Chapter 19: Tyler's Not Going Crazy. Really.

Loki didn't understand. It didn't make any sense at all. He had perfected the spell, hadn't he? It should have worked. It should have been easy. Yet, beyond all reason and logic, on the sand in front of him laid a Cerberus soldier, writhing around in pain and by all accounts turned completely insane. It was exactly like the test subjects before Elizabeth.

What was different about her?

She was the only one who appeared to still be alive.

Suddenly unsure, Loki closed his eyes for a brief moment and reached out to Tyler's consciousness. He could hear her breathing rhythmically, and he could taste the Midgardian food she was apparently eating. She felt no pain nor did she have any sense of fear. Satisfied, Loki pulled back into his own consciousness and debated what he should do with this newly failed experiment.

One thing was for certain: his irritating moans were grating on Loki's nerves. With a flick of his wrist, one of his daggers embedded itself in the man's throat. His moans turned into guttural whines before the light faded from his eyes. Loki removed the dagger and cleaned it with his magic.

He was outside the Cerberus base on the very outskirts where no one could see him. He doubted any of the Cerberus fools would think he was the one who killed this man, seeing as he left a projection of himself in the room he had been given to sleep in. He decided it would be easiest to just leave the body and lay low for a while. He needed to figure out why this Elizabeth was alive while all the others died almost instantly.

Loki teleported back to his temporary quarters instantly, and his apparition vanished when he did so. He then paced the room endlessly as he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for Elizabeth's survival. When he could find nothing in his own mind, he sat down on the bed provided him and made the journey into hers.

Though he'd only done this a few times, it was already becoming so much easier. He would gain full control of the spell in a few short days, as long as he continued practicing. Then, he would be able to travel into Elizabeth's mind without completely leaving his own and he could carry on his activities while checking up on her.

He searched her subconscious for hours, hoping to find something that she herself might not be aware of. He found a lot. He learned where she came from and how she became Tony Stark's daughter. Apparently, she was adopted. He learned a lot of her likes and dislikes, one of the latter being the use of her first name. No one aside from Tony appeared to know it, and when he did use it she became rather angry. She much preferred the name "Tyler."

Loki made note that he would call her Elizabeth indefinitely.

He happened across a lot of information she kept to herself, and some memories that she herself probably couldn't recall. None of this, however, helped him in the slightest. She appeared to be a completely average girl, about to turn twenty. Her birthday was three weeks away. Well then, what a fine gift he gave her for such an occasion!

By that time, she would be under his complete control. And unlike his previous method of mind control, there was no possible way it could be broken once completed.

The only thing out of the ordinary with this girl was the ability she had only just recently learned of. She could see and remember the muscle movements of other people, and later carry out these movements. It was intriguing, certainly, but did not offer an explanation as to why she survived while others did not.

Finally, Loki tired and pulled out of the girl's mind, his magical energy spent. For the time being he decided that it would be best to rest. He would have to wake the next day and glean some form of information from Tyler or his Cerberus pawns would try to get smart. That would not end very well, for them mostly. He would rather not bother with them rebelling, of course, but overall it wouldn't affect his plan.

With that, he finally laid down to rest.

By the time the fifteen hours of torture were up, it was safe to say everyone was sick of Tony. Only him. Maybe some of them were a little annoyed at Jackie's chatter – she wanted to update Tyler on everything that had happened since she had joined SHIELD. But the others actually also joined in the conversation sometimes. Tyler just ate the food Jackie had brought, and slept occasionally. She finished everything (aside from what she gave to the others) an hour before the flight landed. Even Jackie was surprised.

Once the jet finally landed, everyone barreled out of the cockpit as quickly as they could, or at least Clint, Tony, and Tyler did. Tony said something about needing to re-establish his sense of awesome while Clint said he needed to run a marathon to loosen up his muscles. He said it would make it easier to punch Tony. Tyler was slightly behind those two, and she just needed a bathroom.

When everybody was done doing whatever, they met in the main control center of the helicarrier where their meetings generally took place. Tyler, Clint, and Steve sat opposite Tony, Bruce, and Natasha. Chris and his copilot sat at the end of the table, and Jackie didn't bother to join them because she knew Fury would tell her to leave anyway.

As they waited for the Director and Agent Hill to arrive and debrief them, Tyler thought of the first time she had been in that room: her first day on the helicarrier. She had been so nervous, and she remembered how icy Clint had been. Now she could feel his presence next to her as though he were protecting her.

Fury and Hill arrived minutes later, both with their usual stern expressions. Everyone, minus Tony, sat up and turned their full attention to the Director. Fury stood at the head of the table and pinned them all down with a fierce glare.

"I will say this once and only once for those who did not hear it before. What happened the past three days and what we discuss from here on out is strictly classified. I don't want to hear you speaking about it outside of this room, and I don't want to discover any semblance of information scribbled down in your diaries. Is that clear?"

Tony raised his hand just slightly, but didn't wait to be called on. "I don't think that-"

"Is that clear, Mr. Stark? Or do I have to prohibit you from any further participation in this investigation?"

It was obvious Tony wanted to protest further, but by some miraculous chance his common sense took over. He waved his hand for the Director to continue.

"Good," Fury continued. "Keeping this quiet is absolutely paramount: should the public find out about it there would be an uproar. Because Loki is roaming unchecked, I am relaunching the Avengers initiative. You are to find and recapture Loki. Hopefully by the time Thor shows up we'll have figured out how his brother escaped in the first place, and we will take the necessary precautions to prevent another escape. For now, it is your job to figure out what Loki wants and why he targeted Tyler. Your base of operations will be in New York and you will leave in two hours. Any questions?"

Tyler spoke first. "Why exactly did you decide to classify what happened to me? Don't you think I'll need to know what happened in order to help out?"

"My mistake, it seems I forgot something. The only ones who will participate in this investigation are the Avengers. Everyone else can forget that anything ever happened; and that includes you, Ms. Stark."

Tyler stared at him with disbelief, the others were startled as well. "With all due respect, Sir, that doesn't make any sense. I was the first to make contact with Loki, and he asked for me specifically. If you think he's just going to leave me-"

"Your main concern, Ms. Stark, is staying far away from Loki. You are to focus on training and recovering. Your new instructor, whom I presume you've already met, will be Agent Christopher Harris."

Tyler glanced at Chris who smiled, but she didn't return the gesture. She just turned her glare back at Fury. Natasha spoke before she could say anything rash.

"Sir, how is Tyler supposed to recover if she doesn't know what happened to her?"

"When we don't even know what happened to her, Romanoff, it wouldn't make a difference if we told her or not. And quite frankly, I'm not overly eager to tell Ms. Stark anything should she cause another calamity to take place. As of now, Ms. Stark, you are suspended and your access is restricted, not that it hadn't been before. If you're seen where you're not supposed to be, you will be immediately removed unless otherwise specified by me."

Tyler looked just about ready to pull her gun on Fury, but Clint rested a hand on her arm to calm her. She did not look at him. She didn't argue with Fury either.

"Now, I have some important clutter to clear up. Something about flying over restricted airspace in another country." Fury focused his stare on both Clint and Tyler. Clint smiled while Tyler stared back at him.

Fury wasn't fazed, which didn't surprise Tyler in the slightest. He left the room with Maria right behind, and Tyler sat there waiting for everyone to leave. Bruce was perhaps the first to do so; followed by Chris and his copilot, Steve and Natasha. Tyler got the feeling that Clint was staying there to make sure she and Tony didn't cause an explosion. However, he didn't need to worry about that. At least not on her part. In fact…

Tyler stood up and looked at her father. "A word, Tony."

Tony seemed just as surprised as Clint, but Tyler didn't give either of them time for questions. She just left the room and listened for her father's footsteps behind her. She nearly sighed with relief when she realized he was indeed following her, but she didn't slow down or try to talk. Tony didn't push her, either. Just followed her silently.

Clint had half a mind to follow just as a precaution. Well, more than half a mind. But before he could his phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and saw a message from Natasha.

We need to talk. Banner's office.

He sighed and quickly made his way to the lab. No one stopped him and when he entered Natasha started right away. Steve and Bruce were also present.

"We need to figure out what the hell Loki did to Tyler before we even think about tracking him down."

Clint nodded. "We already established that. So when do we plan on calling Thor?"

"As soon as we land in New York."

All three men looked at the Russian with hesitance.

"We can't wait. She could collapse at any moment and we wouldn't know it."

"Then why did we leave her alone?" Steve asked with a pointed look at Clint.

"Hey, don't be pointing fingers at me. She wanted to talk to Tony."

Clint received blank stares all around.

"Alright, that sounds pretty bad now that I think about it."

"Whatever," Natasha said and stood. "Clint, go find them and make sure they don't try anything destructive. For now we should search for any traces of Loki. No sense putting that off, either."

Steve nodded in agreement.

"I'll keep studying the blood samples," Bruce stated. "If Thor doesn't know anything then at least we might be able to find out a little ourselves."

The group all moved to carry out said duties. Steve and Natasha set to finding Loki, while Clint decided to search for the Starks in Tyler's new favorite place: the catwalks above the flight hangar.

He couldn't help but smirk a little bit when he indeed found them there. He had really taught Tyler so well. He began to climb up to their level, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Tony pull Tyler into a hug… Well, that part wasn't so weird. He'd seen Tony do that a few times. But this time Tyler actually hugged him back. She made physical contact with Tony without trying to injure him. It lasted only a moment, but it was still strange as hell. Clint decided to leave them be.

As he walked through the base to meet back up with Steve and Natasha, he looked up to see Chris speaking with his co-pilot: Minh, if he remembered correctly. He had been surprised that Fury chose him to take over Tyler's training, though he knew someone would have to. The Avengers needed to devote their full time to finding Loki. But… why Chris?

Clint took the opportunity to make sure Chris understood exactly what his assignment would entail.

"Hey, Chrissy," he greeted with a wide smile.

Chris almost immediately rolled his eyes. He said something to Minh in Mandarin, and the co-pilot nodded and left.

"You two are so very amusing, I hope you know."

Clint smirked. "Only to small fry."

"Of course. Is there something you needed? I need to prep the jet for the flight to New York."

Clint sobered immediately, and it didn't go unnoticed by Chris. In a sudden transformation they became senior and younger agent.

"Actually, there is. What is your clearance level?"

"Level Five, Sir."

Level Five? The hell is Fury doing?

Tyler's abilities were classified up to Level Seven clearance. Chris was supposed to train a person he technically didn't have the authorization to know about. Fury could have at least chosen Coulson, or Ferguson, or Hughes, or anyone other than Chris.

"What do you know about Tyler aside from what has taken place over the past few days?"

"She is Tony Stark's daughter, Sir, and being trained by you, Steve, and Natasha."

Clint waited for a moment, but Chris didn't continue. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Have you at least made any assumptions?"

Chris hesitated, but spoke when Clint's gaze sharpened into a glare.

"She's being trained by three of the Avengers, Sir. It's hard not to."

Clint nodded. "Good. Remember that when you're training her and don't go easy. Don't spend very long on a single move or you will bore her to death. Also, don't ask questions. You don't have the clearance. I have no idea why the Director chose you of all people to train her while the rest of us are busy, but he did. And you had better live up to expectations."

Chris' eyes hardened with this new challenge and he nodded seriously. If anything, at least Steve was right in that Chris was a "good kid."

Clint was just about to leave and continue on his hunt for his partners, but he stopped and eyed Chris with a smirk. "One more thing. I would advise that you do not bother her while she's meditating upside down."

Chris' grave expression slowly melted into a very confused frown, but Clint left it at that. He left before the kid could ask what he meant.

Tyler stared blankly at Clint.

"You're going to what?"

The two of them were in the room assigned to Tyler for the remainder of her stay in New York. The Avengers would be working out of her father's tower while she was on the actual SHIELD base. Clint had pulled her aside just before the Avengers left that base to continue into the heart of the city.

"Just don't be surprised if a large, blond man dressed in armor and a ridiculous red cape appears to inquire you about your run-in with his psychotic, mass-murdering brother."

Tyler blinked. And blinked again.

"I'm still trying to grasp the fact that you're planning to do this without asking Fury. Don't you think it'll be a little obvious if Thor, you know, appears from a large, rainbow rift in the sky?"

Clint shrugged. "Better to ask forgiveness than permission, and right now you're the top priority. Aside from the fact that Natasha is badgering me with text messages. I have to go."

"I'll see you guys off."

Clint nodded and the two made their way to the garage where Steve, Bruce, and Natasha were waiting for Clint.

"Took you long enough. Tony already left saying that Jarvis was lonely."

Tyler snorted at Natasha's comment and nodded. "Sounds like something he would do."

She didn't miss the sideways glance Clint seemed to throw at her, but before she could comment he gestured to the car.

"Might as well get going, then."

The other two agents nodded, Bruce just shrugged, and the four of them gave their farewells to Tyler before they jumped in the car – Natasha was driving – and sped out of the garage.

Tyler could hardly believe that her time training with them was over. It had hardly been long to begin with, yet it seemed to last ages. And it also wasn't long enough.

"Well, I can't say I'm sad to see them go," someone said from behind her. It was Chris. She glanced at him as he came up to stand next to her.

"If you don't have a good reason for saying that I will punch you."

Chris frowned. "That is no way to treat a senior agent. But I'll have you know that your combat specialist scares me more than he would if he were actually your brother."

He was talking about Clint, she assumed, since she doubted the Captain could be intimidating to anyone aside from an enemy. He was too much of a puppy dog, and so was Bruce.

"So you're supposed to be training me now," Tyler commented.

"So it would seem. I know you probably had to go through this before, but I'm going to need to assess your capabilities."

"Of course. When do we begin?"

"I'll give you the rest of the day off. Meet me in the shooting range at oh-seven-hundred."

"Yes, sir."

And that was that. It was awkward, even Tyler could sense that. Usually she was the awkward one. Now it was on both ends, probably Clint's fault, but also with everything that had been happening… She hoped the others beat the bloody hell out of Loki soon or she might go crazy. She also hoped it wasn't this bad during training. She supposed she would see the next day.

She was the first to turn and leave, though she didn't have any idea where exactly she would head off to. This base was new, so she had to explore to find the good, isolated places. Quite frankly she was much too lazy for that. She also couldn't ask to stay at Jackie's; unfortunately her friend was not transferred with everyone else. That was yet another thing Tyler would have to yell at Fury about when she eventually had enough influence to do so without major repercussions.

In the end, she decided to just return to her quarters. They were new and crisp, and completely unlived in. She would have to change that eventually. Might as well start right away.

With nothing better to do she turned on the TV and logged into her father's Netflix account. She noted that he had wisely left her shows untouched. As she was scrolling through all of them, however, she realized that she didn't want to watch any of them. So she turned the TV off.

She sat back on the bed, staring around her room until she sighed heavily and fell back on her pillows.

"Well, this was very enlightening," she grumbled to herself.

She decided then that after gorging herself on the bags of snacks Jackie had brought on the plane, she needed to exercise. Of course, considering the flight was fifteen hours and then they hadn't returned to New York until another three hours later, it was almost dinner time, too.

Food or marathon?

…

Food.

She changed into her workout clothes before she went to the cafeteria to grab a quick bite. She ate alone, unlike back at the helicarrier. She always ate with the group, or at least with Jackie. Quite frankly, though, she didn't mind. People seemed only more difficult to deal with after what had passed. She had thought that maybe not being cooped up in Tony's penthouse would help with her social skills a bit. Ha! Hilarious. Truly.

She finished her meal quickly and then found her way to the outside track. She wasn't surprised that there were numerous people running, though she would have preferred a little privacy. That still didn't stop her from starting a lap, however.

The last time she ran with Steve he had pushed her to go as hard as she could. She made about fifteen laps of nonstop running – not jogging – before she practically collapsed. His voice had been motivating, and she doubted she could replicate the instance especially now that she was both physically and emotionally exhausted, but she was determined to try anyway.

Her goal this time, however, was sixteen laps. Four miles. She had probably run farther when she was in the desert, though then she was driven by the prospect of Cerberus murdering Clint. The usual.

Halfway through her fifth lap, she was joined by an unwelcome pilot.

"Thought I gave you the day off," he commented.

She tried to ignore the fact that he made running and talking seem so easy. He hardly seemed out of breath. She used the excuse that she had been running longer than him.

"I like to torture myself on my days off, apparently," she huffed.

"Masochistic tendencies were not included in the briefing. I'm going to have to take Agent Barton up on that matter."

If Tyler weren't trying to focus on her breathing, she would have rolled her eyes.

'This fellow appears rather irritating, doesn't he? Attempt running faster.'

Tyler practically tripped over her own two feet as she skidded to a halt. Chris slowed and looked back at her with confusion while she just stared ahead with deadly focus.

That. That was not her voice. That was not her thought. That was very close to what she might have done, but that was not her. It couldn't have been. But didn't that make her crazy? It had to be her. It was in her own mind.

"You, uh, not going to up and die on me, are you?" Chris asked.

Tyler snapped her gaze onto him and narrowed her eyes.

Without warning, she burst into a full-on sprint without bothering to see if Chris decided to follow her. She kept it up for the rest of the lap before she slowed into a steady run, then sped up again when she came to the straightaway on the track. She continued this until her legs felt like jelly, and then she just jogged a couple laps for her cool down. In total, ten laps. Though, she'd been sprinting a majority of the time. She allowed herself to feel somewhat accomplished.

As she approached a large cooler set up on the side of the track, Chris again found her. It was steadily becoming an exasperating habit. She wasn't sure what to think about him. He had been so friendly with her and Jackie in Algeria – how was she supposed to view him as a senior agent? At the same time, she didn't know him, but in all accounts he appeared very eager to get to know her. Almost too eager.

"I take it that sort of thing is usual for you."

Tyler looked at him with a furrowed brow as she sipped her water.

"The intensity of your training, I mean. Considering who your handlers were before. They probably didn't let you hold back."

Tyler shook her head and moved to go around Chris. Now that she was thoroughly sweaty and gross, she felt like taking a shower. She would rather it be a bath, but there was no such thing in a SHIELD HQ.

Chris didn't follow her, or at least she didn't think he did, so she decided to return to her room. There she grabbed one of the uniforms that had been waiting for her – all exactly identical to the first one Jackie gave her. There were a couple business suits in there as well, she assumed for any missions she would have to carry out in the city.

As she promised herself, she spent perhaps an hour underneath a piping hot stream of water. Though, much like back in Algeria, she didn't feel at all warm. She hadn't felt warm while she was running, either. She wondered how long that would keep up.

Tyler dried off and changed quickly, testing out the material of the uniform. It was just as easy to move around in as the first. As she looked in the mirror, however, she realized that she couldn't wear it. Not anymore.

The sleeves were short. That was a lot more comfortable than long sleeves to her, which was undoubtedly why Jackie designed it that way, but it didn't cover up the black marks on her wrist. She held up her left arm just to look at them. She still didn't like the sight of them, but she was curious. She wished she knew what they were supposed to mean.

'Well, perhaps I could assist you with that.'

Tyler immediately jumped to attention, subconsciously reaching out to grab the gun she had placed on the counter of the bathroom. She only needed to glance up to see Loki in the mirror behind her, and she whirled around to point the gun at him… He wasn't there.

She stared at the spot he should have been in, then looked back at the mirror. He was still in the mirror, but not there in front of her. She opened her mouth to speak in astonishment, but Loki beat her to it.

'I do hope this is not a bad time?'

Tyler stared at him for a moment before she aimed the gun at the mirror.

"I'll give you five seconds to get the hell out."

Loki just smirked. 'Considering that I am not currently in your presence, I do not believe that threat has any merit. Go ahead and draw attention to yourself by shooting the mirror.'

Tyler considered this before she narrowed her eyes and lowered the gun.

"Not here?"

Loki looked around the room. 'I am fairly certain I'm not.'

When he returned his eyes to her, Tyler gave a slow nod.

"Great. I really am going crazy."

She turned around and left the bathroom without chance for protest. She threw the gun on her bed, then pressed her fingers to her temples and willed Loki to disappear from her thoughts.

"Go away, go away, go away, I'm not crazy. Go away."

She stopped chanting and squeezed her eyes together harder, apparently to no avail.

'You can't truly believe that it will be that simple to get rid of me.'

Tyler looked up and caught Loki's reflection in the glass top of the lamp sitting next to her bed. He was still smirking.

"Okay. I'm done."

Tyler moved toward the door with the intention of getting a psych evaluation from the first shrink she could find. Loki's voice followed her as she walked through the halls of the base.

'I am not sure if you recall, but most people who have lost their minds don't actually recognize that they have.'

"I think that the word 'most' is very key in that statement," Tyler retorted.

She looked up at a window as she passed and saw Loki walking next to her on her other side. Instinctively she jumped away from him and toward the window, though she knew he wasn't really there.

'Regardless, if you carry on like you are then other people probably will consider you crazy.'

Tyler stopped and glared at Loki's – still smirking – reflection.

"That's rich coming from you!"

A few of the agents walking by glanced her way with curiosity. Tyler quickly pushed her finger to her ear and kept talking as though she had an earpiece. Funny how in a secret agent base it was super easy to get away with things like that.

"I mean, you were the one who provoked her in the first place, Kyle."

She paused and continued walking. When she was sure no one was staring at her, she dropped her hand. She decided to talk about Loki like he wasn't there. Perhaps somehow that would cause him to disappear from her mind.

"I swear I'm going to kill him as soon as I find him."

It didn't work.

'Who, me? Or this Kyle fellow?'

Tyler actively avoided looking at any reflective surfaces.

"And I wouldn't actually mind if I got to stab him a little bit before Clint shoots him in the eye like he wants to."

'Ah, so you are a sadist, are you?'

"I'm not crazy. So not crazy. Really."

'And yet there you are going on about stabbing me.'

"Shut up!"

Tyler stopped walking as she noticed the eyes of many agents were on her now. No one had been talking.

"For the love of-"

Tyler stopped talking and just made a dash for the closest door. It opened to what looked like the office of some important person. She knew that if she was caught she'd probably lose an ear listening to Fury yell at her. Did she care?

"Alright, now that we're alone… How the hell are you inside my head?"

She turned toward the closest reflective surface, the glass computer monitor. Loki appeared to the side of her reflection right away and held up his left arm. Tyler sat down in the chair behind the desk as she eyed Loki.

'Surely you recall what took place in this dreadful desert.'

Tyler didn't look at her arm. She didn't want to. "Your point?"

'Simply put: you were wondering what it was I did to you. Well, suffice to say that without those lovely markings we wouldn't be entertaining this conversation.'

"I swear I'm going to shoot you. God, I'm going crazy."

Tyler folded her arms on the desk in front of her and plopped her head onto them.

'The previous time you attempted that didn't work out so well in your favor, did it?'

Tyler growled and closed her eyes, willing the image of Loki and the sound of his voice to just disappear. Instead, as her mind's eye started wandering, she formed an image of a dark world filled with ice. It was the same world she had seen when Loki had been placing the spell on her in the first place. That wasn't so weird, it actually looked kind of cool, but then Loki showed up in that ridiculous Asgardian suit of his.

As Loki smiled, Tyler deadpanned.

'For future reference: closing your eyes cannot banish me from your mind.'

Noting that, Tyler stood up and walked to the closest wall. There, she banged her forehead into it with hopelessness.

"If I'm not crazy now then I will be in probably only a few days."

'I should hope your fortitude a bit more resilient than that. I would not offer this gift to the first person I come across, and should you disappoint I won't bother showing you mercy.'

Tyler paused and turned back to the computer monitor. She sat down in the chair and leaned forward on her elbows.

"You mentioned after your creepy chanting thing that I would thank you for this if I survived. Now you are saying it is a gift. What exactly did you do?"

A smile spread across Loki's face easily.

'If I informed you that, dear Elizabeth, I'd have to end your mortal life.'

Despite her better judgement, Tyler turned her curiosity into an intense glare.

"Call me that again. I dare you. See what happens."

That appeared to amuse the Asgardian, if anything. Tyler doubted she would ever get used to the fact that literally everyone she talked to could kill her without a second thought, and therefore she wasn't intimidating.

'And what would you do if I did use your given name again? Throw yourself through a window with the hopes of it harming me?'

"Did you decide to show up just to antagonize me?"

Loki appeared to lean in closer on the computer screen.

'On the contrary, I have merely decided that remaining in the shadows will not prepare you for the battle to come. That would be counterproductive on my part.'

Tyler couldn't help the short laugh that escaped her lips. "Battle. You're funny. The only battle you're going to be involved in is the one where you're hardly able to fight for your life as the Avengers squeeze it out of you."

Tyler got the feeling that the threat didn't even register to Loki's ears.

'Do you recall anything strange happening to you recently?'

"Don't change the subject."

'I am not. Do humor me, love.'

"Don't call me that either."

'Oh, but I do enjoy that diminutive frown you entertain when you haven't the power to change your state of affairs.'

Tyler eyed him with irritation. This was the man who almost brought down the entire city of New York? He seemed more like an obnoxious twelve-year-old.

'I am recognized as the god of mischief for a reason.'

When Tyler just continued to stare at him, the smirk faded from his lips just slightly.

'Your hearing, for instance. You have been able to hear things you couldn't hear before, is that not true?'

Well, yes. Tyler recalled hearing Tony from a rather long way away, but he was often very loud. He was probably just talking in his almost-shouting voice.

'But you know that is not the correct assumption,' Loki responded to her train of thought easily. 'His voice did not seem to be raised, did it?'

That was entirely debatable.

"Well, since that one you are unsure of, how about when you unconcernedly lifted your father off the ground? I highly doubt you had the strength for that a few days prior."

Tyler had almost forgotten. Actually, she had tried to forget. Now that Loki brought it up, she did remember that it felt easy to her. As though her father hardly weighed more than a toddler. Finally, after a long while of contemplative silence, she spoke.

"Why are you telling me this? Why are you here?"

Loki smiled and he reached out to her own reflection. She could have sworn she felt his fingertips ghost across her cheek as they did in the monitor screen. She leaned away from the odd sensation, and unsurprisingly it didn't faze Loki.

'You are alive, Elizabeth Tyler. By all accounts you should have died painfully hours ago, yet here you are. The only survivor. Unfortunately for you, that means that you are lucky enough to receive my undivided attention until you realize your full potential.'

"This is why I was born into the modern age. Cryptic shit like that makes me want to throw something. Mind speaking English?"

Loki's smirk widened, and then he just whispered, 'Take heed of those around you,' and disappeared from the reflection. Tyler frowned, unsure of what that was supposed to mean. She sat there a moment and debated whether or not it was worth it to actually inform someone of this interesting development.

However before she could come to a decision, she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Well, she heard a lot of footsteps. There was more than one person roaming about the halls. It was just that this set of footprints seemed… familiar. In a rather unsettling and also slightly terrifying way.

Without giving thought to her action, Tyler dove into the closet at the left side of the office. She didn't know why it was there, but many offices on base had one such like it, and usually there tended to be uniforms hung up in it. This was no exception.

She remained unmoving even as the door to the office opened and two people entered, closing the door behind them. Tyler concentrated on silencing her breathing as she peered through the crack in the closet doors. The footsteps she had recognized were apparently Christopher's. He and another older agent were speaking seriously.

"It is not the time for direct action yet; we have other problems that are much more pressing," the other agent said as he sat in the chair behind the desk.

Chris stood at attention in front of the desk.

"Other problems, Sir? The number of people they have, the fire power they've displayed… I doubt we've seen all that they can do. Their existence is not only a threat to SHIELD but to the whole of the United States."

"And Cerberus is on an entirely different continent. I am sorry, Christopher, but Cybertek is directly threatening us and they are within our borders."

"You have a team focusing on their destruction, though. Surely you can afford just one reconnaissance team tasked with finding out about Cerberus."

The older agent sighed. "I can only promise the raid we have planned next week on the small base of operations they have set up on the outskirts of the city. Outside of that, they are not in our jurisdiction, nor do we currently have the resources to spend on them."

"We have resources," Chris snapped, then controlled himself. "Sir, there are plenty of good agents that you could send over. I'm not asking for a strike team or authorization to smoke Cerberus out. But it wouldn't hurt to gain some intel on them in case they decide to try to step past their borders."

"Aren't you a little occupied with another mission, Agent Harris?"

Chris didn't answer and the older agent folded his hands on his desk.

"You have an important asset to worry about. You don't have the time to worry about this, so let me handle it and let it go."

Chris didn't seem happy with that answer. Tyler almost thought he was going to protest further but he pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"Is there anything else, Harris?"

"That was all, Sir."

"Then you are dismissed."

Chris gave another crisp nod before he turned on his heel and left with a less-than-happy look on his face. The elder agent sat back in his chair with a heavy sigh. Tyler realized then that this was his office and he probably wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon. Which meant that she was either going to get caught or she was going to have to stay there for a few hours. She wondered if it was perhaps wiser to just turn herself in now. It might look less suspicious.

'I do not think that is a wise course of action at the current moment. Surely you can be still for a few minutes longer?'

Tyler rolled her eyes.

No, I can't. I'm too eager to put a bullet between your eyes.

'Have we not already discussed this subject?'

Tyler didn't answer, just concentrated on remaining still and utterly quiet. She could almost feel a sneeze coming on…

'Ah, well, whether you are detected or not, I have what I need. Farewell, Miss Swan.'

Where the hell did you learn THAT name?

…

Damn it, Loki, don't call me that, either! You hear?

…

Tyler guessed he wasn't going to answer.

It was a relief, actually. She wouldn't argue. She would, however, enjoy complaining if this agent stayed in his office too long. He remained sitting idly in his chair for a few moments before he sat up and powered on the computer. Before he could get too far in whatever he was doing, his phone buzzed.

He glanced at the phone dismissively at first, but jumped up when he realized what it was. Tyler watched as he typed out a quick response and left the office promptly. She couldn't believe her luck – it had to be a fluke. She waited a good five minutes before she decided that he really was gone.

Cautiously, she opened the doors of the closet and closed them behind her. No alarms went off. No agents burst through the door with an accusatory finger pointed at her. With a relieved sigh, Tyler walked over to the door and opened it just a crack. A few agents were walking about, but none of them she knew. So, she straightened and walked out of the room like she was supposed to be there. No one looked at her twice.

Tyler knew she should find someone and tell her about Loki. She knew she couldn't handle this situation on her own. Really, he was inside of her head. There was no way she could get him out, and what if he was able to control her as well? She wouldn't doubt that he would use her to do something less than moral, and she'd be the one to get blamed.

Yet, what did she do?

She turned to go back to her room.

While she knew she couldn't fight against a god, she also knew that it was highly unlikely anyone would believe her if she told them about it. Even given what had happened over the past few days, the fact that Loki would appear periodically inside her head would sound crazy. Maybe Clint and the others would believe her, but they weren't there. Neither was Fury, or Hill, or probably anyone who knew about her and her encounter with Loki. At the moment she was utterly on her own.

So, she walked back to her room. Or, tried to.

As soon as she rounded the first corner, she stopped dead in her tracks, face-to-face with her new handler. Chris was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, and one leg crossed over the other. Kind of like he was expecting her.

"Oh," Tyler faked surprise. "Chris, hi. Fancy running into you."

"Yes, very fancy."

He stared her down and she shifted awkwardly.

"Is there anything you need?"

"No, not really. I was just curious as to what you were doing in Ferguson's office."

Tyler did her best to look confused. "Who? What office?"

"The one you were hiding in a few moments ago. I've been doing this for years, Tyler. I can spot a lie when I see one."

"Well, you're looking a bit too hard. I was just coming from the cafeteria."

"And I think I saw a pig flying the other day."

"Hilarious."

"Quite."

The two of them stood there, staring each other down. It lasted perhaps ten minutes without either of them budging, until finally Tyler moved to get around him.

"If you'll excuse me, it's my day off."

She expected Chris to turn right around and follow her. After a few moments of walking alone, however, she glanced over her shoulder. He was gone. Considering what she just found out, she was glad for the solitude. She needed some time to figure out what she was supposed to do now that a deranged god was apparently inside her head…

She really hoped she wasn't going crazy.

A/N: WELL. Loki and Tyler are finally making some real contact. This is progress. My updating habits, however, are NOT progressing. I am a terrible person. But I swear I'm going to finish this story. Anywho, guess what I did? I TORE MY ACL. This is really a great way to start my freshman year of college. I'm proud of myself. That doesn't have anything to do with this story, though, so imma be quiet. Except to say: review maybe? :D

-KC