Imitations Carved Deep: Chapter 15

Wow, I come back from Europe just to be buried under 2 feet of snow. :/ Well, it's good writing weather at least. I had an awesome time, but I'm glad to be back. :) Here's a shiny new chapter, just for you!

Please enjoy!

Pay close attention to this one guys!

Disclaimer: I don't own them...so sad.

Warnings: Severe angst. Torture (in the past). Implied rape (in past). Don't read if any of these trigger.

The Threat

Thor's little speech didn't seem to completely convince Tony, but when the inventor saw how Kira relaxed into the blond's hold, he let it go…a little bit. He turned his head to comment to Pepper, when she suddenly stood.

"Damn. I'm sorry, but I've got to go. There's a conference in Italy tomorrow morning that I can't miss." She dropped a kiss to Tony's head.

"But Pep," Tony whined, "Fury says we're not allowed to leave." Pepper crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"You know full well that he was talking to you Avengers, not me. Tony, let go of my arm." The strawberry blonde finally managed to shake the inventor off with a little help from Bruce and said goodbye. Kira felt lighter when Pepper gave her a kind smile on her way out.

"Ah, yeah! Something we didn't get the chance to tell you, Point Break. Say hi to your new teammate." Tony gestured towards Kira, and a number of shocked noises sounded around the room.

"Truly?! How…how wonderful."

"You can't be serious! That doesn't count!"

"You mean you still want me?" Kira's jaw had dropped, and she looked around at the other team members. Tony, Bruce and Steve were smiling at her, while Clint looked just as outraged as his tone suggested. Natasha tugged the archer back down into his seat without taking her eyes off of Kira.

"You gotta admit, boys, the situation was missing a few key details when that decision was made." The arms around Kira tightened protectively.

"It matters not! You know that Kira is my brother now, and the Man of Iron has proven that he did not attack your city." Thor was surprising Kira with his defensiveness, but then again, her brother had always stuck by his friends fiercely when he truly believed them to be good or in the right.

"But as of right now, we're the only ones who know that." Natasha put a hand over Clint's mouth and muttered to him in Russian. Hawkeye's brows lifted for a moment, before dropping back down. The archer slumped back in his seat, crossed his arms and shook his head in defeat. Natasha moved her hand to his knee, but again kept her attention in the conversation. "As far as anyone else is concerned, Loki was the one to lead the invasion. Video and pictures of him have been circulating for months now. We can't just go outside and say, 'We've forgiven the person who you all think destroyed this city and killed a bunch of people. He didn't do it.' No one's going to accept that and then the whole Avengers Initiative is going to be a target for attack from the people we are trying to protect." Thor didn't want to accept what Natasha was saying, though Kira understood the assassin perfectly.

"Well, explain! Show them the evidence that it was not Loki." The Russian shook her head.

"The whole event is too wrapped up in emotions and Loki has been villain-ized for too long. They'll just…refuse to believe. They won't want to believe it, because they saw him." She pointed to Kira. "And that's what they are going to believe." Thor's fight drained out of him but his grip on Kira did not lessen. The blond prince sighed.

"Uh, Natasha? I think you're forgetting something." Everyone looked at Bruce. Tony's eyebrows were in his hair and his mouth was twisted in an excited grin. Bruce was challenging Black Widow! No one does that! Bruce took off his glasses and gestured to Kira. "Kira's been helping us for weeks, and no one has known. Why can't we, at least until we find a way to get them to accept Loki, keep Kira on?" Steve nodded in agreement, while Tony whooped. Natasha tilted her head and smiled at the doctor, making the man fluster and look away. Thor gave Kira a very gentle excited shake, while the woman rolled her eyes.

Clint grumbled.

"Great. Fantastic. Now can we please get some answers about-"

"Sir, the food has been delivered and is coming up in the elevator now."

"Ha ha," Tony cheered. Bruce rolled his eyes, but followed the inventor over to the kitchen. Steve threw his hands up.

"Why don't we move this discussion to the dining table?" Clint sighed, quite put upon, but followed Natasha out. Kira turned her head enough to glare at Thor.

"You are not carrying me to the table." Thor opened his mouth to protest. "I will let you help me, but that is it." Her brother's mouth settled into a pleased smile and he nodded.

"Then help you I shall." He allowed Kira to slide off of his lap and stand on her good foot, before he stood and bent a bit to slip an arm around her waist. Kira hesitantly wrapped her one arm around Thor's chest and then nodded.

"Well then, let's go." It was slow going, but Thor was an effective crutch, and they made it in time for the food bags to finish being emptied onto the table. Thor pulled a chair out for her, and Kira happily plopped down. Her brother claimed the seat next to her and quickly began piling food onto her plate.

"Thor! What are you doing? I don't eat a Bilgesnipe at every meal like you do." Thor snorted and kept scooping until Kira had a small mountain on her plate and Tony started to complain about them running out of orange chicken.

"You are practically skin and bone. You are lucky Mother is not here. She would make you eat two plates this full." Kira rolled her eyes, but picked up her fork without another complaint. Eventually, everyone had what they wanted and began eating. After shoveling another mouthful of fried rice in, Clint spoke.

"So, we've got our food. Can we have the discussion now?" Tony opened his mouth to snark, but Steve cut him a look.

"We've postponed this long enough, Tony. Kira." The young woman suddenly was not hungry anymore and swallowed the now thick lump in her mouth. It settled deep in her gut as she sat back and organized her thoughts. When she spoke, her voice was as neutral as she could make it.

"When Jarvis showed me the footage of the fight between Thor and the impostor, I recognized the fighting style." Kira gave Thor a sideways look. "I never would have turned my back on you to take out the Quinjet. I would have just erected a shield and dealt with them later." The young woman sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "As seems to be the theme lately, I did not want to believe that I was correct, and the only way to confirm my suspicions was to look for the spell." Kira reached back and touched the top of her shoulder blade where the words started. She zoned out for a bit, but a question from Bruce brought her back.

"What does the spell do?" Kira blinked back into the present and put her hand back on the table.

"I need to know the exact wording he used, but my guess would be that it transferred enough of my power to him to allow him to imitate me near perfectly. With enough of my own magical signature, he would be able to trick Heimdall's magic into locking onto him instead of me. The spell must have also trapped the rest of my magic inside of me where I can't access it."

"Great. Now we know, but who did it," Clint pressed. Kira closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It would not do to stab the archer in the hand with her fork. She opened her eyes once she was certain she wouldn't commit any violent act against his person and stared him down.

"His name is Calder." Thor's brows furrowed together.

"I have heard that name before. Was he not a friend of yours?" Kira gave a so-so motion with her hand.

"Calder and I bonded over our common dislike of you and our use of magic. I was more skilled and more powerful. Where I had finesse and control with my power, Calder's simply burst forth with no direction. I taught him some, but most of our time was spent complaining about you and the way we were treated due to our preference of magic and tact over large weapons and brute strength." Kira couldn't help but feel some shame in admitting her past actions. Perhaps if she hadn't acted like a jealous brat…the suffering of many could have been avoided.

"Obviously that didn't last." Kira snorted at Stark's statement of the obvious.

"You would be correct. Calder started to change. When he started to gain more confidence through my lessons he began spinning fantasies of grandeur, but it wasn't just that. When I told him how I was practicing to become a shape shifter and that I would start with simply changing my gender, he began making unnerving comments. He would say things such as, 'If you were a woman, I wouldn't let any man touch you.' 'When the Allfather realizes how unworthy Thor is of the throne, surely he will appoint you as Queen of Asgard. I could rule by your side.' At first I thought it all in jest…but then he started acting like a jealous lover, especially after I had successfully conquered the transformation. The last straw was when he accused me of 'cheating on him like a whore' with my personal servant and then attacked him. My servant was barely into his teenage years, but Calder broke the boy's arm." Kira shuddered at the memory of her once friend spitting such venom at her as Loki and then attacking the poor boy. Loki had healed the servant as soon as he had thrown Calder out, and the boy was attached to his hip for months after.

"This guy did all of this-coming to Earth, trying to steal the Tesseract, invading with the Chitauri-because you…what? Rejected him?" Natasha sounded incredulous, but Kira nodded.

"In part, but that was not all that happened. It became quite clear to me that Calder was unstable. I had cut off all ties with him, but one night I was leaving the library quite late, when I heard someone skulking about in one of the darkened corners. I kept hidden and listened. I heard Calder plotting to kill Thor, take the throne and…and prove to me that he would be a suitable partner for myself." Kira's face pinched in disgust as did many of the others' present. Thor had thrown an arm over Kira's shoulders as if he could protect her from actions long past.

Kira turned her head and said the next part directly to Thor.

"The next day you were off on a hunt with your Merry Band and I went to the Allfather. He was in a meeting with the High Council. I accused Calder of treason. When the Allfather ordered him to be brought before him, Calder looked utterly betrayed; then it turned to rage. He claimed I was making it up so that I could get rid of the only sorcerer who could defeat me." Kira rolled her eyes and Tony snorted.

"They didn't actually believe that, did they," Steve asked. Kira's lips pinched together.

"The High Council stated that they had to investigate every claim brought before them, and insisted that Calder and I must duel each other to determine the truth. I am of the strong opinion that they were hoping to remove two birds with one stone. If I killed Calder in the duel, they could charge me with murder and vice versa. The Allfather didn't say a word. He just sat there." Kira's hands clenched into fists.

Thor reached over and gently pried her good fist open and smoothed out her fingers. Her nails hadn't broken the skin, but it had been close.

"You're both still alive. So, what happened," Bruce prompted. Kira shrugged nonchalantly.

"We dueled. Calder was throwing out his power, fueled by rage, but he had clearly lost any sense of control and directionality. His magic nearly killed two Councilmen, not that I cared too much about that. Though he began explosively, Calder did not have the stamina or power level to maintain such an assault. I took advantage of his rather sudden exhaustion, having saved my energy by staying on the defensive. Instead of killing him like the Council hoped for, I knocked him off his feet and bound him with magical ropes. When he began yelling and cursing, I put him to sleep. The High Council wasn't happy and began accusing me of cheating and using trickery. I looked to the Allfather for help, but…he just stared at me." Kira could feel a burning pressure building in her eyes, but angrily pushed it back.

"When the Councilmen ordered the guards to arrest me, he finally spoke up. He told them to stand down. Odin told me to wake Calder from the spell after ordering the guards to gag him. The Allfather proceeded to condemn him to exile. Should he ever return to Asgard he would be executed on the spot. The entire time he was being sentenced, Calder didn't look at the Allfather. He stared at me; even when the guards hauled him up and away, he wouldn't stop." Kira's voice trailed off at the end, eyes glazed as she remembered that day.

"So they exiled him, but didn't keep an eye on him. That always ends well," Clint muttered. Thor's arm tightened around Kira, before he gave in to his feelings and pulled Kira back onto his lap. Kira grumbled but didn't fight him on it.

"This…Calder must have met up with Thanos during his exile. He might not have originally been planning on using that mission to target you, but once you fell onto the Chitauri planet, he saw the perfect opportunity for revenge."

"He's going to come back, isn't he? Knowing our luck." Clint sighed and leaned back, rubbing his hands over his face aggressively. Cap nodded sharply.

"Since he's escaped from Asgard's prison, though still as Loki, he will probably come here once he's fully recuperated. So, we need to be ready." Steve gave Kira a pointed look, and she nodded in understanding.

"Yes. I will need to break the spell Calder placed on me. Once I have access to my magic I can trace him, and then…I will destroy him." The Avengers then got a glimpse of the old Loki, the one they saw attacking Earth. One dark with anger and hell bent on chaos.

And the bad guy...has been revealed! It's an OC. Shocker! But hopefully I can make you hate him. ;) Cheers! And stay warm.

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