dark hair and glasses that were constantly slipping down his nose. When he first came into the room he asked her to sit on the examination table and she obliged.
"Hi, I'm Bruce."
"I'm Susan, are you a doctor?"
"Sort of, but I'm not here to give you a check up," He glanced at some papers on a clipboard, "The director has ordered me to take a blood sample and then compare it to Loki's blood to find out if you two are actually related. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure, I guess I'd kind of like some scientific confirmation, but I know the results are going to be positive." She sighed, kicking her legs.
"Why do you expect that? He's just some random guy you met in Germany. He could be anyone," Bruce pulled out a needle from a medical kit and prepped it, "I bet even he doesn't know for sure."
"Yeah whatever."
"Okay, arm please." Bruce injected the needle and drew forth some blood.
Normally, Susan hated getting blood draws because the doctors always said there was something strange about it. However, when they ran tests she appeared perfectly healthy, just with odd blood. It had a slight blue tint to it and was colder than blood should be. Susan assumed that was from her father's side. She wondered if Asgardians had different anatomy that humans. Was she some kind of freak? Would she spout a tail or grow horns? Neither Thor or Loki had horns, but maybe the capes were used for hiding their tails. Thinking of how weird it would be to have a tail, Susan didn't hear the beep the machine made when it had finished logging her data.
"All that's left is to get a blood sample from Loki and then we can know for sure, okay?"
"Okay. When will you know?"
"There's an agent taking Loki's sample right now and then with all of this high tech SHIELD stuff I think it will take about ten minutes."
"Oh," She glanced around, "You wouldn't happen to know where I can get a change of clothes, would you? I'm kind of sick of running around in this dress."
"I'll ask somebody," Bruce confirmed, "Right now I have to go get the sample from the agent who collected it and then run it through the machine." He left the medical bay and turned to go down the hallway. When he was gone, a curious looking man with black hair and a goatee peeked inside and came in. Susan hadn't seen many pictures of Tony Stark, but he'd had his helmet off on the plane ride so she knew it was him.
"Hey there!" He called, stepping into the room, "We didn't get properly introduced before, and though I normally don't care about that kind of thing, I kinda want to know who you are soooo… I'm Tony Stark."
"I know who you are. I heard about Iron Man on TV. Aren't superheroes supposed to keep their secret identities secret?"
"Yup, but I have a thing for breaking the rules, just ask my CEO, Pepper."
"Well, I'm Susan Mort, but I've been told that is a tasteless name, so you might want to try Sigrid Lokidaughter." She grunted.
"You'll get beat up with a name like that," Stark commented, "How about Viking Kid?"
"What, why?" Susan asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Cause I have to call you something and there is no way you can stick with Susan or Sea-squid."
"Sigrid!" Susan snickered.
"Whatever. How about Baby Reindeer?"
"That makes absolutely no sense."
"Uh, yes it does, you just don't fully comprehend my nicknaming genius. See, Loki is Reindeer Games because of his stupid helmet, and your his kid, hence Baby Reindeer."
"No, it's still stupid."
"Reindeer Princess?"
"No, and quit with the reindeer stuff!"
"Fine, fine! Then I'm going to call you Little Loki."
Susan's face fell. "I don't care what you call me so long as it isn't that."
Stark raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Your funeral, Jinx."
"Oh, that's a great one, where'd you get that from?" Susan asked sarcastically.
"Uh oh!" Stark said, glancing out the observation windows, "Banner's back, hide me!"
"What? Why?"
"I'm supposed to be tracking the Tesseract, but I just wanted to pop in a say a quick hello. Banner's a great guy, but too much of a goody two shoes, he'll have Fury drag me back to the lab!" The man hid behind Susan as she sat on the examination table.
"Tony, I can still see you." Bruce commented, stepping into the room with a vial of dark colored blood. The liquid had the same blue tinge that Susan's blood did, but this blood was definitely bluer. The doctor poured the blood into a machine and then hit a few buttons. The machine made a whirring noise for a while and Tony Stark stepped out from behind Susan.
"Okay, well I'll see you later Jinx!" He called, exiting the room eating from a bag of blueberries that seemed to come from nowhere.
"Bye!" She smiled, he was an odd one, that billionaire.
"I managed to find you a T-shirt and some jeans, is that alright with you?"
"Perfect! Thank you so much!" She grabbed the pile of clothing and ducked behind a changing screen that was in the medical bay. After she had changed and was sitting on the table again she heard the machine ding and a holographic screen came up showing two strands of DNA. Bruce looked through the list of data that had come up beside the pictures and then pulled the two strands of DNA off the screen so they became 3D. It was quite impressive to Susan, who went to a school where the computers were slower than the checkers club.
"Hmm," The doctor grunted, spinning the two strands of DNA, "It's remarkable how similar his DNA structure is to ours even though he's from an entirely different world."
"That's great doc, but how similar is his DNA to mine?"
Bruce adjusted his glasses once more. "It's a match."
A/N: I'm really cranking out the chapters for this story, huh? Well, don't expect this all the time, I'm just in a writing mood right now. I'll probably get writers' block soon, but for the meantime, I hope you enjoy the story! Thanks to my guest reviewer, I'm glad you like the story! :)