It was peculiar to see them.

Natasha, gliding with the air of a natural predator, gave me a practiced smile and a nod when she noticed me. Which was pretty much instantly. It was doubtless because of her assessment that I was allowed to be out at all. And I let a hint of confusion show with my recognition of her. As if I didn't know she was one of their best field agents rather than a nurse's aid. Her short red hair stood out starkly against her black attire.

Bruce Banner was not a small man, barely under 6ft and solidly built. But he was trying very hard to make himself smaller. Next to Natasha's projected confidence, he seemed almost almost slight, and he was visibly uneasy as I saw him taking in their surroundings. His eyes lingered on doors, before sweeping around the vast expanse of the clouds outside the bay windows.

He's looking for an escape route.

Tousled dark hair, swarthy complexion and that iconic purple shirt made him fit almost exactly into my mental image of him. Mild and friendly, but also feral and untrusting. And above all else, desperate to not hurt anyone with a firm opinion on being trapped or manipulated. Morgana showed me his stress in a small circular meter form in how close he was to Hulking out.

And true to what he would later say to Captain America, that meter was hovering at about 70% capacity. With his situation, I doubted it would ever lower to not being a possibility at all. But he was definitely not liking the fact that he was here.

By the time I looked at the last man, in his clothing that looked too old fashioned and real to fit in in this place, a simple plaid shirt, bomber jacket and jeans, he had already noticed me. Extremely tall, peak human physique, neat blond hair, and clear blue eyes that screamed their concern as he saw me.

Was he not told about me?

He was informed there was a second visitor, but your apparent age was not mentioned.

He looked like he wanted to ask why I was there, but he held back. Instead he walked up to Fury and calmly pulled a bill out of his wallet and handed it to the director.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong."

The whisper came to my ears from their shared story. That made me want to hold back a chuckle. Banner just looked confused at the interaction. Natasha was too much a professional to roll her eyes, but I think she wanted to.

There were some minor check-ins on the Helicarrier elevation and systems. Safety precautions. Morgana was poking through the technology that allowed us to reach cruising altitude so quickly without throwing the people inside the craft around like beans in a pair of maracas. I couldn't follow all of the terminology, but it looked as though the cutting edge of technology that this world viewed as standard included the dampening of inertia through the combination of several materials. Including vibranium. Which given what I knew, made a lot of sense.

I wonder what I could make if I had some of that available. How would it interact with magic if it is that resistant to energy in the form of heat?

I remained quiet, listening to Morgana's exploration of the Helicarrier systems, mapping out as much as we could, while absently tracking the points of the man playing Galaga. And wondering what sort of things I would need to do to get magic to interact with technology.

Galaga was such a simple game that weaving Story Magic into it would be difficult. So it would be much more like hacking the game instead of embellishing it...

When the adults started talking, Morgana broke off of her info dive and started to track their words instead. They were the people pushing the story forward. The people who would stand against the pending invasion. She kept track of Fury giving a brief rundown of SHIELD's efforts to find Loki and the official roles for two of the assembled experts to play. Bruce Banner, the world's foremost authority on gamma radiation, and Steven Grant Rogers, their superhuman fighting and strategic legend and Earth's best homegrown match for a man who had historically been mistaken for a god.

I could feel both men glancing at me curiously throughout this briefing. It was the scientist who crossed the unspoken line first.

"Before I look for the Cube for you, I want to know what she is doing here."

I wasn't looking at them as I rolled my pen in my fingers. So I wasn't even entirely sure that Banner was gesturing at me until I felt my skin crawl as every eye not fixed on their task turned towards me.

I could imagine how it must look to them. Someone with colors you didn't see naturally in a human being standing in sweats, a t-shirt and combat boots. Definitely not a uniform standard like the technicians and engineers directing the Helicarrier. And missing about 20 years of the life experience that most people had.

I did not exactly blend in.

"The portal that Loki used to come to Earth was unstable. It ended up abducting Faerun from her home world. Her only way home is getting the Cube back. Miss Faerun. These are Dr Banner and Captain Rogers. They're the men we told you about."

Sure, tug on their heartstrings while you're at it.

Now Banner would be morally obligated to find the Tesseract because if he didn't, he would be complicit in my never finding a way home again. And by not stating what Fury had told me about, he was suggesting that Shield had presented them as people who could help me. So refusing or failing would mean disappointing an innocent life.

I don't like the manipulation, but damn this man is an artist

I lifted my hand in a jerky little wave.

"Hi."

Stardust. I could sound more awkward if I was trying!

Then Banner waved back in the exact same way and I felt my heart melt a little bit. And it was adorable. It was probably a good thing I was at risk of death, because otherwise I would be fangirling. I couldn't quite hold back my smile. And thanks to mirror neurons, Banner returned the expression.

His stress meter ticked up to hover at 74%.

Please don't pressure yourself.

He isn't. He is wondering if you're another plant from SHIELD. They did lure him in by having him go to help a little girl not even 24 hours ago.

Fair.

"She also has some insights on the power Loki is using that could be beneficial to you, Captain."

I didn't hold the glint of skepticism that I saw in his face against Steve. He had had exactly 2 weeks of down time since crashing the Valkyrie and waking up with his entire world stolen from him by time. Part of me really wanted to just talk to him and get him some outlet for his trauma beyond combat. But with how trauma was viewed in his time, I honestly wondered how effective a listening ear would be.

"Miss."

I nodded politely in answer to his greeting.

"Just exactly how does a kid know anything about how Loki is doing whatever he's doing?"

See, Banner asks the smart questions. Banner cares. At least a little.

I gave an abbreviated version of what I had told Natasha. That Charm Magic and anything similar were outlawed in Fiore, and every citizen was given mandatory training in recognizing it. While traversing the portal I had detected it at terrifying levels.

"What's the effective range of Loki's ability?"

Steve had a very pertinent and focused question. If he was going to be engaging in combat, he would need to know what to do to avoid facing the same fate as the other SHIELD agents.

"Depends on the focus he is using to access the power. Whatever he's using emits an incredible amount of energy. Something with that much power would not be safe to use without some kind of buffer. Your own ***** would get overwhelmed if you tried."

The blurred word made brows furrowed over intent blue eyes.

"Pardon me, I didn't catch that."

"Um..." I looked around for something to use as an object lesson, or metaphor... "Sorry some things don't quite...translate."

This might not be the time for that. So I took a different approach.

"Using an energy source this vast without some form of protection or a focus between you and it would be like you trying to direct a supernova's worth of energy with nothing but your hand. You'd burn up in seconds unless you had literally been born to use it. "

I caught a flash of Steve's memory. Red Skull holding the Tesseract in his hand and screaming. Vanishing piece by piece into the light. He was more than ready to internalize that close range would be as dangerous for the user as the target without sufficient preparation. He nodded, clearly wanting to ask more but keeping his questions focused.

"That explains the scepter."

It was an odd word choice.

"You've seen what he uses?"

I turned to look at Fury. And there was suddenly a tension in the air.

The logical thing would be to show the expert what damage the scepter had caused. They had only gotten out of me that I recognized the kind of power that was being used, and this small piece of information that direct contact would be deadly. Which they already knew judging by the precautions they took when transporting the Tesseract. No one touches it with their bare hands.

So did they show their only expert footage of what the scepter did? Which included the deaths of multiple agents?

Fury gave a short nod, and Natasha started towards the table where I had been sitting and started to queue up some footage.

I felt Steve's disapproval radiate from him.

"The only demonstration we have of the scepter capabilities is a bit graphic, Miss Faerun. Could you identify this weapons capabilities just from a description."

"It would be a lot harder." I lied, trying to sound as much like a child as I could. Gradually dropping the pitch of my voice, like I was admitting a weakness or shortcoming.

I of course knew exactly what the damn golden pimp stick was capable of. Or more specifically, the Mind Stone it held.

But...spoilers. And if I gave too many now, then who knows what might happen when Thanos arrived and brought his war with him. The haunting reality of there being one, single way of winning the war and preserving half of the life in the universe...

I wanted to give them more options than what they had when that moment came. Not less.

"This is what we know."

Fury then pulled up a completed recording of Loki's arrival. I caught sight of the two men and the stretcher carrying me away.

They would have died if they hadn't been assigned to evacuate us out.

Oh...that's a nice morbid silver lining.

I watched everything carefully and closely. I didn't hide my discomfort at the blasts of energy that simply burned through the guards who tried to stop the man. But the visceral response I felt at seeing Clint's eyes blank out and be coated by a resplendent blue power couldn't be entirely suppressed.

Not when I knew exactly what that felt like.

"This aligns with what I know about mind control." I swallowed my desire to flinch. "He can only ********- dominate someone at close range. Within touching distance."

Enthrall was apparently not a word that could be properly conveyed with All Speech right now.

"And the energy blasts? Are they the same power?"

Now this was a tricky bit to answer.

My best guess was that the Mind Stone in the scepter was currently being used to dominate and direct Loki. All his skill, talents and ambition directed towards Thanos's purposes and retrieving the Tesseract. And while the Mind Stone could produce psionic blasts, it didn't have the right type of impact to be all mental energy.

"Maybe? He doesn't really look like he knows what he's doing with that weapon. So it's hard to tell."

"That's true. If he could control anyone, why wouldn't he have done it at long range? Would have saved him time and trouble." Steve gestured at the video from where he had been watching over my shoulder.

Head. I'm small enough he was totally watching over my head.

"First he fires off shots, then he stabs someone in the same area he later touched to mind control them. He didn't know how to use what he had."

Morgana played back the video in my mind, pinging the moments Steve highlighted.

Loki didn't say anything at first, but when he was challenged, he fired first at Fury, who spoke to him, then the man who was attacking him with a gun. The other man who rushed him was stabbed with the sharp tip of the short spear-like weapon in his center mass. Hurried, crude, messy. In contrast, the throwing knives, the slash with the sharp blade on his scepter, the kick that sent the man cracking against the wall? Those movements were smooth, practiced thousands upon thousands of times. I could see what Steve meant, but it hadn't been obvious through my reflexive horror.

And then only after a bit of time and talk, when Clint came in closer, it had clicked with Loki on how to use what he had been given. And Hawkeye was enthralled.

If Client had closed in sooner, before Loki had the space to figure out what he was doing, he could easily have died.

"He figured it out quickly enough." Banner remarked, though he was watching me rather than the other conversation.

Did he notice?

You flinching as much when Clint was dominated as when the agents were killed? Yes. They all did.

The hulk out meter now read 84%.

I'm sorry Banner!

"Miss, could he control someone through any kind of contact?"

Steve's gentle question drew my gaze back to him.

"Probably only through the blade. Items lose integrity as a focus if there are too many open channels to the same source." I pulled over a sheet of paper and sketched out a quick mock up of the scepter. I saw Steve's brows Quirk and his head tilt in consideration as the image came together in a matter of seconds.

Morgana was giving me a detailed breakdown of the design of the scepter from just what we could observe and infer. I couldn't be sure without handling it myself, but that would happen on a cold day in hell if these people had even an atom's worth of intelligence.

"The handle would be designed to protect the user from the energy source primarily. If it were made in my homeland, it would likely be **- and I can't say that, ok. A very dense metal that resists multiple forms of energy. It either needs a planet full of volcanoes worth of heat to smelt, or a rare and precise chemical combination of materials to render workable."

If I were designing this thing, I would use the metal that Gajeel produced when he armored himself. He could shed his iron scales, and did shed the broken ones if they became damaged in a fight. That would form the handle. The casing for the Mind Stone would be specially grown and designed lacrima. With an etherium blade to channel the power and use it as a weapon.

I circled the stone up near the head of the weapon just below the blade.

"Here would be the nest for the energy element. If the power works the same way here as it does at home, the curve of the handle itself is designed to minimize kick back to the wielder, which focuses all of its power forward."

I circled the blade last.

"Which would make this the conductive element. To control something of this much power, you could only reasonably use one power through one mode of access. So as seen; mind control manifests through the tip. The ionic blast, and other abilities that may not have been shown, would be channeled through the blade. Or blades since there's this smaller one down here."

I was still thinking about the design of this thing.

The Mind Stone itself wasn't directly set into the scepter. It was hidden inside a coating of another element. That made sense to insulate the user, protect him but Thanos didn't care if Loki died doing this. And he clearly wasn't that concerned about him potentially failing if he sent off the only Infinity Stone he thus far managed to collect.

What if that casing is like a lacrima and contains another spell?

There was a popular theory about the MCU that suggested Loki had also been mind controlled when he invaded earth. I wasn't sure if it was a thing that die hard Loki fans had concocted or if it could plausibly be true but my own experience wouldn't let me dismiss the possibility. In a setting where it existed, Charm Magic and its cousins Soul and Takeover Magic could make people do awful things. Things they never would have done otherwise.

We are not adopting Loki.

Morgana said firmly, making me start guiltily

I wasn't thinking it!

You were on the edge. We can help him, but we are not dedicating everything to him. We must be in a position to be drawn back through the Crack before it closes.

So that meant whatever I did had to be things other people could feasibly track down. I just needed to get them started.

Morgana gave me a chastising mental flick at my proving her point.

OK, OK I will curb my redeeming bad guys thing. I know we have priorities!

I noticed it was very quiet around me and looked up from my sketch and breakdown.

"Who should this go to?" I asked, gesturing at the paper.

"To Captain Rogers." Fury was surveying my work with a sharp eye. "Are you familiar with these types of weapons?"

"Not weapons necessarily. Tools. I was in an apprenticeship to design and build them."

Mystogan being a magic tool expert and my primary teacher for a while would allow for the claim, so it wasn't even a lie. And thanks to totem designing, it was a skill I possessed of my own volition rather than absorbed knowledge.

From the brief exchange that happened when he took it from me, I was assailed by an overwhelming urge to protect. And for a split second, I saw things from his eyes, trying to suss out what had made the air change so much.

An out of place girl dressed in ill fitting clothing with an obvious injury. No one she could rely on, no guardian or person to look out for her. Just a bit of expertise and no one to moderate how it was tapped or advocate for her needs. And who had just demonstrated familiarity with energy weapons-

I cursed mentally, not having noticed my slip up until it was too late.

I had conveyed familiarity with the exact type of device that SHIELD was building. Phase 2 weapons powered by the Tesseract, the continuation of what Hydra was doing 70 years earlier. Fury was already making plans, deep under his professional mask so I wouldn't see them unless I actively looked for them while touching him.

Steve had already seen this type of weapon in Hydra's hands during his days on the front lines. And now, he was seeing, in his eyes, an innocent child who could very well have the same capability to make more of those.

"This doesn't look like it will work like anything I've seen before. Would you mind walking me through it?"

Steve's words said one thing, but Morgana whispered his translation.

"She's smart, and young, and wants to help because we are her way home. Even if SHIELD doesn't want to exploit her, someone else will. I won't let that happen."

And he saw for a split second, the scrawny, asthmatic underdog he had once been, raring to do what was right. And over that was the brief flashes of the world and way of living he had fought for in the war. And the quiet question of whether it had been worth it.

He said he didn't like bullies. He saw me as someone that could easily be bullied. And that meant he felt the need to protect me. Because that was what was right to him. That resonated within him.

You...you can be trusted.

Good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. And Steve Rogers...wasn't great yet. He was still good. His issue in adjusting to this time period would lie in the fact that other people weren't. The clear lines he had once fought on were blurred and confusing.

If I can nudge things so Civil War doesn't happen...that will give them more options when Thanos comes. And if I can point them to Bucky before Zemo gets to him, then so much the better.

Morgana sighed quietly, but complied by starting up a mental file for James Buchanen Barnes, whatever could be detected from Steve right now. And didn't say a word about my redeeming bad guys. What happened to Bucky hit too close to home. Even closer than Clint right now.

And it would take some master class maneuvering to keep Earth's Mightiest Heroes from splintering right before they were going to be needed the most.

-vVv-

There wasn't much to go over with Steve. But I faithfully gave estimates on range, accuracy, the materials that could block the hit, and a number of other factors that were important for him to know all while focusing on every scrap of info I could gather about his childhood best friend. Banner lingered nearby as well, partially interested in what I was talking about, and partially because we were the safer option of company than SHIELD.

The Hulk Out meter had been dropping steadily and was now down to 68%.

Then Natasha came and brought word that Loki had been spotted and it was time for Steve to suit up. Which left me alone with a very nervous scientist.

I was just glad no one had come to escort me back to my room yet.

Arrival pending in 10 minutes.

Ah farewell sweet freedom.

And that set off a new flood of my own anxiety that I tried to sketch out an alternate shape for Loki's spear. I wondered if the shape and choice of weapon was drawn from his own memories of briefly using Odin's spear.

Dramatized of course because there was no realistic way for such a weapon to be viable. An actual smith might be able to make the design functional with magical crafting and materials. I certainly wouldn't be able to. Bruce was issuing instructions on how to use SHIELD's extensive resources to try and scan for the Tesseract's location via radiation.

"Dr Banner, we have a lab set up for you to work in."

I felt the man's eyes on me briefly as Natasha led him away. But he didn't say anything.

I don't need you to be a hero.

A hand was laid on my chair and two whispered words from Morgana made the friendly smile of a perfectly normal looking man spine chilling.

'Hail Hydra'

But it would be really nice right now.

"Hey Faerun, Camile and I have a surprise for you."

Camile was setting up an outpatient room for you on board as well as finding some things to brighten the place up. She asked him for help.

I schooled my face to not show fear and just gave the most teenager grimace that I could.

"Back to the infirmary?"

"Only temporarily kiddo. Promise."

And another round of unpleasant shivers had to be fought down as I grabbed my syllabary and pen, and the notes and drawings I had done, and followed the sleeper agent out of the main room. With not Nick Fury, Maria Hill or Phil Coulson being any the wiser that their worst enemy was already plotting to yank me out from under their grasp.

There were half of the original Avengers on this Helicarrier right this moment and not one of them was here while a literal Hydra Agent led me someplace out of the way where I could be misplaced. And I follow, grim and determined.

The Avengers had to save the world.

I accepted that they might not have time to save me right now.

Besides, I had thought of a way which I could maybe save myself.

-vVv-

As soon as I had the time to sit down, I quickly wrote out a small EMP field to short out any tracking bugs that were sequestered on or near me. The one in my shoe would vanish and the light film that was carefully placed under the grip of my pen would die when I activated it.

My next project took a bit more time.

It was an illusionary story that would play out.

I had established myself as a kid. And both Shield and Hydra were both highly interested in my knowledge. SHIELD would want to hold onto me, Hydra wanted me to be presumed dead while they snuck me away somewhere. So things were already in place that when the next problem arose, there would be an explosion in this area and I could be quietly and tragically lost to the world.

Reviewing the points of attack in Morgana's memory, I was nowhere near the place that the hostile boarding parties came on. But footage could be faked.

So it was time for a bit of well timed childish mischief.

It wasn't an MCU story without someone hiding in the air vents. So after checking them out. I concluded that with a bit of work, I could slip into them and out of my area.

Steve had engaged with Loki in Germany about an hour back and was en route back with Ironman and Thor and a certain Jotunn prisoner. That meant the time would be ticking down until the enemy team came to free Loki and kick off the invasion. First though, the mind altering stuff on the scepter would cause rifts and division in the group. All to further lessen the likelihood of there being an organized response to the Chitauri.

6 hours and 20 minutes until the hostile strike team engages the Helicarrier.

Just how fast can Quinjets fly? Or is this the Crack working with the speed of plot to make this line up?

They can travel up to Mach 2.1.

OK, that came out to over 1500 mph. Which was pretty damn fast.

So my question was did I act out and meet the rest of the Avengers? My goal to fly below all notice was trashed thanks to my thoughtless slip up about energy based technology this world was just rediscovering. The more high profile names I was associated with and got attention from, the harder I was to make disappear.

And trash talking with Tony freaking Stark was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Life or death stakes or not, that would never not be a delight.

Camile's shift would end after we ate. It was almost midnight and she had been with me for almost an entire day. She deserved some sleep. Once I was back in my room, I'd wait for a few hours to let the new shift get complacent, then activate my prewritten illusion. Light, sound and smell mimicked as best as I could make it. (Which was pretty darn good at this point.) While my doppelganger slept, I would sneak into the air vents and track down the Quinjet bay and sneak aboard one that was taking off. Ideally the same one that the Avengers would later take to New York City. Once there, I would find my way to the New York Sanctum, and then Kamar Taj and speak with the Ancient One about finding a way back home.

And why Camile's shift ending would be my marker?

I liked her. So I didn't want her to get in trouble if my dupe was discovered and they figured out I had left under her supervision. She was one of the people who was genuinely kind to me. She didn't question my wanting to keep my stuff with me, unlike the two faced Hydra agent who suggested I leave my pen and syllabary in my room when I got hungry. And she advocated for me to have a small tour and go to the mess hall rather than eat in my room. And she was even spending some of her precious down time to stay with me.

I completed my map of the Helicarrier thanks to that tour, and Morgana got me schematics for the vents after I trailed my fingers along the walls a few times. The current snag in my plans was there was no entirely covert route that led to where the vehicles were stored. I could get most of the way there. But not entirely.

I had Camile making light conversation about her ten year old daughter's kitchen mishap, of dropping a dish towel in the bottom of the oven and causing a small fire, when Morgana tensed with an alert.

"Extraction of the new asset is ready."

Morgana also showed me a timer of about 30 minutes until they made their move. The accent and the voice...that sounded like Morgana's memories of Dr Zola.

Oh hell no.

Hydra was more ready to make their move than I thought they would be. Then again, the current crisis was more important to Shield, so better to take me now than before they could actually put significant security towards watching me.

I gave myself good odds at getting away from Hydra under normal circumstances. But these were not and I wanted to conserve as much energy as possible. I had moved through a fair portion of my current magic power to write my little EMP, illusionary cover and set up a potential spell to modify my clothes.

I ate as much as I reasonably could to stock up on energy. It was going to be a very tense hour. I had a matter of minutes to act when I got back to my room. I would need to find a reason to get into conflict with my watchers to justify a teenager running away and hiding somewhere. I still needed my cover.

-vVv-

The reason presented itself in stark obviousness.

"Hey, that's mine!" I yanked my syllabary out of one agent's hand. I had been in the bathroom for less than three minutes and came out to see him pouring over it, trying to access its contents.

"I know, it's just different. Doesn't look anything like the tablets we have." He tried to play it off, but Morgana could read his intentions from the brief interaction he had with the slate of lacrima.

She never goes anywhere without the thing. We will probably need to work her over before we can get any useful intel on how it works. No one could get anything off of it or figure out how it works. The security that it offers is unbelievable and the potential is still untapped.

And there was detail in how I would be pressed for information. A lot of it.

Details that he enjoyed.

My stomach lurched.

He's not only freaking Hydra. He's a predator!

It looked like his proclivities for pain and people my age had been noticed and used as leverage to make him work for the insidious organization. After a few years though, the blackmail was just fluff, he was committed to it. The same scary way some causes could recruit soldiers willing to kill, maim, and everything in between for them.

And that set off a whole new alarm in me.

And gave me good cause to make myself scarce.

Looking him in the face, assessing and careful, I could see the faintest dilation to his eyes. A careful blankness under his smile that he was using to hide what he really wanted.

It was time to make myself scarce.

"Still rude to take things without permission." There was a building sluggishness in my limbs. That was wrong. My body didn't do this sort of thing even when pushed to the edge of exhaustion.

I've been drugged, haven't I?

An Esuna will take care of it.

The affirmation made me spin my pen into my hands and quickly write out the word in my unique script. The rush of purifying magical anti-toxin cleared my head. And adrenaline took care of waking me back up. Then I looked up at the man I had identified as my biggest threat...then at his fellow.

Hail Hydra.

This is it.

I scrolled to my carefully written cover story and murmured softly, under what the surveillance could hear if it was even still actively recording me.

"Seelie Arts: Once Upon a Time."

And the illusion reached out and quickly enveloped the two enemy agents.

I stepped quietly to the side and let them interact.

"I'm sorry kiddo, I know that this must be important to you. Probably all you've got left of home, right?"

Mook #1: Perv said, backing down from his direct stance. I pushed a bit of customization into the illusion, it needed some guidance before I could set up my sleeping illusion as a loop.

"Yeah. I don't mean to be sensitive, but..."

The false Fae trailed off, hugging her syllabary close to her chest. Mook #2: Passive came up then, writing something on a clipboard. Actually, he was noting the apparent resistance to the sleeping drugs they had laced my food with in the cafeteria. So I nudged the false projection to give a massive yawn.

Under the illusion, I stepped over to the bunk that was made up for me and started to stuff the pillows under the covers in approximation of a body. Since they were caught in Once Upon a Time, the illusion would play out like a scene from a movie until my double laid down.

"We get it, honey. He'll make sure to ask next time. Looks like you're all tuckered out now."

"Yeah, food coma is hitting me. Ooh, I can say that. Nice..."

Another cavernous yawn, and the illusion laid down the pen and syllabary by her bed. Sitting down on it and reaching down to unlace her boots. Here, I walked up behind the two men, and steeling myself, reached out to touch them and focused on delving for their expectation of what was about to happen.

Morgana snatched their knowledge of the plan and incorporated it seamlessly into our little show. Between the two, it was a consistent enough picture.

False Fae swayed on her bunk.

"You've had a long day. I've got it kid."

Perv, no, Kennedy said, approaching and kneeling to tug at False Fae's bootlaces. I couldn't just term him a Mook after reading him. It was no better than the mental gymnastics he did to justify his drives. I pushed a little more magic into my spell to give him the sensation of the laces under his fingers. The smell of the soap I had washed with yesterday.

He pulled off the false boots as False Fae swayed again and pitched to the side. Passive, Alex, caught her and laid her down. Even tucking her in in a facsimile of care.

There was no discussion between the two of them. No exposition about their plans. They just went back to their work.

They will leave the room in 27 minutes and be gone for 5 minutes. Their extraction will come in that window, and they will set charges to destroy the area when Loki's extraction team arrives.

How do they know where they'll hit?

Morgana reply was a quite whisper.

Zola's mental capacity is similar to mine with how he has integrated himself with the programming.

I wrote in a sustaining rune on my syllabary, slotted my pen into the side case that held it and boosted myself into the air vents.

Time to go find Banner.

-vVv-

Intellectually, I knew that being under Banner's eye meant that Hydra would tread carefully. Triggering Hulk was something they would be very cautious about since they didn't yet have a way of handling him.

But, sitting in the vents above the lab where Banner was puttering around, I had no idea how I would tell him why I was here. And why he was what I was viewing as safe. Especially not without making him angry.

Or angry enough to lose control.

Then again, it might just be the normal treatment that could work. He doesn't want to be treated like a monster. And I have no reason to know about that.

But that still left me with the quandary of how to get out of the vents without him sending me back to my room.

So I sat and mentally observed him as he moved around the various instruments and worked to locate the Tesseract.

He really wants to be able to send you home to safety.

Let's not tell him what my job back home can entail.

Agreed.

After a few minutes, a soft chiming came from one of the computers. Quiet, but rapid. Banner paused where he was at and looked at it.

A proximity sensor for the Tesseract energy.

Oh shoot, am I irradiated?

Very mildly.

Banner looked at his own sensor and changed the field of calibration...then looked up at my approximate direction. Back away from the bay window that they had given him to let him feel less like he was in a box.

And a short time later, the grate was pulled free and a swarthy face with dark eyes peered at me with confusion.

"What...exactly are you doing in there?"

I gave a grin that I tried to make look guilty.

"Exploring?"

"In the walls?"

"Fewer eyes and less chance of getting frog marched back to my cell."

The Hulk Out Meter had been hovering around 50% but quickly spiked to 78%.

"Yeah, I-I get that. But you're giving me claustrophobia just looking at you. Do you mind-?"

He made a small gesture, inviting me out of the narrow space. It was precisely what I needed! But I couldn't give in straight away.

"You're not gonna have them take me back, are you?"

I wanted to present teenage wariness. But thinking back to what was in my room right now, waiting to kidnap me and spirit me away again...I couldn't fake that I was terrified of getting sent back there and needing to find a new escape route. That Banner wouldn't be a hero in this situation, but someone who just wanted to be left alone and not hurt anyone.

And in that moment, Bruce Banner saw something in my eyes that made his Hulk Out Meter soar up to 97%. He swallowed, voice a little rough.

"No. No, you can stay with me."

As I wormed my way through the narrow channel again, moving past the opening to drop my feet down and exit by carefully inching backwards, I asked Morgana the big question.

What did he see that made him stress that hard, but still say yes?

He saw someone who asked him 'can I trust you to not hurt me, trap me or use me?' And he couldn't live with himself if he didn't answer yes to that.

So I landed in Bruce Banner's lab, and he didn't ask what had spooked me. He didn't call or tell anyone I was there with him. He just plucked up his nerve and checked me over to make sure that the Tesseract trace radiation on me wasn't going to be dangerous.

Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff have returned, with Tony Stark, Thor and Loki.

T-minus 5 hours until Loki's extraction team arrives.