Ralph checks the clock. Five minutes past nine. It is the first time his apprentice has ever been late. He checks another clock just to be sure. He goes to the front door and looks down the street. A few long blocks away, he sees a dark figure in the distance, trousers swishing, a scarf fluttering around him in the breeze. His gait is fairly distinct. No one strides quite like Loki. But as he gets closer, he sees that his shoulders are bent and he keeps his head to the ground. Ralph returns to the back office and makes another pot of coffee. He starts the electric kettle. Loki likes tea, and if Ralph knows anything about watching people, tea is the only thing that might fix whatever is making his young friend walk like the world has fallen on his shoulders.

The bell on the door clangs and he steps out with the steaming mugs, "Mornin', Loki."

"Good morning, Ralph."

"You look like somebody kicked your kitten. Here, have tea."

"Thank you. I need it." He drops his bag in the office and sits down at the small desk behind the counter.

"You want to tell me what's going on?"

"On Friday, I honoured the anniversary of my mother's death. On Saturday, I...I told the person I have been dating about my family life. It did not go well, and...well, this person..."

"If it's your boyfriend, just say it. I don't care. There's a reason I'm a single old man running a bookshop. My 'he' ran out years ago."

"Yes. My boyfriend...or at least the person I have grown quite close to and hope would assent to using the term, asked for time and space to consider all I had told him. There are less than rosy things in my history. So it is possible that I lost him. He has not yet called, though he said he would in a few days. And then this morning, I learned that my dear friend is missing."

"Oh hell. Did you call the police?"

"She is with SHIELD, and they are handling it. But that only makes it worse."

"You've had one hell of a weekend."

"I have. Her partner and I would like to travel to help them look for her, or at least give clues. We know her better than anyone else."

"So do you want the rest of the week off? Or today? It's fine if you do."

"I think I need today to be normal. But if I could at least take a few days this week, I would be very grateful."

"Tell you what. Take the rest of the week off, and if they send you back here before Friday, just come in when you can."

"Thank you."

"What do you want to work on today?"

"Paperwork. Sorting. Anything that I can let consume my mind so I do not think about what may have happened to her."

"Good. You can start organizing receipts so we can be ready for taxes come January."

"Ah, the most tedious of tasks. Perfect."

Loki occupies himself in this way all day. Before he leaves, Ralph wishes him luck. As he walks, he texts Magda, letting her know that if she can arrange for time off, he can go with her to the tower any time during the week. When he arrives home, she is packing a suitcase into her car.

"You wish to leave tonight?"

"Yes. We are of no use out here."

"I know. But I also know the stones are powerful and it is unlikely we can do much to help. Please do not get your hopes up that we will provide some clue that will instantly bring her home."

Magda sighs, "I know. But still. I want to leave tonight."

"Can we eat first? There are still leftovers from Friday and I am quite hungry."

She closes the trunk of her car and follows him into his house, "That is a better plan. I will cook while you pack."

Loki brings down the suitcase as Magda sets the table. They eat, wash dishes, and check that the lights are turned out, then toss his luggage in the back seat. Loki calls Steve, but they spend most of the trip in silence.

It is only when they are halfway there that Magda speaks, "Why would Director Coulson have a personal interest in this stone because of you?"

"Because I ran him through with the Chitauri sceptre that had the mind stone in it before the battle of New York."

"You what?!"

"Ran him through. About here." He gestures to his chest, "I have no idea how he is alive."

"You are far too calm about this"

"I cannot change it. I am trying to see that entire time as one of bitter, irrational, rash actions taken out of a desperate need to be anyone other than myself. To best all others in brutality and cruelty if I would only live in my brother's shadow were I to try to live the same as he. Thor was the perfect protector, the golden son. So I chose to be his opposite."

"And now?"

"I have no power. No pressures from Asgard. No need to shine above Thor. Odin will not watch me here, this realm is one he holds in low regard. I cannot be better than any of them, or even equals. So my only option is to let all that go and do what I can exceedingly well."

"Is this more of who you were growing up? Wanda told me you have changed much in only a few years, for worse and then better."

"I had magic before. For making mischief, for shapeshifting, for deception. I am far more placid than I have been in centuries. Once I learned gained the skill, I happily played trickster."

"We have illusionists here. Performers who can make someone appear to have coins hidden in their ears, or who can use slight of hand to make scarves appear to change to doves. It is not the same, but if you miss mischief, we are not without our pranksters and illusionists."

"While enjoy my more quiet pursuits, I do miss that play."

"When we return, we will find a book. But now, we are here."

Loki peers up at the tower, It seems more foreboding than it did when he lived in it. Magda speaks to someone on the other end of a security telephone and the steel gate whooshes open to let them in. A path lights up on the pavement and she zips through the tunnels following it. She parks beside the little red Trabant. Loki cannot help but lightly brush his fingers along the fender as they walk by.

Steve meets them at the door, "You made it. I'm glad. We'll head right up to the labs- SHIELD has set up their tech. Tony's freaking out whenever this gal named Skye touches anything. She's tried to hack his security. It's a game now. Watching it, well, it's kind of funny, actually."

Magda's face is set, stony, and she nods briskly, "Then let us go there. If there is any help we might be able to give, perhaps their analysts can direct us. We cannot risk her by delaying."

Loki takes her hand, "They may not be able to tell us much. SHIELD is not forthcoming with its secrets."

"But we are here-" it is clear she is already frustrated.

"And they have their own time. Wanda has told me this much. I know she has told you this as well."

"She has. Many times. And it is infuriating."

The elevator doors whisk open and they are led into a room buzzing with activity, with holographic displays, and with three dimensional projected maps on large tables. A young woman with a laptop leans against a table, typing intently. Tony hovers over her shoulder. She tries to shoo him away and he offers her an apple. She looks at him as though he's crazy and he shrugs it off. The moment he is gone, returns to her typing. A small smile creeps across her face and one of the monitors next to Tony starts flashing.

"Damn it, woman! How did you do that? I have programs to stop that!"

"And another win for Skye!"

"Seriously, how did you do that?"

"Because I'm super smart, that's how."

"But I'm super smart. How did your super smart outsmart my super smart?"

Steve claps his hands, "Excuse me, Tony? Can we interrupt for a minute? Magda and Loki are here to help find Wanda and we need to borrow Skye."

The young woman clicks a few things on her laptop and an overlay pops up on the map, "There's their last known location. There's where Maximoff disappeared. You can see Rogers and Romanov close behind- they should have been able to see it. But they didn't, she just vanished, poof, gone. The team's scoured the area. This line here shows all the places they've been. We know from what Barton said, though, that there's got to be some kind of temporal effect."

Loki can feel Magda's building tension as he holds her hand; he squeezes back, trying to be reassuring, "So what is it you would like from us?"

'We're trying to figure out what they want with her."

"They are HYDRA, are they not?"

"Yeah. Well, that's our best guess. Intel says this was one of their bases, and there's chatter that HYDRA's got a new weapon."

"And they are likely trying to lure her back, as she was one of their projects."

"We figured that. We don't know what for, though. But how would they make her do what they want?"

Magda sighs, "Pietro."

"But he's dead."

"Yes, but if it could send Barton back decades, it could easily send her back to see him."

Loki has a different revelation, "Or not. What if they retrieved him?"

"What do you mean? You can't just steal somebody from the past. It would mess up the now."

He shakes his head, "Where was his body taken after Sokovia?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Is it possible that they retrieved him just after his death? His power was speed, no? Did that apply to healing? And is it possible that HYDRA acquired the stone, went back to when you thought he was dead and safely stowed, retrieved him, and brought him back? Pietro is the only reason Wanda would willingly stay with them. If they have her, and they have her brother, you have two rescues, not only one, to perform." All eyes in the room are on Loki.

Skye calls across the room, "Coulson!" Loki's hand twitches in Magda's. "Yo, A.C.- I need to look for a body. Where might I find it?"

Phil turns toward her, "What kind of body and why?"

"This guy's theory is pretty decent."

Their eyes meet and Loki quickly drops his gaze to the floor, "That guy is Loki. Thor's brother. The one who invaded New York and stabbed me in the chest. So I'm not really inclined to trust him. What's he doing here, anyway?"

"He has been stripped of his long life, his magic, and all things that made him of another world. And he is here because he is very dear to Wanda and to me. And you lost her. So here we are." Magda's voice is clipped, brisk, she is irritated by Skye and Tony playing hackers instead of working, and she doesn't like the edge she hears in the director's voice, "So if we can get back to finding her...?"

"And who are you?"

"Magda. Captain Rogers asked for us to come."

Steve steps in, "You asked for things they might use to keep her, so I brought the experts on her. As strange as all this time travel thing is, if Barton really did travel back in time, and not just to an alternate dimension or a delusion, Loki's theory actually sounds plausible."

Phil sighs, "OK, fine. What is it?"

Loki repeats, "Is it possible that, given the powers of the time stone, HYDRA retrieved Pietro's body after it was brought back from Sokovia? Did is speed also apply to his healing? Pietro is the strongest leverage HYDRA could have to coerce Wanda to stay with them."

"So I need to find a body," adds Skye, "Or at least where a body should have been."

Phil calls over a twitchy young man, "Fitz, you and Skye need to comb records, find out what happened to Pietro Maximoff's body after the Sokovia incident."

The SHIELD team sets to work and Tony drifts towards Magda and Loki, "So...you guys are staying the night."

"We are here so long as we are needed," Magda replies.

"Yeah, well, still not too happy with this guy. But that's a solid idea. Time travel. Who'd have thought we'd be dealing with time travel? They could just stash her somewhere...somewhen? -we'd never look and we couldn't do a thing about it. Maybe that's why we can't find her. They're in the HYDRA facility, but they're not in it now. How do you even search that?"

"These stones take a massive amount of energy to use. You have seen this, have you not? I could not simply use the space stone to open a portal to the Chitauri home world, I needed the energy from this tower. And while the mind stone was in the sceptre, it drew from my energy, the magic I could conjure. I do not know how HYDRA powered it to create Wanda and Pietro's powers, but it must have been dark energy or something of it's ilk. It took a jolt from Mjolnir to fuse it to Vision's mind. Shouldn't there be some sort of energy surge when it sweeps someone into a different time? And would not that be sustained for so long as they are kept there, or, perhaps, when they return?"

Tony gapes at Loki, "How the hell are you so damn smart about this stuff?"

"Oh, being part of a plot to acquire them, it seems I picked up a few things."

"Are you sure you're not still evil?"

"Quite."

"I'm sleeping with the suit tonight, just in case."

"I assure you, I mean you no ill will. I am here to help find my dear friend."

"Yeah, well, you're also creeping me out with this whole infinity stone thing."

"I have no doubt I am also making Director Coulson rather uncomfortable. But if Magda and I can help bring her home more quickly, then perhaps your discomfort is worth her life?"

"Well, yeah, I just mean...seriously, you used one of those things to take over people's minds. Clint's mind. Dr Selvig's mind. And now you're standing here trying to think up ways that we'll find another one. That kind of freaks me out."

"Do you distrust Wanda?"

"What?"

"Do you distrust Wanda?"

"No."

"She trusts me. If you cannot trust my intentions, then trust hers."

"No offense, but you're supposed to be a master liar and trickster. I don't think she should trust you at all." He turns to Magda, "And I don't really know who you are, but I don't think you should trust him, either."

Magda holds his gaze, "I have no reason to distrust him. But you? You stole my country from under my feet. I have every reason to distrust you." She turns to Steve, "If we are no longer needed here, could you please show us to our rooms?"

"Certainly." Loki leaves with Magda.

Tony turns to his tablet, "Right. Energy surges. Big ones. And some kind of time wormhole. This job just keeps getting weirder."